The mini series: date cupcakes

My colleagues got me a mini cupcake mold for my birthday and it was slightly bended, meaning it wouldn’t sit straight on my baking rack. On the package it said 5 year warrantee so I emailed the company explaining the situation and asking them how I could qualify for that. They came back to me saying that the warrantee was only for the anti sticking surface but if I would give them my address they will send me a free replacement. Here in Holland we are not use to this kind of service and I wasn’t sure if they would send it to me, but they did. Today my new cupcake mold arrived by post! And this one was straight! I had another look at the bended one and tried to bend it straight and it went. So now I have 2 mini cupcake molds =) Lucky me. These are slightly bigger then the purple one I use for my mini series, but they’ll do.

I’ve been thinking of using the dried dates I have sitting in a jar for a while now. When I first bought them they were nice and sticky but now they kinda dried out a bit. Not so good for eating, but great for baking so that’s what I did. Tonight, right after dinner and watching the finals of Australian’s Junior Masterchef (those damn kids are TALENTED!) I whisked this recipe together.

For about 24 mini cupcakes and one mini pound cake mold I used:
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 18 dried dates
- ½ cup of water
- 1 small cup of espresso coffee
- 150 grams of butter (about 2,5 cm)
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 bag of vanilla sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup of flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda

I put about 18 dates in one pot.

And use a scissor to cut them in little pieces.

Then I added the lemon juice and enough water to cover the dates. I let it boil for a bit and added some more water when needed. I wanted it to fall apart.

There were still some small pieces left, but that’s ok the main part is mashed. To this I added the espresso coffee and let it to cool for a bit.

In a big bowl I put the room temperature butter, the sugar, vanilla sugar and egg and creamed it all together till it was smooth and the sugar dissolved.  Then the cup of flour, the salt en baking soda went in.

By this time the date mixture cooled down a bit and was ready to be added.

I mixed it for a couple of minutes till everything was incorporated.

Before I start filling the molds I preheated the oven on 180C degrees.

This very useful mini ice scoop was also a gift from my colleagues. One scoop was enough to fill one mold. I should’ve bought one earlier, would’ve saved me lots of time.  

Since there was some batter left I filled this pound cake mold. 

I set the timer on 30 minutes but took them out after 22 minutes, except for the cake mold. Since this had more batter I let it bake a bit longer. The cakes rose beautifully.

This is why you need to be patience and let it cool off for a bit before you try to get them out. The first mold is from the batch I took out when they got straight out of the oven. The second mold is from a couple of minutes later. Needless to say that it sometimes is better to be patience.

The cupcakes were better then expected. You see how fluffy and moist they are? After tasting one I thought why not dress them up a bit with some caramel sauce.

I put about 100 grams of butter, 2 tablespoons of sugar and 5 table spoons of whipping cream in a pot and brought it to a boil. It took quite some time for the mixture to brown and I notice that it helps to add a bit of water while the mixture cooks. Slowly but surely I go the slightly golden brown caramel.

I drizzled some caramel on top. By the time I almost finished all the cupcakes the caramel wasn’t as runny as needed so I headed it up for a little and then finished all the cakes.  

This recipe is a keeper and I am happy my little “experiment” worked well. Both my sister and my hubby loved the cakes and they were surprised it had dates in it. I’m telling you: anything baked in a mini mold would taste good!