Creme Egg cupcakes recipe

Pretty cupcakes with Easter yellow icing, topped with mini Creme Eggs and with a special surprise centre.

These Creme Egg cupcakes look so good at an Easter party or for a chocolate-themed afternoon tea. Each one has a mini Creme Egg on top and another hidden inside the sponge centre. This recipe makes a dozen cupcakes, so you will need 24 mini Creme Eggs. A 78g bag usually contains eight, so you will need three bags. This is a great recipe to make with kids. As well as mixing and tasting duties, they will enjoy pushing the eggs into the centre of the cupcakes before baking. This quick recipe only takes 45 minutes but for a speedier version you can use shop bought yellow frosting.

Ingredients

For this Easter recipe you will need:

• 95g plain flour
• 20g corn flour
• 25g cocoa powder
• 50g butter, softened
• 115g dark soft brown sugar
• 3 medium eggs, beaten
• 125ml sour cream
• 24 Mini Creme Eggs

For the Swiss meringue buttercream:

• 3 large egg whites
• 225g caster sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 300g unsalted butter
• Few drops of vanilla extract
• Small, pea-sized blob of yellow food colouring paste (we used Sugarflair's Egg Yellow)

You will also need

• Open star tip icing nozzle (such as a Wilton 1M)
• Piping bag

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160°C/320°F/Gas Mark 3 and line a 12-hole muffin tray with 12 cupcake cases.
2. Sift all the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Add the eggs, butter and sour cream and beat with an electric mixer until smooth.
3. Divide the mixture between the cases and place one Mini Creme Egg in the centre of each case. If you freeze the eggs for 10 minutes before putting them into the batter they stay nice and gooey. Bake for 25 minutes or until they have risen and spring back when you lightly press the top. Remove from the tray and leave to cool on a wire rack.
4. Dice the butter for the icing and leave to one side.
5. To make the icing: Place the sugar, salt and egg white into a large heat-proof bowl over a saucepan of boiling water to dissolve the sugar (make sure the bowl doesn't touch the water).
6. Once the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is smooth, remove from the heat and whisk (preferably with an electric whisk) until you have a thick meringue texture and keep whisking until the temperature has reduced to room temperature, you can check this by feeling the outside of the bowl.
7. Add the diced butter cubes one at a time and keep whisking until all the butter is incorporated. Add the vanilla extract and colouring.
8. To pipe the ruffly swirl: Attach the open star tip to a large piping bag and place in a tall glass, pulling the bag down around the glass. Fill the bag ⅔ full with the buttercream and twist at the top of the bag to close.
9. Apply pressure to the piping bag and, starting in the centre of the cake, pipe a star and pull up quickly to create a base for the swirl. Then, starting at the outside edge of the cupcake, pipe around the star applying pressure to create a ruffly effect. Build up in a spiral action to create a classic swirl.
10. Place a Mini Creme Egg on top of each cake.

Top tip for making these Creme Egg cupcakes

This recipe works well with a normal vanilla sponge cupcake recipe too. The chocolate egg in the centre creates a lovely contrast with the sponge.

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