These white chocolate and forest fruits cupcakes were made for a birthday gift. Whole pieces of white chocolate are inserted into the centre of each cake before baking and melt just enough so that they are soft but still give a surprising bite of chocolate – perfectly complementing the sharpness of the forest fruits. The cakes were decorated with toppers made from sugarpaste – coloured, rolled out and cut with cutters.

Cupcake recipe

Makes 12

175g softened butter

175g caster sugar

3 medium eggs, beaten

175g self raising flour

12 pieces white chocolate ( I used a large bar of white chocolate and broke it into the marked sections)

Forest Fruits Jam or syrup

If you want to make the jam or syrup yourself it needs to be prepared first. I used about a cup of frozen forest fruits and a cup of water and brought to the boil in a pan. Reduce the heat and allow to simmer gently for about 20 minutes. Strain the liquid through muslin or a sieve to remove any pips / seeds then measure the liquid you are left with. For every ml of liquid and a gram of sugar and return to the pan. Gently heat and stir until the sugar is melted then bring to a rolling boil. This will set as a jam fairly quickly as blackberries / currants have a good level of pectin so if you just want a syrup don’t let it boil too much.

To make the cupcakes set the oven to 180c and line a muffin tin with paper cases.

Beat the butter and sugar till creamy. Gradually whisk in the beaten eggs then add the flour, carefully. Divide the mixture between the 12 cake cases and then pop a piece of white chocolate into the centre of each one (it doesn’t need to be pressed down.) Bake for about 25 minutes until light golden brown and firm to touch.

When the cakes are cooled a little brush the tops with the fruit syrup or spread a little of the jam onto the top of each one. Buttercream can then be added to decorate.

Buttercream

Beat 500g icing sugar and 300g butter together well until soft and creamy. You can either beat in a tablespoon of the fruit jam or syrup or just swirl it in to give the taste and colour desired.

The cakes are very pretty with the buttercream topping but can be further decorated with sugarpaste butterflies, flowers etc.