The Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook
by Jennifer Graham

The Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook which recently won the Australiian Gourmand Award for Best Corporate Cookbook, gives you step by step instructions on how to bake the perfect cupcake as well as direction in decorating them. Jennifer shares her favourite recipes with you and gives you an insight into the Crabapple Cupcake Bakery. The Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook is available at our Ferntree Gully and Prahran stores and all good bookstores. We can also post one out to you if it’s more convenient.

Read the book – then come and do a course!

Here's one of our favourite recipes from the book

Church Picnic Carrot Cupcakes
These carrot cakes with cream cheese frosting are healthy and delicious. They’re a great option if you’re looking for a cupcake that is not too sweet.

• 4 cups self-raising flour
• 2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 2 cups vegetable oil
• 2 2/3 cups soft brown sugar
• 6 eggs
• 5 cups peeled grated carrot, firmly packed
• 2 cups chopped walnuts
• 1 cup sultanas
• zest of 2 oranges
• zest of 2 lemons

Preheat oven to 180°c. Line a 12-hole muffin tray with cupcake papers.

Sift together the self-raising flour, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, beat the vegetable oil, brown sugar and eggs using an electric mixer on medium speed. Beat for about 5 minutes or until thick and creamy.

Add the grated carrot, chopped walnuts, sultanas and orange and lemon zest. Beat on low speed until combined.

Add the flour mixture and beat until thoroughly combined; do not over-beat as this will toughen the mixture.

Spoon mixture into cupcake papers, filling each about three-quarters full. Bake for 20 minutes or until a fine skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove the cupcakes from the trays immediately and cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes before frosting.

Decoration

¼ cup roasted walnuts
1 tablespoon soft brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 quantity Cream Cheese Frosting
24 yellow country-style sugar daisies

In a mortar and pestle, crush the roasted walnuts into fine crumbs. (Alternatively, you can place the walnuts into a plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin.) Add the crushed walnuts to a bowl with the sifted sugar and cinnamon and mix thoroughly.

Using a round-edged kitchen knife, apply the cream cheese frosting in a free-form swirl design. Top each cupcake with a country-style daisy and sprinkle with the crushed walnut mix.

Makes 24
Keeps 2 days
Freezes 2 months

Creating fashionable cupcakes since 2001