Mothers Day 'Borrowed' Rhubarb Treats - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

Most mums want nothing more for Mothers Day than a visit or a phone call. Or that's what they say. I reckon you'd be pretty popular if you arrived with a tray of these fruity beauties! If you don't have rhubarb planted in your own garden, whip around to a good gardener (often our mums) and steal a couple of stalks. Trust me she'll thank you for it later!

Rhubarb Cupcakes

You will need:

125g softened butter

2/3c firmly packed brown sugar

1/2t vanilla bean paste

pinch salt

2 large eggs

1/2c milk

1 & 1/2c self-raising flour

1 & 1/2c washed and diced rhubarb

Owl design cupcake cups

plum icing

20g melted butter

1/2c sifted icing sugar

1/3c nougat, cranberries or similar to top

1. To prepare your rhubarb cook it with 2T water for 5+mins until soft. Let it cool. This will reduce to approx 1c of stewed rhubarb.

2. Cream first measure of butter, sugar, vanilla and salt. Whisk eggs and milk and add to butter mixture ever so slowly to combine. (Here is the egg mixture pictured with a sturdy mini whisk I totally recommend for prep jobs). Add the flour and continue mixing on low speed until a thick batter forms. Fold in 1c stewed rhubarb gently. 

3. Fill cupcake cups 2/3 full and arrange them in a 7x3 grid on your tray. Its important to leave space between for them to cook evenly. This recipie makes 21. Bake at 170`C for about 25 mins or until a cake tester comes out clean. 

4. Meanwhile prepare your icing according to packet instructions. This requires a little melted butter and some water. Add icing sugar to turn it into a pipeable consistency. Fill a piping bag that has been fitted with a tip to pipe through. I used wilton tip #109 for the gentle swirls.     

5. When the cupcakes have cooled, decorate with a swirl of the punchy plum icing and top with a thin slice of nougat or some whole dried cranberries. These cupcake papers are thick and robust to travel as well as simply being sweet! In the same range are eye-catching aeroplane, carousel, bluebird, babushka, patchwork paper cup designs and more.

These rhubarb cakes are also beautiful and light served simply with a fine sprinkling of icing sugar. Do it through a paper doily for maximum effect! This  really lets the classic rhubarb and vanilla flavour combination shine through. 

Remember that rhubarb leaves are poisonous so don't be 'helpful' by sticking them in the compost! Simply lay the leaves you cut off around the base of the rhubarb plant to keep moisture in the surrounding soil. They will decompose with time and the gardener will stay happy :-) 

Oz holiday inspired Hokey Pokey Cupcakes - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

I have just returned home from nearly 2 weeks in Australia visiting friends and family. As soon as we landed into Auckland it was immediately evident that our long, hot summer has come to an end. It must be truly autumn now since today I even bought my slippers to work with me!

On holiday I love to roam the supermarket for new and different products. I couldn't go past the Violet Crumble bars, which are similar to our iconic NZ Crunchie bars. The Australian counterpart is a little denser in texture and perhaps more anemic-looking inside its dark chocolate shell. Its still super yummy and guaranteed to get stuck in your teeth. I predicted that their drier consistency might hold up better in my recipie than a Crunchie bar might so I put them to the test.

I've always had a certain fondness for Violet Crumble since I was cast as the shiny purple-wrapped chocolate bar in a primary school play of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! Hokey Pokey is certainly fashionable at the moment too - today while skipping across the road to buy my Crunchie bars I noticed new Hokey Pokey flavours of both ice cream sundaes and flavoured milk being advertised in two separate outlets.

These finished products are photographed on our 6-pack Le petite cupcake stands, available in a few different colours. The baking cups are bran new just arrived. Check them out here

Hokey Pokey Cupcakes

Whip together in your mixer for 1-2 minutes:

2 eggs

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup (250ml) cream (can use the lite variety here)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch salt

1+1/2 cups sifted flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

Then with a spatula fold through 1/2 cup (50g) coarsely chopped chocolate-coated honeycomb of your choice.

Spoon into cupcake papers or baking cups until they are 3/4 full. You want this mixture to rise up out of the papers and have some height! Bake 20-25 mins at 180 degrees until golden and oozy.

Whip 1/2 cup (125ml) of cream (remember lite cream is not suitable for whipping so this treat is not for those watching their weight!) and incorporate another 1/2 cup (50g) chopped honeycomb. Spoon on top of cooled cupcakes and enjoy immediately.

The cupcakes come out of the oven looking rustic with yummy hokey pokey melting down the outsides of the baking cups. For me, it all adds to the appeal!

The other girls at work made a lot of Mmmm Mm noises while taste testing for me and thought that although both were moreish, the Violet Crumble produced a slightly more subtle tasting cake than the sweeter Crunchie. So go ahead and use any Hokey Pokey bar you can get your hands on - or if you want a challenge there's no reason you couldn't use a combination of shattered  homemade hokey pokey (roughly 40g) and your favourite chocolate (20g) in both the mixture and the cream.