surprise cupcake

I am a member of several groups in facebook.  Some are open groups and some are closed groups. 

One of the members of one of the closed groups in facebook uploaded a recipe for butter cupcake.  According to her, the recipe was obtained from a newspaper that was published before she was born.

With two Chickadees to take care of, I try to bake without the use of the electric mixer nowadays.  This is because I do my baking when Baby Chickadee is having her nap and I do not want to wake her up with the sound of the electric mixer.  However, I had a look at the butter cupcake recipe and I wanted to give it a try.

(The depression that you see above was due to the marshmallows)

So why have I named the cupcakes "surprise cupcake"?  This is because Princess Chickadee did the honours of filling the cupcake with ingredients and I gave her carte blanche to add whatever took her fancy.  As such, she added an assortment of ingredients such as raisins, M&Ms, marshmallows, cherries, etc.  You will not know what is in each cupcake because she filled the batter with ingredients at random. 

Can you make the cupcakes without the use of an electric mixer?  You can if you have a hand whisk. However, my experience is that for butter cakes and butter cupcakes, it would be preferable to use an electric mixer so that the batter will be very smooth and the cake will be very soft and moist.

We brought a batch of the cupcakes to PIL's home.  A few days later, MIL told me that FIL was very displeased with her because she offered the cupcakes to some visitors to their home the day after we went to PIL's place.  The visitors ate 2 cupcakes each on the spot and packed home 2 cupcakes each, leaving FIL with no second serving. *grin*

This is my modified version of the butter cupcake recipe.

INGREDIENTS

250g butter (softened)

210g castor sugar

5 eggs (room temperature)

225g self raising flour

filling of your choice - Princess Chickadee added marshmallows, M&Ms, raisins, cherries and cubed Laughing Cow cheese

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

2. Line the muffin pan with paper cases.  Set aside.

3. Sift the self-raising flour in a bowl.  Set aside.

4. Whisk the butter in a bowl using an electric mixer for 5 minutes.

5. Add the sugar and whisk for 10 minutes.

6. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well with each addition.

7. Fold in the flour mixture in 3 portions, mixing well with each portion added.

8. Scoop the batter to cover 1/2 the base of the paper case, add the filling and top up with batter.

9. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cupcake comes out clean.