Blog

Back to Blog

Rhubarb and custard! A cupcake with rhubarb and custard and that's not just rhubarb! it's a rhubarb jelly topper!

Published 24 September 2012 by Veronica Stillwater

Did you know? It's National Cupcake week. Great reason to get baking and you're in no need of an excuse this week. Here is the link to the website on this official celebration of those little cakes designed for just one's self... the cupcake!: http://www.nationalcupcakeweek.co.uk/# The website is filled with information, recipes, how to videos as well as a competition and that competition is the National Cupcake Championships competition to find the best professional cupcake makers. Worth checking out for a recipe, more information and also if you are interested in entering the competition next year.

Well with no excuse necessary this week it was a cupcake of rhubarb and custard with a little twist. For this week's topper I decided to make a rhubarb concentrate and turn it into jelly discs, using a small mould and some gelatine as the setting agent. A light plain vanilla sponge topped with vanilla frosting, custard and a circular disc of rhubarb jelly. These will definitely have your guests talking and will certainly be enjoyed by any rhubarb and custard fans out there.


I would suggest that they are eaten on the day they are served if you are using a powdered custard as the custard will shrink in at the sides the following day as cold custard does. Nonetheless, great tasting and enjoyable on the day of baking and the days after, even if the custard has shrunk a little at the sides. I have shown in the photos how they were both on the day of piping and the following day. You could always pipe the custard on the cupcakes in batches, as and when required to avoid this shrinking problem as the custard will keep in the fridge ready to be freshly piped onto the cupcakes. The beauty of piping on the custard in batches as and when, is that you have some already made up vanilla frosted cupcakes if you want just a vanilla cupcake. Well, the choice is yours!


For the little jelly rhubarb discs, I used a plastic storage tray that came with some decorative forget me nots that I got from the supermarket, I have several of these and these were perfect once washed and dried to use as moulds on this occasion once the jelly liquid had completely cooled. So if you don't have mini moulds specific to the task at hand, then have a look at what you could possibly use as an alternative. I have shown in the picture the little moulds for you to see. Hope you enjoy this week's post and thank you all for the comments and feedback so far! I will return with a variation of this recipe in a future post using creme patissiere instead of custard powder and maybe another inventive way of making rhubarb toppers. Here's this week's recipe for you to enjoy.



For the vanilla cupcakes:

You will need:

Large mixing bowl
Spatula
12 cup muffin baking tray

12 muffin paper cases

Teaspoon

Tablespoon


Ingredients:

125g butter or margarine

125g sugar

230g self raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 medium sized eggs
125ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Turn on the oven and set to 180°


Place the butter and sugar in the large mixing bowl, using the spatula to blend the butter and sugar well, beating until pale in colour, creamy, light and fluffy in texture. Add 1 egg at a time and beat in until the egg is fully combined each time. (The mixture will not curdle as long as you beat it enough with each additional egg, you should have the appearance of a light mousse like texture). Once you have added and beaten in all the eggs, add the remaining ingredients and lightly fold in until a really light fluffy spoon dropping consistency is achieved.


Using the tablespoon, place a spoonful of the mixture in each of the muffin cases and bake for approx 30-40 minutes, checking their progress at around 30 minutes into cooking time. The cakes should be risen with a perfect mound formation taking shape on the top and golden in colour. You can always test by inserting a clean skewer into one of the cakes, if it comes out clean they are ready, if not return to the oven checking with the skewer again at 5 minute intervals. (Always really important never to open the oven door and allow any air in before 25-30 minutes of cooking as this will allow for the mixture to 'drop' and sink, look through the oven door if you have one that's made of glass to visually check on their progress rather than open the door). Once baked, remove from the oven using oven gloves and allow to cool completely. (You can remove them from their muffin tray and place on a wire rack to cool to avoid any further cooking or any sweating). You can always just remove the cupcakes from their muffin tray cups and place them on the small spaces between the cups on the tray to stand and cool.


For the Frosting:

You will need:

Food processor
Piping bag
Spatula
Large petal nozzle


Ingredients:

750g icing sugar
75g butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoons hot water


Place the icing sugar, butter, vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon of hot water in the food processor and pulse blitz on a low speed setting to roughly combine. Switch the machine off, remove the lid and using the spatula scrape down from the sides towards the centre of the bowl any dry ingredients, check the consistency and replace the lid. Switch the machine back on, pulse blitz on a high speed setting to blend out any last lumps checking the consistency and if too thick add a little more of the remaining tablespoon of hot water at a time until a smooth piping consistency is achieved.


Using the spatula to remove the frosting from the food processor, fill your piping bag ready with your large petal nozzle with the vanilla frosting.

Start at an outer edge of the cupcake and start to pipe with the fatter end of the petal nozzle towards the ceiling and the thinner end towards the floor, pipe in a U shape, in an inward and outward motion repeat continuously all the way around the cupcake until you are back at the start. Repeat for all 12 until all have the vanilla frosting.


For the custard:

You will need:

Measuring jug
Saucepan
Spatula
Piping bag
Large plain nozzle


Ingredients:

Instant custard powder
Water (As per details on the packet)
2 dessert spoons of cornflour


Make up your custard powder as per the instruction on the packaging and as this may vary, I haven't detailed the exact amount of water in the Ingredients list for that reason. (I used a 75g sachet of custard powder and added ¾ of a pint of water). Using the measuring jug, measure the required amount of water, pour the water in the saucepan and set on a high heat to bring to the boil. Place the custard powder into the measuring jug and add the 2 dessert spoons of cornflour and stir to combine. Once the water has boiled add a small quantity to the custard powder and cornflour and stir to form a paste. Add the remaining water slowly, constantly stirring to avoid any lumps (You can always use an electric whisk once your custard has cooled and set to beat out any lumps). Set aside to cool. Once cooled to room temperature, place the custard in your piping bag ready with your large plain nozzle and pipe the custard in each of the centres of the vanilla frosted cupcakes.


For the rhubarb jelly:

You will need:

Small circular mould(s)
Saucepan
Sieve
Hand/Stick blender
Measuring jug
Spatula
Tablespoon
Can opener
Small bowl

Ingredients:

540g of tinned rhubarb (or fresh rhubarb if available)
1 sachet of gelatine (enough to set 500ml)
2 heaped tablespoons sugar
Few drops of pink food colouring


Open the tin of rhubarb, drain the juice and place the drained rhubarb in the saucepan along with the sugar and use the stick blender to pulse blitz the rhubarb and sugar into a purée. Once puree'd place on the hob and heat on a low heat until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture has thickened. Add the 500ml of water, the few drops of pink food colouring and bring slowly to the boil. Once boiled, remove from the heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes.

Make up the gelatine (If using powdered gelatine, you may need to add up to 6 tablespoons of water to the powdered gelatine in a separate bowl and allow it to rest for 10 minutes before adding it to your mixture). After 10 minutes of resting, the gelatine will expand and this is a good indication it is ready. Drain any excess water that you can from the soaked gelatine and using a spoon, place the gelatine into the rhubarb syrup, stirring well to fully incorporate. Pour into your moulds and allow to set in the fridge. (You can place them in the freezer to set if you are in a hurry, but I would advise if using from frozen that you allow them to rest at room temperature to bring them back to the jelly state before serving).

 

You will have some excess jelly and this can be placed in a larger mould to be served on another day, or you could keep making the mini rhubarb jelly discs using the small moulds and store them in the freezer until required. Once the jelly discs have set, place them on top of each of the cupcakes ready to be served. Ready for the eating! I hope you enjoy this recipe and look our for next week's post where I will be making my own sugarpaste to create some toppers! Until next week! Happy Baking!