ABSOLUTELY FUCKING OBSESSED WITH THESE IMGONNA SCREAM AND POUND MY FISTS INTO THE TABLE (SO HARD THAT IT INDENTS) - Blog Posts

Telesphore Berry liqueur cupcakes

Officially, Telesphore's cupcakes should be snake-berry and swamp apricot, which are clearly unavailable to me, so I went with berries from a fresh batch of berry liqueur and some almond and vanilla extract. Which means these are going to take longer to perpare than usual, since you need at least two weeks to make the liqueur (the berries need to sit in sugar and ferment for about a week and then at least another week to macerate with the alcohol of your choice). I went with a fluffy cake that I overbaked, to get a nice, crispy exterior.

Recipe under the cut and on ao3

If you know how to make vișinată or afinată or any other kind of -ată, or a cordial, you're set. If you don't, I recommend looking up a recipe, but what I did was put a bunch of blueberries, redcurrants, strawberries and sliced apricots (get the pieces about the same size as the berries) in a 1L jar with about 200gr sugar, in layers, and leave them for about a week. Shake the jar every now and then, so the sugar dissolves. About a week later, you'll have some nice syrup and some fermented fruit - fill up the rest of the jar with vodka and leave it for at least another week. (You're supposed to leave it for three months for vișinată, for instance, but that would just make this whole recipe's prep time ridiculously long. You can let whatever's left from making the cupcakes age properly afterwards. A week is long enough for what we need here).

Now, for the cupcakes proper.

Ingredients:

4 eggs, separated

200gr sugar

1tsp vanilla essence

1/2tsp almond essence

150gr flour

1/4tsp salt

4tbsp oil

2tbsp water

a few drops lemon juice

200gr berries from the liqueur (this will include about a tablespoon of alcohol) (if you don't want to use alcohol, you can use fresh berries and apricots. don't worry about it)

Preheat oven (Gas Mark 4/180° C/350 F).

Separate the eggs

Mix the yolks with 2tbsp sugar, half the salt, the vanilla and almond essence

Beat the egg whites with the rest of the salt, a few drops of lemon juice and the rest of the sugar (add it gradually), until you get stiff peaks

Incorporate as much flour as you can into the yolk mixture

Gradually incorporate the whites into the mixture (switch to a fork or a whisk at this point)

Gradually incorporate the rest of the flour, one tablespoon at the time

Carefully incorporate the berries into the batter.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tray and bake for 30min

Leave them in the over for a couple more minutes after they're done, to make sure they won't deflate.

Let them cool in the tray for 1-2min after you take them out and then let them cool completely.

Frosting:

250gr mascarpone

3tbsp sugar

1tbsp berry liqueur

a few drops of blue and red food dye

Mix until stiff