Royal Foodie Joust: Lime Raspberry Stuffed Cupcakes

Hmmm... I really can't think of a good name for these cupcakes! Raspberry lime cupcake surprise? Marzipan, Lime and Raspberry cupcakes?? Lime and Raspberry Marzicupcakes??? I give up, and apologise for the unimaginative title!

This is my entry to the Royal Foodie Joust, hosted by newly-wed Jenn over at The Leftover Queen. This month's challenge was to use limes, raspberries and almonds. And for some reason I had a total mind blank! I don't usually do sweet - and no savoury inspiration was forth-coming... Until last week, when I thought about making some marzipan from scratch... which made me think of almonds... then the joust... and in the space of an hour I had this recipe pretty much planned!

Now, as I mentioned I don't usually do much with sweet foods - I even had to go out and buy a muffin pan! But now that I have had a go and realised it isn't so scary (and it's a shame to let my shiny new bakeware go to waste ;), I have some more muffin/cup cakes recipes just desperate to be tried. My work mates will be pleased too - they got to eat the fruits of this experiment!

Lime Raspberry Stuffed Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes!

• 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 50g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 small pot raspberry yoghurt
  
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup of frozen raspberries
• 250g ground almonds
• 250g icing sugar
• 4 limes
• Raspberry jam
• Icing sugar to make frosting

Prepare the Marzipan...
Sift the almonds and sugar into a bowl (I was feeling lazy again, so used my processor!) Mix in one beaten egg and the zest of two limes and mix to a stiff dough. If the dough is too dry mix in some of the lime juice - if it is too dry add some lime juice to moisten, if it's too wet add some more icing sugar. Knead for a couple of minutes, wrap tightly in clingfilm and put into the fridge overnight.

Make the Marzipan Discs...
Take about a third* of the chilled marzipan onto a surface lightly floured with icing sugar. Roll it out to be about 3mm deep. Spread with raspberry jam and roll up like a swiss roll. I ran into some difficulty here as the marzipan was stuck to my board - so I'd recommend rolling it out on greaseproof paper that has been 'floured' with icing sugar :)

Ideally put these rolls back in the fridge to chill before slicing them into 4-5mm thick rounds just before you use them!

Make the Cupcake Batter...
Again, I used my processor with the dough hook attached to make these - no idea if that was the best thing to use - but they turned out as expected so can't have been too bad!

Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the butter and pulse lightly til the butter looks like very large bread crumbs.

In a separate bowl mix together the milk, yoghurt, vanilla extract and 2 eggs. Once mixed add into the flour mixture in two goes - being careful not to over-mix it! Add the raspberries, give it a stir and we're good to go!

Prepare the cupcakes...
Pre-heat oven to 170c & line a muffin tray with paper cases.

Place a tablespoonful of batter into each case, then lay a marzipan/jam round into each one. Divide the rest of the batter equally between the cases.

Bake for about 20 minutes - they should feel firm to the touch (Note that the skewer test will be skewed (groan!) as the marzipan centre will make it look unclean even if the batter is properly cooked.

Cool on a wire rack.

Decorate!
Mix 6 tablespoons of icing sugar with just enough lime juice to make a very thick paste. Mix in some raspberry jam to make it pretty and pink! (I had to sieve my jam first to get out the seeds...)

Top each cupcake with a spoonful of icing sugar, a couple of almonds and a marzipan disc!







* that's all you need for this recipe. I should probably have decreased the recipe more. Lime zest marzipan is good though - so I'm sure you'll think up some use for it!

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