At Juniper Cakery there isn’t a dessert we don’t enjoy and the humble British custard tart is a sweet that really doesn’t last long in our office! Needless to say we couldn’t wait to experiment in the kitchen and whip up a batch of custard tart inspired cupcakes. Our take on this British classic is a lovely light vanilla bean cupcake filled with custard, frosted with creamy white chocolate and custard buttercream finished with a soft sprinkling of ground nutmeg! This dessert is perfect as a light afternoon sweet with a pot of fragrant Earl Grey tea and a splash of milk.
Vanilla Nutmeg Cupcake Recipe (Makes approx. 12)
226g self raising flour
226g caster sugar
226g butter
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 bourbon vanilla pod
Cream your butter in a mixer then add the caster sugar. Add in the flour along with half of the eggs for around one minute. Add the seeds inside your vanilla pod along with your nutmeg. Once half of the eggs are combined add the remaining and mix for about 5 minutes.
Separate the batter into each cupcake case until 2/3 full and place on the top shelf of a pre-heated oven at Gas Mark 3/325F/170C. Bake for around 20/25 minutes.
Custard Buttercream Recipe
250g butter
250g icing sugar
1 bourbon vanilla pod
3 tablespoons custard powder
Ground nutmeg to dust
70g melted white chocolate buttons or callets
Add half of the butter diced into pieces. Cream the butter in a mixer then gradually add icing sugar and the remaining butter (cut into cubes) until you get a smooth, creamy texture. Melt your white chocolate buttons or callets in a bowl sat in hot water. Once melted add to your buttercream and gently mix along with your custard powder. Finally, add the seeds from your vanilla pod to taste.
All you need to do now is frost your fragrant cupcakes with your custard buttercream and softly dust with a sprinkling of ground nutmeg! Enjoy!
For us Yanks, what is custard powder?
Hi Melanie,
Custard in the UK is generally one type of filling or dessert sauce (which can be made from scratch or using an instant powder), but we do believe that in the US (and Europe) there are three types including Crème Angalis (thin and runny), Pastry Cream (thick in consistency) to perhaps Bavarian Cream/Crème (Pastry Cream and whipped cream) which is a little more lavish in terms of taste and fat content.
We hope this helps!
Is it definitely 100 g of custard powder to 1 tablespoon of boiling water?
Hi Dawn, Apologies for the typo! We had typed up part of our experiment recipe, but all is amended now. It is in fact 3 tablespoons (or more if you desire a strong custard taste) of custard powder. The addition of the melted white chocolate takes away the otherwise powdery texture the custard mix creates. If you decide to leave out the white chocolate you would need to mix up a small and concentrated amount of custard (from powder to ‘wet’) in order to avoid a powdery texture.
We hope this helps!