Blackberry Swirl Cupcakes

Call me insecure but what I love most about cupcakes is that I’m able to taste it before giving it to somebody else. You see, if I make a pie for dessert or a bundt to take to a friend’s house, I’ll only know whether it tastes good after everybody took a bite. I cannot present a bundt or pie missing one piece but I can make 13 cupcakes and take only 12. Besides there’s no unmoulding stress, they bake a lot faster and I can dress them up or dress them down to my heart’s desire.

So I had to bake something for a coffee break at university and I decided to use some blackberries I had bought. The inspiration for these cupcakes came from a lovely post I read in The Little Epicurean. Sometime ago, Maryanne made these gorgeous Blueberry-blackberry cupcakes and since I saw the pictures they stuck to my mind. As I couldn’t find blueberries, I thought that trying to develop something my own would be fun. (And given that they were cupcakes, if I tasted one and it was rubbish, I could always bake something else!)

BLACKBERRY SWIRL CUPCAKES
(loosely adapted from Cookies and Cups’ Favourite Vanilla Cupcakes)

INGREDIENTS
375g flour
350g sugar
2 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
225g butter, room temperature, cut into cubes
4 eggs
250ml milk
4 tbsp blackberry jam, no added sugar, no added pectin

BLACKBERRY GANACHE FROSTING
200g white chocolate buttons
80ml double cream
2 tbsp blackberry jam
blackberries to decorate

METHOD
Preheat oven to 180°C and line 2 x 12-hole muffin tin with paper cups.
In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the dry ingredients using a rubber spatula.
With the mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and on low speed, drop in butter, a few cubes at a time, continuing until all butter is in and mixture resembles coarse sand.
Add eggs one at a time on low speed.
With mixer still on low, slowly pour in milk. Turn mixer to medium speed and beat for 2 minutes until batter is smooth, scraping sides of bowl as needed.
Fill paper cups 2/3 full, drop 1/2 tsp of jam in each cup and stir gently with a skewer to marble the batter. Bake for 15-20 minutes until centres are set and toothpick comes out clean.
Allow to cool completely before frosting.
To make the frosting, heat double cream in the microwave oven for about 45 seconds (or just before it starts to boil), add chocolate and stir until all the buttons have melted. Add jam and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes to set.