Gloverly Cupcakes

It was my Birthday last week and I can’t think of a better way to spend the day than baking myself a cake! I don’t often get to bake exactly what I want, the cakes I usually do are for customers, so it’s really enjoyable to find a new recipe and experiment with some new designs. I am a peanut butter addict, so when I saw this recipe in Olive magazine, I had to make it! Click

Here is the recipe – I made it using gluten free self raising flour:

Peanut Butter Cake – from Olive Magazine

100g salted butter

200g crunchy peanut butter

250g light muscovado sugar

3 large eggs

250g very ripe, black bananas

125g natural yoghurt

1 tsp vanilla extract

250g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

small handful of chopped honey roast peanuts – optional for the top

Frosting

300g salted butter

75g smooth peanut butter

650g icing sugar

2 tsp vanilla bean paste

3 tbsp milk

Pre-heat the oven to 180 / 160 fan / gas 4 and grease 3 x 18cm round cake tins and line the bases with 2 circles of grease proof paper.

In an electric mixer, beat the butter, peanut butter, sugar and 1 egg together until pale and fluffy.

Mix the mashed banana, remaining eggs, yoghurt and vanilla together, then pour into the sugar and butter mix, followed by the flour, baking powder and spices. Mix till you have a smooth batter and then divide between the 3 tins.

Bake for 25-30 mins till a cake skewer comes out clean when inserted into the middle. Remove and cool for 10 mins in the tins before turning out onto a wire rack.

For the frosting, beat the butter and peanut butter together in an electric mixer. Add the icing sugar and mix on a very low speed – cover the top with a tea towel to prevent clouds of icing sugar! Once the icing sugar is incorporated, add the vanilla paste and the milk, beat on high till light and fluffy.

To assemble the cake, use 1/4 of the butter cream to sandwich each of the cakes together on a cake or plate. Use another 1/4 to spread all over the cake as the crumb layer to give a smooth finish filling in any gaps. Chill in the fridge for an hour. Once cold, use the remaining 1/4 of the butter cream to cover the cake and smooth on evenly with a pallet knife. Top with the chopped honey roasted peanuts or any other decorations.

As well as making the large peony which I dusted in pale gold dust, I also made some other ‘filler’ flowers and some meringues which I piped using 3 different nozzles and also pained some food colouring down the inside of the piping bag in stripes, to add some colour to some of the meringues.

Drip cakes are very trendy at the moment, so I did a bit of research and thought I would give it a go. I ready on various websites that you make a 50:50 ganache – 50% white choc and 50% double cream. I actually thought this was a little bit runny and would probably use more chocolate next time and let it cool a bit before spooning it on.

The cake was really good – especially the buttercream, it’s possibly my new favourite buttercream flavour!