Hot cross bun cupcakes recipe

All the spice and nice of a hot cross bun, but in a speedy cupcake form.

Hot cross bun cupcakes are a quicker way to make hot cross buns. There's no need to wait for dough to prove and rise, you can just pop them straight in the oven and they're ready in less than an hour. Rather than pastry dough, we've topped these with little crosses oof marzipan, to keep them sweet. This recipe makes 14 cupcakes, perfect if you need something for the kids to take to school for a bake sale.

Ingredients

For this Easter recipe you will need:

• 150g self-raising flour
• 150g softened butter
• 150g golden caster sugar
• 3 medium eggs
• 1½ tsp mixed spice
• 1 tbsp milk, room temperature
• 100g currants
• 25g mixed peel (optional)
• 100g white marzipan

You will also need:

• Apricot jam

Method

1. To make this cupcake recipe, preheat the oven 160°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3 and line 2 deep pan muffin trays with 14 cupcake cases.
2. Add all the ingredients (except the currants and peel) into a large bowl and beat until smooth, don’t overbeat or the cakes will be greasy. Add 1 tsp of flour to the fruit to make sure they are all covered, this helps them not to sink in the cakes. Gently fold the fruit into the cake mix.
3. Fill the cases with even amounts of batter and bake for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and brush with apricot jam, to give them a shine, and then cool in the tins for 10 mins before moving to a wire rack.
4. Once cold, roll out the marzipan to ⅛ of an inch thick and cut into thin strips. Place them in crosses over the cakes. The jam with help them stick to the cakes but you may need a brush of water in the centre of the cross when sticking the second strip over it.

Top tip for making hot cross bun cupcakes

If you don't like currants you can replace them with dried raspberries or cranberries, or chunks of chocolate or toffee. If you don’t have apricot jam you could always use marmalade instead.

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