Passion Fruit & Almond Cupcakes, served with Passion Fruit Icing

Sweet cupcakes for the sweeeet Valentine's Day. Recipe created in conjuction with my continuous effort in pantry & refrigerator stock clearence .

Cupcake liners (yellow) sponsored by Kitchencapers. MCDC is glad to have Gina of Kitchencapers sponsoring us some cupcake liners, tools and gadgets for our demonstrations, tutorials, contests and activity purposes. Thanks Gina!! These goodies will be given away to members who are making used of the sponsored tools to create a project and post on the forum. More information will be available soon.


Techniques Jo would like to introduce here:

1. This is a modified muffin mixing method. Normal muffin method is pretty simple; all wet ingredients are combined in a bowl, and all wet ingredients in another. Wet mixture is then poured into the dry ones. Stop folding as soon as all dry ingredients are wetted (not homogenously mixed!!) You should be able to see lumps. Bake! This method is fast but product is little dry and should be consumed on the day the muffins are made, or warm the muffins up before consuming to restore the moist state.

In this modified muffin method below, sugar and eggs are first beaten till light and pale to incorporate air before the rest of the wet ingredients are added in. This opposes the muffin method where mixing is minimal. Hence, these little cakes are more capable in retaining moisture.

2. I would also like to bring to you the way of preparing passion fruit puree, the almost-pro way but using layman home kitchen untensils.

3. More than happy to share with you the sourish yet sweet and absolutely aromatic icing, the passion fruit icing. Isn't life with our partners the same; a mixture of sour, sweet and aromatic? Ai seh .... talk like sin seh.

OK OK, enough of my , below is the recipe.

Passion Fruit & Almond Cupcakes with Passion Fruit Icing
Makes 18-20 small cupcakes


Passion fruit puree:
120g passion fruit pulp and seeds (from approx. 3 fruits)
2 tbsp castor sugar
6 tbsp water

Batter:
60g butter, melted
80g castor sugar
3 large eggs
130g passion fruit puree
50g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
120g ground almond

Passion fruit icing:
100-125g icing sugar, sifted
60g passion fruit pulp and seeds


Method:

To prepare passion fruit puree:
Combine passion fruit pulp, seeds, sugar and water in a saucepan. Heat up till all sugar is melted. Let the mixture cool down a little before puree in a food processor. Sieve puree through a fine sieve to get rid of the seeds. Weigh the puree again. You should have about 130g. Add water to top up if necessary.



To prepare cupcakes:
1. Preheat oven at 175 degC. Line cupcake moulds with liners.
2. Sift cake flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Add in gound almond and use a hand whisk to mix well. Ground almond can be lumpy sometimes so make sure you mix well to break the lumps.
3. Using paddle attachment of mixer, beat sugar and eggs at high speed till light and pale. Add in passion fruit puree and melted butter.
4. Make a well in the centre of dry ingredients in (1). Pour (2) in and stir with a spatula. The batter is watery.
5. Fill liners to 80% (for 3.25 oz souffle cups and larger ) - 90% full (for small cupcakes) (Note 1). These cupcakes doesn't rise much.
6. Bake cupcakes for 22 mins (small)-25 mins(large). Let cupcakes stand in mould for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack.
7. This recipe is actually pretty when consumed warm. Otherwise, let cool completely before icing.
8. Optional: To dress up cupcakes, let passion fruit icing (recipe below) stand for 10-15 minutes to thicken a little. Pour one tsp of passion fruit icing on cupcakes.


Notes:
1. Fill small size cupcakes to 90% as batter get baked faster in small cups, doesn't allow it to rise much. Batter in larger size cups need longer to get thoroughly cooked hence it has more time to rise in the oven, i.e. 80-85% is sufficient. Result may vary with types and brands of oven though



To prepare passion fruit icing:
Combine passion fruit pulp, seeds and sifted icing sugar in a bowl. Stir using a hand whisk over a pot of simmering water (double boiling) till icing is of poruing consistency. Do not overheat icing as you will melt too much of icing sugar which result in a non-crusting icing later when poured on cupcakes.