Let's do the Hokey Pokey!!

We had such beautiful weather this weekend!! The sunshine brought everyone out to play, so the market was a real success.  Here's to an exciting Summer!


Not expecting the drastic increase in sales that there was, i under catered slightly and had to do quite a bit of baking when i got home on Saturday evening so that i would have enough to make Sunday worthwhile.  My Red Velvet cupcakes were pretty much sold out, so i had to make more cupcakes, but i wasn't in the mood for making Red Velvet (despite their popularity, i'm not a huge fan).  I wanted to make something fun and interesting, but not too off the wall that nobody would buy it.  Then, "lightbulb", i thought of these Hokey Pokey cupcakes that i made about 2 years ago.  So, a quick dash off to the convenience store to grab some Crunchie bars and Whispers and back to the kitchen to get cracking with the baking!

Here is the DELICIOUS recipe:
(an adaptation from Divine Cupcakes, Tamara Jane, New Holland, 2009)


Hokey Pokey Cupcakes
415 g cake flour
15 ml baking powder
230 g butter
230 g brown sugar
2.5 ml vanilla essence
4 eggs
125 ml sour cream
125 ml milk
2 large Cadbury's Crunchie bars


Sieve the flour and baking powder into a bowl and set aside.
In the bowl of your mixer, beat the butter until creamy.  Gradually add the sugar, scraping down the bowl between each addition.  The mixture should be light and fluffy - approximately 3 minutes.  Beat in the vanilla essence.  Add eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl and beating after each addition.


In a jug, combine the milk and sour cream.  On low speed, add the flour to the creamed butter-sugar-eggs mixture in four additions, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour.  Once everything is just combined, stir in the chopped Crunchie bars.


Divide the batter evenly between 24 cupcake cases and bake in an oven preheated to 180 ˚C for about 20 minutes.


Cool the cupcakes in the trays for about 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely before icing.


Rich Caramel Butter-cream Frosting
100 g butter
125 g treacle sugar
75 g golden syrup
125 ml cream
500 g icing sugar


Combine all ingredients, save the icing sugar, in a medium saucepan.  At medium heat, stir occasionally until the ingredients are well combined.  Turn up the heat and bring to the boil for 5 minutes (keep an eye on the pot, as this mixture can boil over quite quickly!).  Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature.


Sift half the icing sugar into your mixer.  At a low speed, gradually pour in the cooled caramel mixture until combined with the icing sugar.  Turn up the speed and beat for 2-3 minutes.  Add the rest of the icing sugar and beat for another 2-3 minutes.  Place in a piping bag and pipe onto your cupcakes as you wish.  The mixture might not seem as if it is of pipe-able consistency, but it does hold it's shape very well!  Place a little Whisper on top and sprinkle some chocolate shavings, gold glitter or crushed honeycomb over your cupcakes - C'est Beau!!!