Butternut Squash Vanilla Cupcakes

The batter for this cupcake whips up into a wonderful velvet-like texture that is a dream to work with. No more boxed mixes for cupcakes in this house!  These are delightful filled with lemon curd.  Mini versions make a nice addition to Holiday Treat trays.  To increase the fat and protein content I normally substitute 1/2 cup of finely ground nuts for 1/2 cup of flour.  Be mindful if you are adding nuts and putting them on treat trays- nut allergies can be fatal!

Yummy!

Ingredients:

Flour – 2 cups
Baking Powder – 2 tsp
Salt – ½ tsp
Butter – ½ cup
Sugar 1 ¼ cup
Eggs – 2
Butternut Squash Baby Food – 1 cup
Vanilla Essence – 1 tsp

Method:

* Preheat the oven to 190deg C.
* Grease well or line 2 mini-muffin trays.
* Sift together flour + baking powder + salt 3 times. Keep aside.
* Cream the butter and sugar well on high speed until light and fluffy.
* Beat in vanilla essence, followed by eggs beaten in 1 by 1.
* Now beat in flour and squash alternatively till well incorporated.
* Put about a tsp full in each mini muffin casing, about ¾ full, as it will rise.
* You can add sprinkles on top if you like.
* Bake at 190deg C for 10-15 mins till golden brown.
* Remove immediately and cool on racks.
* If desired, ice them with a rosette of buttercream or ganache.
* Makes about 50-60 mini-muffins, which are ideal for a birthday party.

Note: This quantity also makes approximately 18 regular muffins.

This one has Chocolate Chip Vanilla Buttercream

Now for the frosting, which was by far the best tasting frosting I have ever made!  I only use real butter- I know, it's "bad" for you, but nothing that tastes this good could possibly be bad:)  Highly coveted recipe.....

1/2 cup of room temperature butter
2-3 cups of sifted icing sugar
1/4 cup frozen raspberries pureed with 1 tbsp triple sec or orange juice

Beat icing sugar with butter until creamy- add as much or as little as you like to get the best consistency- I mixed in about 2 1/2 cups and made a really stiff frosting first. Add the raspberry puree- again, you can add as much or as little as you want depending on how much of the raspberry flavour you want to come through- I went with the whole amount, which made a beautiful deep rose colour. Pipe (or spread) onto cooled cupcakes. Let them sit overnight so that the flavours blend.

Let me know if you give them a try, I would love to hear from you!