Mince Pie Cupcakes with Brandy Buttercream

Mince pies are great, truly a food of the season. But sometimes you need to mix things up a bit, and make something new. Which is why I bring to you mince pie flavour cupcakes. Cupcakes with a bit of mincemeat mixed in to them topped off with brandy buttercream, to replace the brandy pouring cream so frequently paired with mincepies. I was really pleased with my idea, and less pleased when I googled it and found hundreds of variations on the theme. Nevertheless, I had fun making them and they are really tasty, so here is the recipe for my mince pie cupcakes.

Mince Pie Cupcakes

112g Unsalted butter
112g Caster sugar
2 Free range eggs
125g Mince meat
110g Self raising flour
1tsp Baking powder
A splash of brandy

Brandy Buttercream
220g Icing Sugar
100g Unsalted butter
A splash of brandy

1. Cream the butter and sugar

 
2. Mix in two eggs. Aren't they a lovely golden colour?

3. Add the mincmeat

4. And the self raising flour and baking powder

5. Add a splash of brandy - it's up to you how generous you're feeling, although you may need an extra tablespoon of flour if you add a lot

6. The mix is quite a thick mix, droppable I think is how it's usually described

Let's just take a moment to admire to Christmas aspects of this bake - my beautiful sparkly spatula, M&S's finest, and the lovely Paperchase cupcake cases, which halfway through baking I realised may or may not belong to Anna. She's eaten cupcakes though, so I'm sure she doesn't mind too much...

7. Fill your cupcake cases. These cakes don't rise too much, so you can be quite generous.

8. Pop into the oven at 180°C for 15-20 minutes. Perhaps not quite as long as I left them this time... oopsies. Ignoring the slightly burnt edges, look at them. Aren't they cute? But I think they're missing something. They're begging to be iced...

9. So leave them to cool, whip up your buttercream and put it in a piping bag. Pipe swirls, and sprinkle with edible glitter for a final Christmassy sparkle. 

 10. If you're not feeling the piping - let's face it sometimes you just want a cupcake, you don't want to get all sticky filling a piping bag - you can just smear the icing on the top. I promise it tastes just as good.

I'm going to be showing you a few more of my favourite Christmas recipes over Advent, but I'd love to hear about some of your favourite sweet treats for this time of the year too!