Recipe: Rhubarb And Custard Cupcakes

As I write this, the world is a slightly surreal and sometimes intense place. I for one have been struggling to remain positive everyday and there have been days when I've wanted to curl up in bed, have a good cry and binge Disney+ but I know that I'd only feel worse for it so I've thrown myself into something I absolutely adore doing but haven't had the chance to really do so far this year. And that's obviously baking, for me it's become therapeutic and helps to settle my mind when anxiety and uncertainty raise their ugly heads. I've been collecting quite a selection of recipes that need to written up and shared and as I know a lot of you are probably also baking to kill the time, I thought it was time to finally jump back on the blogging bandwagon and hopefully give you some baking inspiration.

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

For The Buttercream 
- 200g Butter, softened
- 320g Icing Sugar
- Dr Oetker Pink Gel Food Colouring
- 2Tsp Rhubarb Extract
- A Splash Of Milk
- Dr Oetker Wafer Daisies (little & large)

Method 
1- Pre heat oven to 180C. Line a twelve hole cupcake tin with paper cases or line a standard oven tray with 12 baking cups like I did.
2- Into a bowl place the caster sugar and stork. Using a spatula, wooden spoon or stand mixer, cream together until pale in colour and fluffy in texture.
3- Add one egg and a tablespoon of flour and mix until combined.
4- Repeat with a second egg and another tablespoon of flour. Beat until combined, making sure to scrape the edges of the bowl so that nothing is left sitting on the sides.
5- Add the rest of the flour to the bowl alongside the vanilla custard extract and gently fold in to the mixture. If you don't have vanilla custard extract you can fold in two teaspoons of custard powder to get the same flavour.
6- Once everything is combined, spoon into your paper cases or baking cups and bake for 18-20 minutes or until the top springs back when pressed.
7- Leave to cool for five minutes in the tin and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
8- Now it's onto the buttercream, place your softened butter into a bowl and beat until soft, creamy and pale in colour. I advise using a stand mixer or a hand mixer for this as it can take while and it's a lot easier on the arms.
9- Sieve half of your icing sugar into the bowl and beat until fully combined.
10- Then sieve the other half of your icing sugar and beat again until combined.
11- Add your Rhubarb extract and pink food colouring and beat until combined. I chose a gel food colouring to keep the consistency of the buttercream as liquid colourings tend to loosen the mixture a little too much. Your buttercream can be as pale or as bright as you want it to be, I just chose a lighter shade of pink to conincide with the original sweets.
12- Now it's time to spoon your mixture into a piping bag, if you find your buttercream is a little stiff, beat in a little mix to loosen it up and you'll have the perfect piping consistency. I used a 2D Star piping nozzle to give it a nice swirl.
13- Pipe your buttercream onto your now cooled cupcakes and decorate with an array of the big and small wafer flowers/daisies.
14- Now you can leave these to set for a while before you dive in but this are also perfect to eat straightaway which pretty much happens anytime I bake at home.