Warm raspberry cupcakes with orange sugar drizzle

With the cold grey days of January nearly behind us, it is nice to start looking forward to the Spring and Summer.  These delicious cupcakes have a hint of Summer, with the sunny raspberry and orange flavours, but also the warm comfort we need in the darker days of Winter.

The recipe is from the BBC GoodFood website and can be found here.  They suggest using fresh fruit but we used frozen raspberries left over from last year, which work really well in baking.

Ingredients:

200g self raising flour

2tsp baking powder

200g unsalted butter, softened

4 eggs

200g caster sugar

3tbsp milk

50g ground almonds

Zest of 1 medium orange

150g punnet raspberries, lightly crushed, plus some to decorate

For the sugar crust:

Juice of 1 medium orange

4tbsp caster sugar

Method:

Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper muffin cases. Tip the first 8 ingredients into a large bowl and beat with electric whisk until smooth. Fold the crushed raspberries through the batter.

Divide the batter between the cases (they should be about half full) and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden and just firm. Make the topping by mixing together the orange juice and sugar until well blended.

Remove the cupcakes from the oven and allow to cool a little. Drizzle each with the orange and sugar crust mix. Top with the extra raspberries to serve.

They are particularly delicious served warm with cream or crème fraîche.  Enjoy!  LouLou & Will x