Liefmans Fruitesse - Cupcakes with an 18 Certificate
We all know that adding a splash of wine makes a stellar spag bol, but it seems that the new foodie trend is now all about cooking with beer! So of course I jumped at the chance to create a recipe that involved cake AND beer – the two loves of my life. I have never even eaten a Guinness chocolate cake, so I thought using Belgian fruit beer in cupcakes could go two ways, either a beery triumph or an embarrassing disaster. Plus I was making them for Liefmans, one of our clients at work. No pressure.
So that weekend I decided to do a trial bake. I created the recipe as I went along, which is something that I seem to be doing a fair bit these days. Anyway, in went all the typical ingredients - flour, sugar, eggs, butter – getting the majority down me as always. Then for the beer, I roughly measured 100ml into a jug and poured in the milk. This would either conjure up a revolting, curdled milkshake or a lovely frothy concoction. Thankfully it was the latter. My cupcakes went into the oven and my fingers stayed crossed for 15 minutes.
To make the recipe a little different, I decided to create a lime buttercream, as I know that lime is a great feature in beer. So to coincide with the strawberry notes within the Fruitesse, I piped a dollop of luxury strawberry jam into the centre of each cake. And to fashion an impressive finish I then iced the cupcakes, sprinkled freshly grated lime on top of them, and popped a strawberry slice onto each.
I took the testers into work the following day and (cue - sigh of relief) they were a success. This meant that, in order to get coverage for Liefmans, I was to bake another batch of 20 to mail-out to journalists, to encourage them to write about the beer. And so I did.
Consequently, my little beery cupcake made it into Off License News, Beer Today, The Grocer, Planet Veggie, and the crème de la crème, Daily Mail online!! The Daily Mail coverage even included my recipe and the photograph that I took myself in my mum’s kitchen. Very exciting!
Find article here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2181933/New-craze-cupcake-cocktails--caketails--sweeps-London-Buckinghamshire-Hertfordshire.html
So they may not be for all, but if you want to liven up your Friday night beer with a bit o’ sponge, then please see below for my Liefmans Fruitesse Strawberry & Lime Cupcake recipe...
CUPCAKES
100ml Semi-Skimmed Milk
100ml Liefmans Fruitesse
115g Unsalted Butter
225g Caster Sugar
2 Eggs, room temperature
250g Self-Raising Flour
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1tsp. Strawberry Flavouring
12 tsp. Strawberry Jam
ICING
75g Unsalted Butter
275g Icing Sugar
Grated zest and juice of 2 limes
6 Fresh Strawberries, slice in half to decorate
1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Mix the milk and Fruitesse together in a measuring jug.
2. In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until a creamy texture is formed. Add the eggs separately, then pour in the flour and beat well.
3. Add the milk/Fruitesse mixture and beat again until smooth. Then pop in the strawberry flavouring, along with the baking powder, and mix.
4. Spoon the batter into the cupcake cases, dividing evenly, approximately 3/4 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes until moist.
TIP Insert a skewer into the middle of the cupcakes, and if the stick is left clean, then they're ready to leave the oven.
5. Once baked, transfer cakes to a wire rack to cool.
6. Using an apple corer, remove the middle of each cupcake to create space for a gooey jam centre. With a piping bag and a medium sized nozzle, insert the strawberry jam until it reaches the top of each cake.
7. For the icing, beat the butter with 5 tablespoons of the freshly squeezed lime juice, along with the icing sugar, until creamy. Pipe swirls onto the cooled cupcakes and decorate with the lime zest. To give it a colourful finish, pop a fresh strawberry, or a strawberry sweet onto each cake.
Original Recipe Find: my own recipe.
