Orange Squash Cupcakes
A nostalgic recipe which tells the tale of summer picnics and scotch eggs. The orange squash cupcakes are made from healthy butternut squash and almonds.
Introduction
These cupcakes belong to July picnics with squashed sandwiches, cotton dresses, Scotch eggs and cartons of juice.
Ingredients
| 2 | medium free-range eggs |
| 160g | caster sugar |
| 200g | peeled and finely grated butternut squash |
| finely grated zest and juice of 1 orange (juicing varieties, such as Seville, arc best) | |
| 100g | white rice flour |
| 100g | ground almonds |
| 2 tsp | baking powder |
| ¼ tsp | salt |
| For the icing: | |
| 75g | unsalted butter, cold and cubed |
| 200g | icing sugar, sieved |
| finely grated zest of 1 orange | |
| 1 tbsp | freshly squeezed orange juice |
| For the top: | |
| a little grated orange zest |
Essential kit
You will need a 12-hole muffin tray and 12 paper cases.
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4 and line the muffin tray with paper cases.
Whisk the eggs and sugar in a large mixing bowl for 5 minutes, until pale and quadrupled in volume. Add the grated butternut squash and orange zest, and whisk again. Mix in the flour, ground almonds, baking powder and salt, along with the orange juice, until they are well introduced.
Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases, aiming for it to come four fifths of the way up each case. Place in the oven for 20 minutes until risen and cooked. Don’t be alarmed that they are flat on the top rather than dome shaped. Cool in the tin for 15 minutes, before refrigerating until cold enough to ice.
Whilst the cupcakes are cooling, make the icing. Whisk the butter in a large mixing bowl with an electric whisk until pale and fluffy before adding 100g of the icing sugar. Whisk again to incorporate the sugar. Add the orange zest and juice, as well as the remaining sugar. Beat once again to combine. Refrigerate until the cupcakes are cool and ready to ice.
Ice when the cupcakes are cold, with the help of a small knife or spatula.
Tips:
Don’t worry if the icing curdles when you add the orange juice. It will come right and give up the tantrum when you add the final batch of icing sugar. If for whatever reason it doesn’t quite right itself, simply add more sugar until it has calmed down and is unified again.
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