Recipe: Rhubarb And Custard Cupcakes

Last year my mum came home from work one day with a story about how her colleague had made amazing Rhubarb and Custard cupcakes and that she'd cleverly matched the icing to the old fashioned sweet. And ever since then I've wanted to try my hand at my own version whether it had clever icing or just a basic coloured buttercream. And back in June my mum's work had a cake sale for charity and I offered my baking services to them. That's when I first tried my hand at this particular flavour combo and I'm in love with how they turned out. I'm particuarly proud of how the icing looks as I usually end up ruining most of my cakes with the icing, I get very shaky when I ice so it usually ends up everywhere.

Ingredients
For The Cupcakes
100g Caster Sugar
100g Margarine/Stork
100g Self Raising Flour
2 Tsp Vanilla Custard Extract
2 Eggs

For The Icing 
200g Butter
320g Icing Sugar
1 Tube Of Dr Oetker Pink Gel Food Colouring
2 Tsp Of Rhubarb Extract
A Splash Of Milk (optional)

Method 
1- Pre heat oven to 180C. Line a twelve hole muffin tin with paper cases.
2- Place your sugar and stork into a bowl. With a stand mixer or by hand, cream together until pale and fluffy.
3- Add one egg and a tablespoon of flour. Mix until combined.
4- Repeat with the second egg and another tablespoon of flour. Now is usually when I take time to really scrape around the edges of the bowl to make sure there isn't any excess sugar or butter sat on the edges that won't get incoporated into the mix.
5- Fold in the rest of your flour. Take your time with this step. It helps keep the air in the mixture and it'll give you a lighter cake once it's cooked.
6- Fold in your vanilla custard extract. Sure it's just a flavouring and it's tempting to just beat it in quickly, but folding it in will help keep all the air you've already built up in the mixture.
7- Spoon into the paper cases and cook for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
8- Leave to cool in the tin for five minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
9- Now for the icing. Place your softened butter into a bowl and beat until soft, smooth and creamy.
10- Add half of your icing sugar and beat until completely combined. I don't sieve my icing sugar before hand and I never end up with any lumps in my buttercream, however it's all personal preference and if you want to sieve it, then sieve away.
11- Add the remainder of your icing sugar and beat until completely combined. This is where you'll know if you'll need the milk. If the mixture is stiff, add a splash of milk to gently loosen it so that it's a nice piping consitency.
12- Add your flavouring and beat again. I usually sneak a taste after this step just to see if I need to add more flavouring. Rhubarb is quite a tart flavour so less is usually more with it.
13- Now it's time for the colouring. Again how bright or pastel you have the icing is totally up to you. I wanted to stick to the traditional sweet colours so I went for a pale pink shade. It just meant that I put less colouring in and beat more so that there was no colouring sat at the bottom of the bowl.
14- When you're happy with your icing, spoon into a piping bag and pipe onto your now cooled cupcakes. I used a 2D Flower nozzle to create this easy but delicate looking swirl. Some of them aren't as perfect as others but my hand got cramp halfway through which made icing just a bit painful.
15- Once all your cupcakes are iced; leave to set, then enjoy. These are great if you're part of a coffee morning or doing a charity bake sale as they'll appeal to all ages.