Redcurrant and Lime Cupcakes

 I have very generous neighbours who over the course of last summer gave me buckets and buckets of redcurrants from their bushes. Having made redcurrant jelly and redcurrant and port jelly I decided to freeze the leftovers.

I finally decided (because I needed the room in my freezer) to make some redcurrant cupcakes so out the frozen berries came. I added the lime because,well I love lime so why not? I also used the redcurrant juice in the icing/frosting which made it a lovely colour and for sprinkles sugar with green food colour in as I am yet to find “safe” sprinkles.

I put the redcurrants in a pan with a little water then cooked them down until soft and pushed through a sieve to get as much juice as possible. I then saved the juice for the recipe…. I reckon you could use shop bought cranberry juice in this recipe instead if you wanted.

Redcurrant and Lime Cupcakes

Wet mix

• 125ml rice/soya milk
• grated zest from 1 lime
• juice of 1/2 a lime
• 125ml redcurrant juice
• 80 ml sunflower oil
• 175g/6 oz sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla sugar / 2 tsp vanilla extract

Dry mix

• 200g/ 7 oz self raising flour
• 2 tbsp cornflour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

Set oven to 170 c.

Pour the wet mix into the dry mix and gently stir until combined. Spoon/pour (mine was quite liquid-like) into cupcake cases almost to the top. Bake for about 20 minutes or until slightly browned. Leave to cool completely before frosting.

Redcurrant Icing

• 150g icing sugar
• 1 tbsp vegan butter, melted but cooled slightly
• 125ml redcurrant juice

Sieve the icing sugar into a bowl, add the butter then gradually add the redcurrant juice stirring between each edition until you get a thick but spreadable icing.

For the coloured sugar it’s pretty simple. You put a little sugar into a bowl and add a drop or two of colouring then stir until the sugar is evenly coated. Then sprinkle away.

 The boys enjoyed these, Levi got really sticky. A great use for my frozen berries methinks.