Gloverly Cupcakes

When I came up with the idea of making a selection of “party biscuit” cupcakes, there wasn’t a recipe for Bourbon biscuit cupcakes in the new Hummingbird Bakery book so I decided to come up with a recipe myself. I couldn’t remember the last time I had a Bourbon biscuit so I had to buy a packet so I could taste them to remind myself what they were like! After tasting a couple, Tom and I decided that the biscuits themselves were pretty flavourless, it was the buttercream sandwiching them together which had the chocolate flavour.

The biscuits actually ended up tasting more like Penguin bars, or they would have done had they been covered in milk chocolate. Since Bourbon biscuits aren’t particularly chocolatey I decided that I would use hot chocolate powder in the dough rather than cocoa powder. However, I didn’t take into account that hot chocolate powder has sugar in so I probably should have reduced the sugar content a bit – they baked well and tasted fine, they were probably just a bit sweeter than Bourbon biscuits are. I did the same with the buttercream and the cupcakes: I used half cocoa powder and half hot chocolate so that they weren’t too chocolatey.

Bourbon Biscuits (a Gloverly Cupcakes creation)

Makes 12-20 Bourbon biscuits, depending on size

100g salted butter

100g caster sugar

1/2 a large egg (use the other half to make some jammy dodgers, party rings, or custard creams…)

170g plain flour

30g hot chocolate powder

A small amount of buttercream (see recipe below)

Cream the butter and sugar together, until smooth and creamy. Beat the egg in slowly until well incorporated. Sift in the flour and hot chocolate powder and stir in until just combined. Form it into a ball and chill in the fridge for 30mins.

Once the dough is chilled, knead it briefly on a lightly floured surface and then roll out to about a couple of mm’s thick. Using a cookie cutter, or a knife cut out small rectangles and place them, slightly apart on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Using a fork, gently press into the edges of each rectangle to create a pattern round the edge of each biscuit. Place the tray back in the fridge to chill the biscuits again for another 30mins.

Pre-heat the over to gas mark 3 ( 175 C). Take the biscuits out the fridge and place them in the oven. Bake for 6-10 minutes depending on the size (I made mini ones to go on top of the cupcakes which took about 6 minutes, and then larger ones which took around 10 minutes – make sure you don’t bake different sized ones together since they will bake at different rates) – check them after 4-5 minutes and turn the tray around.

Leave them to cool on the tray for 5 minutes, sprinkle lightly with granulated sugar and then place on a cooling rack to cool completely before you sandwich them together with buttercream.

The cakes and buttercream, even without the biscuits on top, were really good. I just used the usual chocolate cupcakes I make but substituted half the cocoa for hot chocolate powder, and did the same with the buttercream. The buttercream made plenty to sandwich the biscuits together too.

Bourbon Biscuit Flavoured Cupcakes (a Gloverly Cupcakes creation)

Makes 18

280g caster sugar

200g plain flour

20g cocoa powder

20g hot chocolate powder

80g unsalted butter

1 tbsp baking powder

pinch of salt

240ml milk

2 eggs

Line 2 muffin trays with 18 cases. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 5.

Mix the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, hot chocolate powder, butter, baking powder and salt together in a stand mixer (or rub in with your hands) until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Beat the milk and eggs together in a jug and then gradually beat into the dry ingredients until smooth (ensuring that you scrape down the sides of the bowls after each addition).

Divide the mixture evenly between the 18 cases and then bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes until they are lightly browned on top and spring back when pressed (and a skewer comes out clean). Check them and turn them around after 15 minutes.

Take out the tins immediately and leave to cool on a wire ready. Decorate once completely cool.

Bourbon Biscuit Buttercream

400g icing sugar

50g cocoa powder

50g hot chocolate powder

160g butter

50ml milk

Beat the icing sugar, cocoa powder, hot chocolate powder and butter together on a very slow speed until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. I always put a tea towel over the top of my KitchenAid to prevent icing sugar going everywhere! Then slowly add the milk and vanilla. Once it’s all been added increase the speed and beat on high for 5 minutes until light and fluffy.

This will make enough to ice the cupcakes and sandwich a batch of biscuits together.