Monday Recipe: Rhubarb and Custard Cupcakes

The rhubarb season is just coming to a close, but since I had some lying around and its way too hot here to be making a crumble it seemed like cake was the best option! So we have these lovely vanilla cupcakes filled with stewed rhubarb and custard, topped with a custard butter cream. 

I like to use pre-made custard for these, mostly because I’m too lazy to make my own custard! The ginger in the stewed rhubarb is optional, but I do recommend it, it helps to cut through the sweetness of the custard in the cakes and the custard butter cream. This recipe makes 8-10 cupcakes. I don’t suggest making these in a cupcake maker as you need a big cake for these and cupcake makers make rather small cakes!  

My favourite sweets!

Ingredients
Cake
115g/4oz butter
115g/4oz caster sugar
115g/4oz Self-rising flour, sifted
2 eggs, beaten
½ tsp vanilla extract

Custard Butter cream
75g/3oz butter
175g/6oz icing sugar, sifted
½ tsp vanilla extract
3 dessertspoons custard

Finishing Touches
Custard
Stewed rhubarb with ginger
Rhubarb and Custard sweets

Method
Make the stewed rhubarb by chopping up 2-3 sticks of rhubarb and placing it in a pan with a couple of tablespoons of sugar, a splash of water and about 1 teaspoon of powdered ginger. Cover and cook on a low heat for 15mins, stirring occasionally until the rhubarb breaks down. Leave to cool.

Make the cake by creaming together the butter and sugar, then beat in the eggs and vanilla extract. Fold in the flour and divide between the paper cases. Bake in the oven at gas mark 4 or 180 degrees C for 25mins until golden brown and cooked all the way through. Leave on a wire rack to cool.

Once the cakes are cooled, cut a hole in the top of each cake. Trim the piece of cake you removed so you get a flat piece of cake. Put a spoonful of the rhubarb into the hole, then a spoonful of custard and then place the flat piece of cake over the hole. Then cover with the butter cream and top with a rhubarb and custard sweet.

To make the butter cream, cream together the custard and the butter. Then beat in the vanilla and icing sugar until smooth. Chill before using!

I find these cakes are best served chilled, keeping the cakes cool helps to bring forward the flavour of the custard in the butter cream. The downside is that this does suppress the ginger flavour somewhat, but the ginger is only there to cut through the sweetness of the icing anyway!