Here is another way to vary the basic cupcake recipe. I made some mini upside down cakes, placing some nectarine slices in the bottom of my silicon muffin molds. I sprinkled a spoonful of ginger nut crumble over the fruit then topped up with the cake mixture. For this recipe I used half self-raising flour and half ground almonds.
They were very moist, fruity and the crumble added crunch. The little cakes turned out well, helped by lining the base of each mold with a little disc of baking paper.
This recipe makes 6 muffin sized cakes.
Ingredients
1 medium nectarine (peach or plum would be great too)
Crumble
3 ginger nuts biscuits
1 tbls plain flour
1 tbls caster sugar
1/2 tbls butter
Cupcake mixture
60g self-raising flour
65g ground almonds
125g caster sugar
125g butter
2 large free-range eggs
2 tblsp milk
Method
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C or 160 degrees C fanforced. Spray the molds with baking spray unless you are using silicon molds. Cut 6 discs of baking paper and line the muffin molds.
Slice the nectarine finely and place a couple of slices onto the baking paper in each mold. Bash the ginger nuts into crumbs, and rub in the flour, sugar and butter to make the crumble. Divide the crumble mixture between the 6 molds, sprinkling on top of the nectarine slices.
Put the rest of the ingredients into the food processor except the milk and blitz till smooth. Add the milk while pulsing to make a soft, dropping consistency.
Spoon the mixture into the molds. Place the molds into the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes or until the cakes are cooked and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Cool the cakes for 5 minutes. Loosen each cake by running a knife around the sides of the mold. Carefully invert the molds onto a serving plate. Remove the paper discs. The fruit should be intact on top of each cake. If the cakes have risen unevenly, you can trim the bottom (the original top of the cake) to make them sit straight.
Serve as is for afternoon tea, or with cream as a dessert.
The Quirk and the Cool 