＊ Spring & Fruitcake Cupcakes ＊

Spring for me means pretty flowers, an abundance of birds and bugs, raging hay fever, and unpredictable weather! I was down feeding the chickens at sunset last week, when I noticed our nectarine tree had blossomed already...without me knowing it! The blossoms were actually glowing in the sunset light, so I ran back up to the house to grab my sister and her camera so we could capture the beauty. There were so many more amazing blossom photos, it was hard to choose, perhaps I will share more soon.

Spring also means my Birthday is coming soon. I will be 25 this year, I feel the customary 'Oh no a quarter of my life is over and I haven't achieved half of what I should of by now' melt down will hit me soon.

I shouldn't deplore really, my Grandpa just turned 89! Woah! We celebrated with all the family together, we went out for a 'pub' lunch. Afterwards we came home and I served up fruitcake cupcakes that my Grandma had secretly requested me to make.
I have to say these were not the most pretty cupcakes I have ever made, but when we ate them, they tasted delicious, and filled me with nostalgic memories of eating Grandma's Christmas fruitcake, with sweet thick royal icing, during my time at my Grandparents place throughout summer holidays. Ahhh I love bouts of nostalgia...

Fruit Cake Cupcakes - Recipe from Cupcake Creations
Makes 12 Cupcakes

Ingredients

90gms Butter - softened
110gms Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tblsp Orange Marmalade
2 tblsp Sweet Sherry (Brandy would work well too)
500g Mixed Dried Fruit
100g Plain Flour
2 tblsp Self-raising Flour
1 tsp Mixed Spice

2 tblsp sweet sherry - extra (I would add a couple more next time!)

Method
This is where I differed from the recipe a bit. Before I began, I soaked my mixed fruit with the marmalade and sherry overnight, a la how G-ma and G-pa have always done it!

1. Preheat oven to 160C/320F.
2. Line a 12 cupcake pan with heavy duty liners, the foil ones are ideal.
3. Using an electric beater, beat butter, sugar and eggs until just combined.
4. Stir in mixed fruit, sherry and marmalade mixture, until well combined.
5. Sift in flours and spice. Mix well.
6. Spoon mixture evenly into 12 cupcake liners. Don't worry if they seem full, this mixture does not rise much at all, take a moment to smooth the mixture over the top with a butter knife.
7. Bake for 50 minutes, keep an eye on them, they make take longer in some ovens.
8. Remove from oven and immediately pour the extra tablespoons of sweet sherry over each cupcake. Allow cakes to cool completely in pan before removing them.
9. Top with dusted icing sugar, or cut out circles of royal icing and top with half a cherry.

I would like to start introducing you to our 4 kitties, this week... please meet Honeybun...

Honeybun has appeared previously in a post about Peachy-keen/Bananarama cupcakes!

Honeybun came to us first out of the four. We had been in contact with our vet, looking to adopt a cat in need. They introduced us to Honeybun, a gorgeous tortoise shell cat, who was on strong stress medication from living with a giant, and I mean GIANT labrador called Barney.

We took her into our home, and she soon settled in, and was able to come off the medications. Honeybun loves sleeping in bushes in the garden, and is always always the last to finish her dinner, I think she actually likes to taste her food rather than inhale it, her special favorite treats are tiny tastes of milk, and bits of Vegemite on toast! Honeybun rarely looses her collar, and she is often disgruntled with the boy kitties, I like to think she is the prim and proper lady of the pack.

This sweet picture is by my sister Caitlin.