Malva Pudding Cupcakes with Amarula Mascarpone Icing

When I saw a recipe for Malva pudding in the Taste Magazine, I was reminded of the delicious-ness of that dish.
It is a perfect, sweet and sticky winter comfort food.
But I had no excuse to make a pudding (ja, I know - do you really need an excuse to make pudding?!) and lots of reasons to make cupcakes. So hey presto! the idea for  Malva Pudding Cupcakes was born. Well, actually I thought I was being very clever and original, but apparently not - according to Google. However, I did also come up with the idea of Amarula Mascarpone Icing - which hasn't made an appearance on the web, yet. And so I gleefully claim that one as all my own invention!
Yes, of course I will share it with you :o)

As it turns out, I misplaced that Taste magazine, so instead I used Sarah Graham's recipe for the pudding; woolworths.co.za recipe for the sauce, and the icing - can I say it again?! - is an original (take that, Google!)

Malva Pudding Cupcakes
recipe from www.you.co.za/sarah-graham-blogs-for-us/

Preheat oven to 180'C
Line a 12 hole muffin pan with cupcake cases.

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1tsp baking soda
Pinch salt

1tsp vinegar or lemon juice
1tbs melted butter
1tbs smooth apricot jam
1 cup milk

1 egg
1 cup sugar

Sift the flour, salt and baking soda together in a bowl.

Use an electric mixer to cream together the sugar and egg. Then mix in the jam, butter and lemon juice/ vinegar.

Alternate adding the dry ingredients and milk. Begin and end with the dry ingredients.

Mix well.

Divide batter evenly between cupcake cases.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until their tops are just starting to turn golden.
Remove from oven - and immediately pour a little sauce over each cupcake.

Sauce:
recipe from www.woolworths.co.za

1/3 cup cream
2 tbs butter
2tbs sugar
3tbs water
Melt all the sauce ingredients together, then pour over cupcakes when they come out the oven.

(Note - this makes much less sauce than what you would use for a whole malva pudding - if you want to make enough sauce for a pudding, then use
1 cup cream
115g butter
100g sugar
1/2 cup hot water).

Amarula Mascarpone Icing
Recipe by Tea, Cake & Create

250g mascarpone - from fridge
125 ml (1/2 cup) whipping cream - from fridge
1/2 cup icing sugar
30 - 40 ml Amarula (depending on how boozy you want it!)

Place all the ingredients into the bowl of a mixer**, beat with the whisk attachment until it reaches piping consistency.

**The trick with making any whipped cream icing is to use a chilled bowl and whisk. They should be placed in the freezer for at least 20minutes before using.
I'd left mine in for about half an hour - it was so cold when I took it out, that my fingers stuck to it! But the icing whipped up to the right consistency in less than a minute. And it was definitely worth a few chilblains!

Pipe icing onto the cupcakes once they are cool.


Enjoy!

xxM