Apricot & cinnamon cupcakes with cream cheese & apricot icing

Cinnamon. Apricots. Cream cheese. Three things that are awesome. I hope that these cupcakes will prove to you that they can be awesome in partnership.

This recipe is adapted from one that a friend of my parents wrote on the back of an envelope for me. I'm sure there are similar versions around but I feel like I've played with this one enough to not reference further than the back of an envelope.

Lightly press a thin layer of batter onto the bottom of each patty case and top it with an apricot half. I think they look disturbingly like egg yolks here.

Then cover the apricot over with another layer of batter. I tend to press it down to make it smoother, but you don't really need to do this (see looser packed cakes on the right, below), especially if you're going to frost over it later anyway. You can put as much batter as you want on top really, but be aware that the cakes will rise and you don't want them spewing out over the rim (I've overloaded muffin tins with similar cake before and they looked rather ugly).

These came out just about the size I was aiming for :)

This cake tastes fine without icing. In fact, I think my dad would be horrified to learn that I heaped "sweet stuff" on top of this particular cake recipe. But we had a lot of cream cheese left over in the fridge and I didn't want it to be wasted. Thus, I decided on cream cheese icing.

I used the cream cheese frosting recipe that Bakerella posted with her Red Velvet Cake (which is also delicious), but only made half a batch, and also added 8 mashed up apricot halves (ie. equivalent of 4 apricots), mostly to see what would happen. It made the icing runnier, but I liked the little flecks of colour and texture. I think it made minimal difference to the taste, but I was happy enough with it.

Anyway, the cake recipe. I used to use 2 teaspoons each of baking powder, cinnamon, mixed spice and ground ginger, but decided to tone it down a bit, so went with one generous teaspoon of each (except the baking powder which I didn't dare alter, leaving it at 2).

Apricot & Cinnamon Cupcakes

Makes approximately 12 muffin sized cupcakes and 15 mini cupcakes

150g butter, melted

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 cups self-raising flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon mixed spice

1 teaspoon ground ginger

2 teaspoons baking powder

Large tin of apricots (will have some left over from an 800g tin)

1. Prepare your tins and preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

2. In a large bowl, mix all ingredients (except apricots!).

3. Put a layer of batter on the bottom of each cupcake case (using about half the total amount of batter).

4. Lightly press an apricot half into each case of batter. Use a quarter of an apricot for mini cupcakes.

5. Use the rest of the batter to make another layer on top of the apricot.

6. Bake for 20-30 minutes (depending on your oven). Test with a skewer.

Cream Cheese Frosting (based on half batch of Bakerella's recipe)

Makes more icing than you'll need for these cakes!

125g cream cheese, room temperature

125g butter, room temperature

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups icing sugar, sifted

8 apricot halves, well mashed

1. Beat cream cheese and butter on high until creamy and add vanilla.

2. Add icing sugar a cup at a time and blend in.

3. Add apricot puree and mix until just combined.

4. Ice your cupcakes once they're cool.

This recipe is also great with apple instead of apricot, and, as mentioned, it's really not essential to add frosting. Also makes a lovely loaf cake.