Every year I post my hot
cross bun recipe as is to be used to bake my entry into my family’s annual,
tightly fought, hot-cross bake off challenge. As usual I have been trialling
out a number of different recipes so that I am fully prepared for the traditional
Good Friday antics. But from a blogging point of view I thought I would try
something a little different for an additional Easter based baking adventures.
Luckily inspiration came in the form of this cup-cake
recipe from BBC Good Food. With a little tweaking (the addition of
buttermilk instead of the thickened milk used by GF and a bucket load more
spice than suggested) these little cakes with cream cheese icing crosses turned
out really well. The subtle (or not so subtle) spiciness of the cakes really
was reminiscent of the cousin to these treats…proper hot cross buns! But these
make a great Easter substitution especially if you have a little bit of a sweet
tooth.
INGREDIENTS
100ml buttermilk
175g butter
175g plain flour
1 ½ tspns baking powder
175g golden caster sugar
2tsp mixed spice
1tsp cinnamon
1tsp ginger
100g ground almonds
3 eggs
Zest ½ orange
100g raisins
1 medium eating apple, grated
FOR THE ICING
Zest ½ orange
50g cream cheese
75g icing sugar
25g softened butter
½ tspn mixed spice
Makes approx. 16
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C / GM4
and line a muffin tin with paper cake cases.
Mix the flour, baking powder,
spices, sugar and almonds together in a large bowl.
Melt the butter and once cooled
slightly towards room temperature beat the eggs, orange zest and buttermilk and
butter all together.
Pour the wet ingredients into the
dry ingredients and beat together until combined. Then fold in the raisins and
grated apple.
Spoon the mixture into the
prepared cake tins, distributing the mixture evenly between each of the cupcake
cases.
Transfer to the oven and bake for
20 minutes until the cakes are golden and firm to the touch.
Allow the cakes to cool and in the
meantime make the icing by beating together the cream cheese, icing sugar,
butter, zest and spice. And then pipe the icing across the buns in the
traditional cross shape.
