Over Indulgence

I don't know about you but this Christmas I have definitely over indulged in all sorts of yummy foods and snacks. I think I may have eaten my weight in mince pies or mincemeat tarts, all of which have mostly been homemade! We had two jars of homemade mincemeat left and I don't think I could face yet more mince pies and wanted something a little different. 

Through my Christmas recipe browsing I came across a recipe for Mincemeat Cupcakes. Originally I thought it would be a little, well gross! But by the time it came to use these two jars of mincemeat I decided to give it a go. 



I used my basic cupcake recipe you can find on this blog, but with a teaspoon of mixed spice added to the mixture. Once the cupcakes have been baked and cooled you use a melon baller or teaspoon or knife to scoop out the middle of the cupcake so that about a teaspoon or two of mincemeat will fill the hole. 


Now, you can either leave the cupcakes undecorated like that.... Or you can push the boat out and make a crazily alcoholic butter icing like I did. I mixed up a usual batch of butter cream but instead of adding a bit of cream i added about a tablespoon of brandy sauce (found in most supermarkets during the festive period) and added a tablespoon of Gran Marnier. To make up for the extra liquid i added a couple of extra tablespoons of icing sugar to get the right consistency. Then voila I piped on some little rosette things and added some little silver balls. My mother who is usually the chief taster in these matters said that these were possibly the best cupcakes I had ever made. So there we go! Why don't you give it a try and use up that mincemeat!