So, I just discovered Wensleydale cheese with cranberries, and I was not expecting how delicious the creaminess of the cheese is when mixed with the sharp taste of the cranberries (look at me, I’m turning into a ‘foodie’ – I have always been a ‘cakie’ but never a ‘foodie’). Getting back to the cheese, I was thinking of a way I could incorporate these flavours into a cake and the idea of cranberry and cream cheese, really works.

Here is how you make my delicious cranberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting:

Ingredients for the cakes;

200g Caster Sugar

200g Plain Flour

200g Butter (at room temperature)

4 Free Range, Organic Eggs

100g Dried Cranberries

1 ½ tsp Baking Powder

1 ½ tsp Pure Vanilla Extract

Pinch of Salt

Ingredients for the cream cheese icing;

500g Icing Sugar

250g Full Fat Cream Cheese (I like to use Philadelphia)

1 ½ tsp Pure Vanilla Extract

Cherry Red Gel Food Colouring

Method;

Set your oven to 180C and line a cupcake baking tray with paper cupcake liners.

In a clean, dry bowl add your butter at room temperature and beat continuously for 5 minutes until the colour turns from a yellow colour to a pale cream colour.

Once the butter has becomes fully aerated, add in your sugar and mix well until the texture becomes light and fluffy.

Add in your eggs one at a time, ensuring that the egg has been well incorporated before the next addition.

Once all of your eggs have been mixed in, add in your pure vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl add your flour, baking powder, salt and stir with a spoon.

Add your dry, flour mixture to your wet egg mixture 1/3 at a time, until all of your ingredients have been added together.

Finally, add in your dried cranberries and mix well until they have been evenly spread throughout the mixture.

Spoon your cupcake batter into your paper cupcake liners until they are 2/3 full. This will leave enough space for the cupcakes to rise in the oven without any overspill.

Place your cupcakes in the oven and leave to bake for 20 minutes, or until the cupcakes spring back to the touch.

Another way to check if your cupcakes are ready is to insert a skewer into the center of each cupcake and if you can remove it clean from the cupcake, then your cupcakes are ready to come out of the oven.

Once your cupcakes are out of the oven, leave to stand in their cupcake baking tin for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, remove your cupcakes from their baking tin and leave to cool fully on a wire cooling rack.

Whilst your cupcakes are cooling, now is the perfect time to whip up your cream cheese icing.

In a clean dry bowl add your full fat cream cheese and beat until smooth.

Once the cream cheese has become smooth, add your icing sugar 1 tablespoon at a time, ensuring that each tablespoon of icing sugar has been well incorporated before the next addition. Be very careful not to add too much icing sugar at only one time as you may end up with icing sugar everywhere other than in your cream cheese icing.

After all of your icing sugar has been added to the cream cheese, add in your pure vanilla extract and mix again.

I like to divide the mixture in half and using a tooth pick, add in the food colouring gel, you can add as much or as little as you would like, depending on what colour you would like. I like to use a cranberry red colour to emphasise the fact that there are cranberries in the cake base.

Pipe your cream cheese icing onto your cupcakes and serve fresh. These cupcakes will last for up to 3 days.

Hope you have enjoyed my delicious recipe and please do not forget to share.

Lots of love,

Jennifer