Marshmallow Snowflake Cupcakes
Shout out to all the Christmas lovers out there – these cupcakes are for you! Delicious vanilla and marshmallow flavours, sweet little snowflakes and a delicate sprinkling of edible glitter. What’s not to love?
I wanted to have a bit of a play around with my vanilla cupcake recipe, which is how these cupcakes came about. I was originally planning to write up a very different recipe this week, but you’ll just have to keep your eyes peeled for that beauty later this week…
I always think you should aim to improve, so I tested out a slightly different vanilla cupcake, which you’ll find below. But then I thought, how can I make this even better? Marshmallow Fluff, of course!
I usually find Marshmallow Fluff in Sainsbury’s, but you can also grab a tub on Amazon. It’s a delicious addition to both the sponge and buttercream, and it’s a classic Christmas flavour too.
All you need is a few simple ingredients, a bit of time and lots of festive feeling, and you’ll bake a batch of these scrumptious cupcakes in no time!
INGREDIENTS
Makes 12
Cupcakes:
160g self-raising flour
170g caster sugar
160g butter
1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs (room temperature)
2 tbsp natural yogurt
50g Marshmallow Fluff
1 tsp vanilla extract
Buttercream:
250g softened unsalted butter
450g icing sugar
100g Marshmallow Fluff
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk
Snowflakes:
100g ready to roll white icing
Edible glitter
Sugar pearls
METHOD
- Start by making your fondant snowflakes – they’ll need a bit of time to firm up before you put them on your cupcakes. Knead the fondant in your hands to warm it up and make it pliable. Dust a surface with icing sugar and roll the fondant to ½ cm thick. Use different sized snowflake plungers to cut out two or three snowflakes per cupcakes (24-36 snowflakes in total). Sprinkle the snowflakes with edible glitter and put them to one side.
- Preheat your oven to 140°C (280°F, gas mark 1) and place 12 cupcake cases into a muffin tin.
- Crack the eggs into a large bowl, add the sugar and beat with a whisk or hand mixer. Melt the butter and Marshmallow Fluff and add to the egg mixture, followed by the vanilla and yogurt. Mix until well combined. Finally, sift in the flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt, mixing until just combined. Be careful not to overmix – stop when you can’t see anymore flour.
- Scoop the batter into the prepared cupcake cases, filling to about two thirds of the way and bake for 22 minutes. Allow your cupcakes to cool for a few minutes in the tin then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- While your cupcakes are cooling, make a start on your buttercream. Using a stand mixer or hand-held mixer, beat the butter on a low-medium speed for five minutes, until it goes pale and gains some volume. You may need to stop your mixer and scrape down the bowl a couple of times.
- Sift in the icing sugar a couple of tablespoons at a time, lightly mixing using a spatula before beating on a low setting between each addition. Once you’ve used half the icing sugar, add the Marshmallow Fluff and vanilla extract, then continue to sift in the remaining icing sugar. If your buttercream is too thick, add a couple of tablespoons of milk.
- Once you’ve reached the desired consistency, add the buttercream to a piping bag fitted with your favourite nozzle and pipe out a swirl on top of each cupcake. Arrange your fondant snowflakes on top of the cupcakes, and use tweezers to evenly distribute the sugar pearls.
If you do have any leftover cupcakes, you can store them in an airtight container for up to two days. You can also store any leftover buttercream in the fridge for two weeks, or the freezer for three months. Check out my recent blog post on how to store and save buttercream.
What other Christmas recipes would you like to see on the Sweet Taste Bakery? Let me know in the comments!
