Difficulty – Easy
A fun cupcake recipe for those who love marshmallows. These marshmallow cupcakes have a vanilla sponge with a mini marshmallow centre, it is topped with a vanilla buttercream and a medium sized marshmallow to finish. This is a great easy recipe to do with the kids, they will enjoy mixing the batter, stuffing mini marshmallows inside the cupcakes, attempting the easy buttercream decoration and probably eating half of the ingredients too!
Cooks Notes.
Gluten free self-raising flour – The gluten free self-raising flour that I have used contains xanthan gum, if your flour does not contain any xanthan gum then add 1/2 a teaspoon to the recipe.
Soured Cream – I have used soured cream in these cupcakes as it gives the cupcakes moisture, without thinning the cupcake batter a softer texture and a slight acidic flavour.
The high fat content in soured cream adds richness to the cupcakes and gives it a softer texture. Because the cream has a high fat content I have reduced the amount of butter I would normally use in a cupcake.
Soured cream has some acidity to it, this acidity helps the cupcakes to rise more as it reacts with the baking powder. The acidity also adds a slight soured taste which complements the sweetness in this very sweet marshmallow cupcake.
Buttercream – When making buttercream it is best to use butter that is at room temperature. This ensures that the butter creams with the icing sugar, which creates a smooth, light airy texture. If the butter is too cold then it will be too firm to cream with the sugar, this will make a grainy/lumpy textured buttercream. To ensure that your butter is at the right temperature take it out of the fridge approximately 15/20 minutes before you want to make the buttercream (do not place it in direct sunlight). The amount of time you need to leave the butter out of the fridge depends on the temperature of the room you are in (so you may need to adjust the 15/20 minute time given above), you want the butter to still have some firmness, but be soft enough to make an indent when you press it with your finger. Do not put the butter in the microwave or in a pan to warm it up, you will then make the butter too warm and it will make a greasy buttercream.
Piping the buttercream – For the piping I have used 2 different piping nozzles; 2J For the pink buttercream frill and 3R for the vanilla coloured swirl. To view a short clip of how to decorate the cupcakes got to step 3 under decorating the cupcakes on the recipe card below.
Marshmallow cupcakes
Equipment
- 1 No.2M Piping nozzle
- 1 No. 3R Piping nozzle
- 2 Piping Bags
- 1 Electric whisk or stand alone mixer
- 1 12 hole cupcake baking tray
- 12 Cupcake cases
- Mixing bowl
Ingredients
- 280 grams Gluten free self raising flour The self – raising flour that I have used contains xanthan gum. If your flour does not contain xanthan gum then add 1/2 a tsp to this recipe.
- 275 grams Caster Sugar
- 150 ml Soured Cream
- 100 grams Unsalted Butter
- 3 Large Eggs
- 3 tsps Vanilla Extract
- 1½ tsps Baking Powder
- Mini marshmallows
Buttercream
- 300 grams Unsalted Butter At room temperature
- 600 grams Icing Sugar
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- Pink food Colouring
- 12 Medium – large Marshmallows 6 white, 6 pink
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 150℃ fan, gas mark 2, 300℉
- Line a 12 cupcake tray with 12 cupcake cases
- Put 125g of caster sugar and 100g of unsalted butter into a large mixing bowl and whisk until light and fluffy.
- Add 3 tsps of vanilla extract and 1 1/2 tsps of baking powder and whisk for a few seconds.
- Then add one large egg and whisk until well incorporated.
- Add 1/3 of the self raising flour and whisk again.
- Repeat steps 5 and 6 until all of the eggs and flour have been added to the batter.
- Finally add 150ml of soured cream and whisk until it is combined and you have a smooth cake batter.
- Fill the cupcake cases until they are 2/3rd’s full. Then place in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the cupcake are lightly golden in colour.
- Leave the cupcakes to cool for 10 minutes in the baking tray before turning them out and placing them on a cooling rack. Then leave the cupcakes to cool completely.
- Once cooled, use either a cupcake corer or a knife to make a whole in the centre of a cupcake and then fill with some mini marshmallows. Repeat for all 12 cupcakes.
Buttercream
- Take 300g of unsalted butter and 600g of icing sugar and place them in a mixing bowl.
- Add 20ml of water and 2tsp of vanilla extract, then whisk for at least 5 minutes.
- After whisking for a minimum of 5 minutes the buttercream should look lighter in colour. If it seems too firm to pipe then add a little more water 5ml at a time whilst whisking again. Continue until the buttercream feels firm but at a consistency that you can pipe with.
- Take half of the buttercream and add a little pink food colouring to it. Then whisk until you have a smooth pink colour. Add a little more food colouring if needed and whisk again. Repeat until you have a shade of pink that you are happy with.
Decorating the cupcakes
- Take one piping bag and cut a hole in the bottom so the No.2M nozzle tip fits through. Then place the nozzle inside the piping bag. Fill the piping bag 2/3rd’s full with the pink buttercream and twist the piping bag at the top.
- Take a second piping bag and repeat the process above filling it with the plain white buttercream.
- Using the pink filled piping bag squeeze a large frill onto the first cupcake, then with the white buttercream cupcake pipe a swirl on top of the pink frill. (See the clip for a demonstration)
- Repeat the process of piping pink buttercream then white buttercream on a further 5 cupcakes. Then place a large pink marshmallow ontop.
- For the remaining 6 cupcakes, first pipe a white buttercream swirl, then onto pipe a pink buttercream frill.
- Top these 6 cupcakes with a white marshmallow to finish.