Irn Bru cupcakes for Burns Night
Tonight is Burns Night – an occasion on which the birthday of Scotland’s most famous poet, Robert ‘Rabbie’ Burns, is commemorated. A traditional Burns Night supper usually involves scoffing a haggis, neeps and tatties. I didn’t really think that a Haggis cake would prove too popular, so instead I decided to concoct some Irn Bru-based goods instead.
I’ve loved Irn Bru ever since my Glaswegian grandad used to buy it for me and my brother as kids. If you’re not familiar with this tasty beverage, it’s a bright orange fizzy drink from Scotland. As well as being popular with sweet-toothed kids, it’s also well known as an effective hangover cure, probably due to the preposterous levels of sugar and caffeine that it contains. And so, without further ado, here’s my recipe for Irn Bru cupcakes. They go particularly well with a wee dram of whisky.
What’ll you need:
For the cakes:
125g plain flour (sieved)
125g caster sugar
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1 egg
125ml buttermilk (or regular milk with a squirt of lemon juice)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
125g unsalted butter
85ml Irn Bru
For the icing:
110g icing sugar (sieved)
50g unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
Makes 12 cupcakes
What to do:
First pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C/160 degrees C (fan oven)/Gas mark 4, then line a cupcake tin with cases. So far, so easy. Now get yourself a large bowl and mix together the flour, sugar, bicarb, baking powder and salt. Next get a pan and gently heat the butter and Irn Bru on the hob until the butter has melted, then remove from the heat.
Next, get your buttermilk ready in a measuring jug. If you can’t find, or don’t have any buttermilk, use regular milk instead, add a squirt of lemon juice and leave for five minutes. Beat the egg and vanilla extract into the milk. Once you’ve done that, add the butter mixture and the egg mixture to the dry ingrediants and combine with a wooden spoon. I also added some orange food colouring paste at this point to enhance the colour, but it’s not essential. Now spoon the mixture into the cases, dividing it evenly between all 12.
Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. All ovens vary, so you might want to check on the cakes after ten minutes (without opening the oven door). They should be ready once they’ve risen and are firm but slightly springy to touch. If you want, you can double-check by inserting a skewer or cocktail stick into the centre of one of the cakes. If it comes out clean, they’re ready, if it’s covered in wet cake mixture, then they need longer. Once done, take the pan out of the oven and leave to stand for five minutes. After that, transfer the cakes to a cooling rack.
Once the cakes are completely cooled, crack on with the icing. Using a fork, combine the (sieved) icing sugar with the butter in a bowl. If you want to, add the vanilla extract. Then either spread the icing on with a palette knife or pipe it on and add whatever sprinkles or decorations you see fit.
25/01/2011 at 10:34 am
I am so making these it’s not even funny. Irn Bru is for winners!
25/01/2011 at 10:45 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Lorraine Jones, Libby. Libby said: Need something sweet to eat after the Burns Night haggis? Try my recipe for Irn Bru cupcakes http://tinyurl.com/4mq7e52 [...]
25/01/2011 at 12:02 pm
A recipe in grams at last !! I’ve been searching for one since ages. Thank you for sharing, these look yummy
25/01/2011 at 2:18 pm
I can’t believe how tasty these look and sound! The little blue straws are inspired stuff, Libs.
30/01/2011 at 7:44 pm
cupcake What blog platform are you using? I’ve been looking for a new one, and this seems much cleaner then wordpress.Sent on my BlackBerry® from Vodafone
31/01/2011 at 9:47 am
Hi, this is WordPress.com! I use the Black-LetterHead theme
04/03/2011 at 10:44 am
Hi! Nice site ….)
20/04/2011 at 5:03 pm
This is literally the greatest thing I have ever seen.
Good lord I love my Scottish roots.
21/04/2011 at 11:33 am
Thanks! Irn Bru rules.
21/04/2011 at 12:09 pm
If someone can find me a tastier drink than Irn Bru, the world will implode. This is a fact.
15/07/2011 at 3:50 pm
Just made these today. DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME! Unfortunately the recipe is terrible. You end up pouring liquid into cupcake cases and then the cakes completely collapse when they come out the oven and are nothing like sponge.
17/07/2011 at 4:59 pm
Hi Colin – sorry you feel that way. I didn’t have any problems when making this recipe. The cupcake batter is quite runny, compared to conventional cupcake mixture, but that’s the nature of cooking with soft drinks. I don’t think it would actually be possible to make a genuine sponge cake using a sugary drink in the ingredients! You can always thicken it up a bit by adding some more flour.
17/07/2011 at 5:59 pm
totally agree Colin – was SO looking forward to making these but they were a complete disaster. At least I had the rest of the bottle of Irn Bru to drink!!
15/07/2011 at 7:13 pm
i am so making these this weekend!!!!
18/07/2011 at 11:00 pm
they do sound fun to make but i not sure, i think my husband may eat them even if they didn’t come out right but i shall give it a go very soon.
21/07/2011 at 10:45 pm
Yeah, I also found that the mix was way too liquid. It’s a great idea though, so I’m gonna tweak it and try again tomorrow
22/07/2011 at 11:24 am
Thanks Jen – as I said, I don’t think it’s possible to avoid the mixture being a bit thinner than conventional sponge mix, but if you do come up with a winning formula then please do let us know!
22/07/2011 at 8:41 pm
i’m going to have a go at making irn bru cupcakes with a different cake recipe. but i won’t forget the most important ingredient
23/07/2011 at 8:51 am
Brilliant – let us know how you get on!
19/10/2011 at 7:07 pm
Make your usual cup cake receipe and then when cool use a flavour injector and inject Irn Bru into the sponge (but don’t over do it) it works a treat………………phenomenal…………………
31/12/2011 at 10:14 am
[...] Irn Bru cupcakes for Burns Night: [...]
11/05/2012 at 3:21 pm
I would suggest adding 10 minutes to the cooking time. The cakes were not cooked after 20 minutes. The basic Victoria sponge recipe with milk replaced by irn bru may work better.
10/06/2012 at 9:41 pm
I kant wait to try these my boyfriend is mad about irn bru he even made me buy him an irn bru jacket he will love this recipe
12/08/2012 at 11:43 am
They sound awesome – I’ve made other soft drink flavour cupcakes but Iron Bru is a new one to try!
15/11/2012 at 4:33 am
i boiled a 2l bottle of bru until there was only a couple hundred mls of syrup left. even then there wasnt much of an irn bru taste though they were still delicious and almost sticky
16/11/2012 at 5:34 pm
Recipe sounds great will definitely try, does anyone know of or have a recipe for Irn Bru Fudge? have heard its really good!
03/12/2012 at 4:15 pm
Great to find an Irn Bru cup cake some where else as I thought it was only me that made them although my recipe is so different I’m only a work from home cake company so no competition : ) you can have a look at http://www.bitemecakeco.co.uk and if you really want there is a Facebook link on that site! Based in Scotland Irn Bru cup cakes are a must haha! Phenomenal.