Butterscotch and Pear Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

Oh my hat! Do you ever have days when you've got so much to do that you don't know where to start? And I'm one of those delayed-gratification types, you know - you have to unwrap the chocolate before you can eat it?!
No, seriously - I have to get the yucky stuff out of the way first before I can move onto what I really want to do. And what I really want to do is bake, decorate and write about it! If I don't get my "fix" I start to get pretty ratty.
Measuring, pouring, beating, folding, rolling, piping....aaah, sanity!

The inspiration for this ensemble came from these double cream butterscotch and pear yoghurts from Woolworths.

The recipe I used was one passed on from Nikki Palmer of Once Upon a Cupcake ( to whom I owe a huge debt of gratitude for getting me inspired to get baking and decorating).

The recipe uses yoghurt and the yoghurt tub it came in as the measuring tool for the rest of the ingredients. It actually doesn't matter what size tub you use, because as long as you use that as your measuring standard, the rest of the ingredients will be in proportion. (But using a litre of yoghurt might be pushing the boundaries! So I'll amend that to - it doesn't matter what small-sized tub you use...). These particular yoghurts are 150g / 150 ml each.

The flavour variations, as you can imagine, are dependent on whatever yoghurt flavours you can find. The Woolworths (*and they don't sponsor me to say this!!) double cream range is really great for this purpose: lemon curd, strawberries and cream, blueberry cheesecake, and this one - which I saw for the first time just before I made these cupcakes:

Butterscotch and Pear Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing.

..and how about some made-from-scratch butterscotch sauce to pour even more yumminess over the combo...

Butterscotch Sauce

85g butter
30ml brown sugar
40ml golden syrup
40ml cream
1tsp vanilla extract ( or 8-10 drops of Vanilla Girl vanilla)

Melt the butter, syrup and sugar together in a saucepan. Stir constantly  until all the sugar granules have melted.
Add the cream and vanilla. Mix well.
Boil for 3 minutes.
Stir occasionally.

Don't let the sauce boil for too long - this will make it stiff and sticky, and then you'll just have to dig it out with a spoon and eat it like toffee. Hmmm, maybe not such a big problem. Ok, focus...

Allow to cool before pouring onto cream cheese frosting. (If you've refrigerated it, just soften the sauce by heating in the microwave for a few seconds.)

Cream cheese icing (enough for 24 cupcakes, halve it for 12)

2 x 250g tubs cream cheese, chilled (the dense variety - like Woolworths **, or Lancewood brand)
200g butter at room temp
1 1/4 cup icing sugar, sifted
Vanilla extract

Beat together icing sugar and butter until smooth.
Add cream cheese and vanilla and beat until mixed. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes.


Butterscotch & Pear Yoghurt cupcakes (makes 24)

Use the yoghurt tub to measure the ingredients

2 tubs yoghurt (now rinse and dry 1 of these tubs to use to measure the dry ingredients)
1 tub oil
2 tubs sugar
Vanilla extract 1tsp, or 8-19 drops if using Vanilla Girl
3 eggs
3 tubs self-raising flour


Pre-heat oven to 160'C
Line muffin tins with cupcake cases

Mix together first 4 ingredients, then add eggs 1 at a time. Beat well after each addition.
Sift in flour. Fold in until just incorporated.
Spoon into prepared tins (about 1/3 - 1/2 full)
Bake at 160'C for 20 min.
Remove from tins, and allow to cool before icing.

Okay, now back to some admin and chores before I can return here...

See you soon!

xxM