Jessica Ransom
Our date cupcakes take 30 minutes to bake and can be enjoyed with or without the cream cheese icing.
This cupcake recipe is delicious and moist thanks to the addition of soaked chopped dates in the batter. We have also included some mixed spice but you can swap for cinnamon or replace with a little vanilla extract if you prefer.
Ingredients
- 100g bag of walnuts ( 75g to be chopped and 25g left aside to decorate)
- 200g stoned dates
- 100ml of golden syrup
- 125g butter
- 120g self-raising flour
- 120g plain flour
- 10g cornflour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- 100g light brown sugar
- 1 medium egg
For the cream cheese icing:
- 150g full-fat soft cream cheese
- 150g icing sugar
- Few drops of vanilla extract
WEIGHT CONVERTER
Method
- Heat the oven to 170C (150C fan, Gas 3). Line a 12-hole muffin tray with cake cases.
- Chop 75g walnuts and leave the rest whole for decoration.
- Roughly chop the dates into 1cm pieces then put them in a small saucepan with 250ml water, the golden syrup and butter. Heat until just boiling then leave to one side to cool.
- Into a large mixing bowl sieve the self-raising flour, plain flour, cornflour, bicarbonate soda, mixed spice, brown sugar and add the chopped walnuts.
- Lightly beat the egg and when the date mix has cooled fold the egg and date mix into the flours until just combined.
- Divide the mixture between the 12 cases and bake for 30 minutes or until risen and the sponge springs back when lightly pressed. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- To make the icing, add the cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla to a mixing bowl and beat with a whisk until smooth and shiny.
- Decorate the cakes with a teaspoon of icing then press a walnut halve on top.
Top tips for making date cupcakes
Victoria says: ‘If you would prefer to decorate the cakes with a perfect circle of icing, use a Wilton 2A or other round-tip nozzle attached to a piping bag to pipe a circle onto the centre of each cake.’ For more tips and tricks, continue reading below.
How do you store cupcakes ahead of time?
To get ahead with this date cupcake recipe, we would recommend baking the cupcakes the day before. Then store in an airtight container at room temperature.
You can prepare the icing ahead too. Simply combine the ingredients then cover or store in an airtight container in the fridge. Allow the icing to come to stand at room temperature for 15-30 minutes before using to ice the cakes as it may be too firm to handle when straight from the fridge.
Iced cupcakes will need to be stored in the fridge because of the dairy products in the ingredients. However, this can cause the sponge to dry out.
How to decorate date cupcakes?
Instead of decorating the date cupcakes with a piece of walnut, you could sprinkle over more chopped dates. Alternatively, you could channel the flavours of sticky toffee pudding and drizzle the cupcakes with a toffee or caramel sauce.
How to make nut-free cupcakes?
You can omit the nuts from this recipe if you don’t like them or have an allergy. If the cake batter looks very loose, you can add an extra 50g plain or self raising flour to the mix.
In step three of the recipe you need to heat the dates with syrup and water in a saucepan. If your pans are looking tired and need updating, we like this stainless steel one from Le Creuset.
Fancy making some more cupcakes? Try our chocolate cupcake recipe for an easy crowd pleaser or these mini cupcakes are a wonder option when entertaining. Our rainbow cupcakes are a popular option with little ones too.
