Rhubarb and Custard Cup Cakes

I love Rhubarb and Custard and I love cup cakes. So why not smush them together to make a delightful combination. I saw them made once on the television but changed a few things as I felt adding a buttercream to the top, would make them too sweet so replaced it with cream. I also added some of the compote to the batter mix. I am not sure I added enough so next time I would either just add more compote at the end when filling the cake or, add more to the batter. Feel free to make your own call on that.
I did a big batch but if you want to do 12 just halve the recipe.

Ingredients:

Cupcake Batter:

220g unsalted butter
500g golden caster sugar
4 large eggs
300g self-raising flour
250 plain flour
200ml semi skimmed milk
8 tbsp rhubarb compote

Custard:

2 large egg yolks
50g caster sugar
15g cornflour
150ml semi skimmed milk
150ml double cream
1 vanilla pod

Topping:

600ml Double cream whipped
Rhubarb compote

Equipment:

Foil cupcake cases (The paper ones tend to draw out the moisture from the sponge).
Cupcake/muffin tin
Piping bag with a star attachment
Radio - Ideally playing something like Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond.

Makes 24 Cupcakes


Preheat the oven to gas mark 4. Cream the sugar and butter together until fluffy using an electric whisk/mixer, whatever you have. Then add one egg at a time, beating between each one.
In another bowl combine the two flours making sure to sieve them. Put about a third of the flour in the creamed mixture, beat it till combined.
Mix the rhubarb compote with the milk and add a third of it to the creamed mixture and again beat till combined. Keep going until all the milk and flour is well mixed with the sugar and butter.
Put your cupcake cases in your baking tin and then fill each one about two thirds full. I used a piping bag but you can use a spoon.

Place in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Check on them after 20 minutes and turn them in the oven. They are done when they have browned on top and a toothpick comes out clean. When cooled for a couple of minutes transfer to your cooling rack.

While they are cooling make the custard. Mix the milk and cream in a pan and split the vanilla pod down the middle to get all the seeds out. Put those and the skin into the pan. Place on a low heat till it becomes warm but not boiling.
In another bowl mix the egg yolks and caster sugar. Keep beating till it is light in colour and then mix in the corn flour. Once that is combined, take the vanilla pod skin out of the pan and pour into the egg mixture. Make sure you keep whisking continually while it goes in and till just after. Now pour it back in the saucepan over a low heat. Gently stir it for 3-4 minutes until it thickens. Take off the heat and leave to cool.

For the cream, just pour it into a bowl and whip till its nice and thick and then transfer to a piping bag. I tried to be all fancy and put some of the compote in the piping bag so when I piped it with the cream, it would look magical....this did not happen. Oh well.

Now for the assembly. Make a hole in each cake using a spoon. You want the hole to be big enough to put both the compote and custard in. When you have made your holes, place the compote in about half way and then fill the rest of it with the custard. Once done all you need to do is pipe your cream on top. Make it look however you wish. I used a star piping attachment.

Now eat, eat as many as you want because...well, why not?