Swiss Honey Cupcakes
The bees are a-buzzing.
Inspired by their sweet, sweet honey, I bring you these cupcakes.
And some pictures of the Emmental in bloom.
Bee paradise.
Our local shops sell plenty of neighbourhood honey, and you can often see beekeepers checking on their bee houses—little huts with colourful coded flaps on the front.
Some of Sam's relatives are Imkers (beekeepers), so we always seem to have honey at hand.
The cupcake and frosting recipes are honeyed up standards that I've been using since pastry school. The real distinction is the liquid gold that you pour over top.
For the cupcakes:
275 g flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
115 g butter, room temperature
150 g sugar
1 tbsp honey
2 eggs
125 ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract or paste
For the frosting:
200 g butter, room temperature
180 g icing sugar
1 tbsp honey (plus more for drizzling)
For the cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 180 C / 350 F / gas mark 4.
Line a muffin tin with muffin papers.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
In a large bowl, beat the butter with the sugar until fluffy. Beat in the honey, then the eggs.
Mix half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, then half of the milk. Repeat with the rest. Mix in the vanilla.
Scoop into the paper lined muffin tin and bake for about 25 minutes, or until you can smell them and the tops spring back completely when pressed .
For the frosting:
Beat the butter until light and fluffy. Beat in the sugar, then the honey.
Pipe onto the cupcakes using a large star tip.
To garnish with honey, put the frosted cupcakes in the freezer for about 30 minutes to firm up the icing. Just before you take them out, warm a couple of tablespoons of honey in a small pan until completely liquid.
Drip the melted honey into the grooves of the cupcake frosting.
Of course use Swiss honey from your neighbourhood if you can get your hands on it—it's delicious. But otherwise, any honey (preferably local) will do.
A lemon variation is also delicious. Add the zest and juice of one half a lemon to the cake batter and the other half to the frosting.
Unfortunately, it isn't easy for bees at the moment. A worthwhile watch is More than Honey, Swiss filmmaker Marcus Imhof's 2012 film on the decline of worldwide bee populations.
