These may sound like a lot of work, but they are worth the time and effort I promise. They also keep well in an airtight container. You can freeze the cooked cupcakes and the crumble - so a good recipe to pre-make and then defrost these elements when needed. For me, these are heaven in a mouthful!
Ingredients: For the Rhubarb Ripple:
300g Rhubarb
3 Tbsp Caster Sugar
Zest of an Orange
1 Tsp Vanilla
1 Tbsp Water
For the Cupcakes:
125g Self-Raising Flour
125g Caster Sugar
¼ Tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
125g Butter
2 Large Eggs
1 ½ Tbsp Milk (preferably whole)
¼ tsp Vanilla Essence
For the Custard ‘Icing’:
2 Large Eggs + 2 Yolks
190g Caster Sugar
40g Corn Flour
450ml Milk (preferably whole)
1 ½ Tsp Vanilla Essence
For the Crumble:
80g Plain Flour
20g Oats
1 Tsp Demerara Sugar
1 Tsp Caster Sugar
40g Melted Butter
How I make these delicious cupcakes:
1.First, make the Rhubarb ripple. Slice your rhubarb into one-inch pieces and place these into a roasting tray. Then mix together all of the other ingredients in a separate bowl and pour over the rhubarb, mixing thoroughly.
2. Cover the roasting tray in foil and bake at 180ºC Fan for 15-20 minutes.
3. Once cooled, transfer to a liquidiser and pulp. Set aside.
4. Second, make your cupcakes. You will need a muffin tin and 12 cupcake cases.
5.Mix together the flour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda and butter until you have a lovely, creamy mixture. Add in the eggs and mix until well incorporated.
6.In a separate jug, mix together the milk and vanilla. Add this to the batter and mix very lightly until just incorporated.
7.At this point add in three generous tablespoons of the rhubarb ripple pulp. Give this a light mix, enough to ripple through the cupcake batter.
8.Divide the batter equally between the 12 cupcake cases. I use a small ice-cream scoop to do this. Bake at 170ºC Fan for 20-22 minutes.
9.Next, let’s make the crumble. Place all of the dry ingredients into a bowl. Then melt your butter and stir it into the dry ingredients. It will clump together and be very biscuity. This is what you want. Transfer the mixture to a baking tray and as soon as your cupcakes are done, place the crumble in the oven for c.10 minutes and until browned.
10.The final component is making the custard. Mix together the eggs, sugar and cornflour in a bowl. Then place the milk and vanilla into a medium-sized saucepan and bring the milk to the boil. As soon as this happens, pour half of the milk mixture into the egg mixture and whisk quickly until all incorporated. Pour this mixture back into the saucepan which contains the rest of the milk and cook over a medium heat until the custard thickens and the cornflour is fully cooked.
11.Transfer to a bowl, cover with cling film to avoid the custard developing a skin, and leave aside to cool.
12.You’re almost there! Ensure all of your elements have time to cool completely before you start the fun job of decorating!
13.Now, let's decorate! First, using an apple corer, make a whole in each cupcake and fill the cavity with the rest of your rhubarb pulp.
14.Then, put your custard into a piping bag with a nozzle of your choice and pipe over your cupcakes. If you want you could pop your filled piping bag into the fridge for 10 minutes to make the custard a little firmer for piping.
15.Then, as a final flourish, sprinkle each cupcake with the crumble topping. AND EAT!!!