White Chocolate and Rosewater Cupcakes

Keep Calm and Eat a White Chocolate and Rosewater Cupcake

I have to admit to having a bit of thing about stationery. When I was a child I liked to collect what we called 'fancy' pencils. None of these were allowed to be sharpened or used in any way. When I was a student I worked for a well-known high street newsagent in their stationery department. Over the years I have seemed to amassed quite a selection of paper, card and notebooks all of which are for stroking purposes only. So you can imagine how giddy I was when I received a selection of cupcake wrappers from Paper Themes. I was particularly thrilled about the 'Keep Calm' design as I do seem to have a house full of such merchandise.

The wrappers are primarily designed for the wedding market with a personalised message such as the bride and groom's names and wedding date being able to be printed on most of their designs. Obviously if you have another special occasion such as a birthday, anniversary or christening then some of the designs would be equally suitable and very elegant.

At first I thought they would be cases you baked the cupcakes in but then I realised you used standard muffin/cupcake cases and these wrap round the cupcake. I found the best way to get the wrapper round the cupcake was to put it together first and then drop the cupcake into it. There is a bit of a knack to making sure the wrappers are secure otherwise they can undo. You just have to get the tabs in the slits properly.

In these tough economic times we are encouraged to buy British and support local business. So I was pleased to find out that Paper Themes is a Yorkshire company (JibberJabber Towers is located in Yorkshire) with all their stationery products designed, manufactured and printed at their Shipley base. The quality of the printing is extremely good with all the colours and lines very clear with no blotchy patches or colour runs. Basically it's the same quality as a good commercial greetings card. Although you could make these yourself you would need a very good printer plus a lot of patience to cut them all out perfectly.

In order to test them I had to make some cupcakes; much to the delight of my daughter. Although these are officially White Chocolate and Rosewater Cupcakes these are also known in my house as 'Princess Cupcakes' which is due to their pink colour and pearls decoration. I coloured half of the mixture with Dr. Oetker's 'Hot Pink' gel food colour.

Makes 12

Equipment: 12 cupcake cases, 12 hole deep pan muffin tin, electric whisk/beaters

Ingredients

Cupcakes

4oz (115g) Self-raising flour

4oz (115g) Caster sugar

4oz (115g) Unsalted butter, softened or baking spread

2 Large eggs

1 tbsp Rosewater

1 tbsp Milk

100g packet of White chocolate drops or a bar broken into very small pieces

Buttercream topping

6oz (175g) Unsalted butter, softened

1 tbsp (15ml) Rosewater

2 tbsp Milk

10½ oz (300g) Icing sugar, sifted

A couple of drops of pink food colouring gel (optional)

Sprinkles, edible pearls of your choice.

Method

1. Line the muffin tin with the cupcake cases.

2. Pre-heat the oven to 190°C/Gas mark 5.

3. In a large bowl put the flour, sugar, butter, eggs and rosewater. With an electric whisk beat until smooth.

4. Stir in the milk and chocolate.

5. Spoon the mixture into the cases.

6. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden. I turn the tin halfway through to get an even colour.

7. they are cooked leave to cool completely on a wire rack before making the buttercream.

8. In a large bowl beat together the butter, rosewater and milk until smooth.

9. Gradually add the icing sugar until the mixture has combined and is smooth and creamy.

10. Pipe or spoon onto the top of the cupcakes and decorate with sprinkles.

Paper Themes sent me the cupcake wrappers for free and asked me to do a review for them. The words, thoughts and photographs are my own honest and independent evaluation.