Saffron and Cranberry Cupcakes
These festive gluten free saffron & cranberry cupcakes are topped with a rich vanilla cream cheese frosting and have a sprinkling of pistachios.
Servings: 8 cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 100g (¼ cup + 3 tbsp) butter
- ½ gram (⅛ tsp) ground saffron
- 1 egg
- 80g (⅓ cup) sugar
- 75ml (⅓ cup) milk
- 120g (1 cup) spelt flour (see note 1)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 80g (2¾ oz) dried cranberries
Frosting
- 200g (7 oz) cream cheese
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 80g (⅘ cup) icing sugar
Decoration
- chopped pistachios and dried cranberries (optional)
Instructions
Cupcakes:
- Pre-heat the oven to 175ºC (350ºF).
- Line a muffin tin with cupcake cases.
- Melt the butter and then stir in the saffron. Set to one side.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the egg and sugar together until nice and fluffy.
- Add the butter/saffron and milk and stir just until combined.
- In another bowl, combine the flour and baking powder. Then, stir into the wet ingredients.
- Lastly, gently stir through the cranberries until evenly dispersed.
- Split evenly between eight cupcakes cases.
- Bake for around 16-18 minutes, just until an inserted skewer comes out almost clean. Let the cupcakes cool completely.
Frosting:
- Beat the cream cheese together with the vanilla and half of the icing sugar. Continue to add as much icing sugar as you need to achieve a very thick frosting.
- Spread over the top of each cupcake (or pipe if you prefer).
- Finish iff with a sprinkling of pistachios and cranberries (optional). Enjoy!
Notes
- I have made these cupcakes with both gluten free and spelt flour. Alternatively, you could use regular flour (just use the same amount of flour for all three).