Fruit Tart Cupcakes

If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you know that our weather is a total crapshoot. I'm talkin' clear-blue-and-sunny-skies-in-the-middle-of-a-blizzard type of crapshoot (and, yes, I've seen it happen). This year, our calendars will say that summer starts on the 21st. Up here in good ol' Cascadia, however, we're not counting on it. We know that rain will most definitely get in the way. This is all very frustrating when you come from the land of heat and humidity - when I turned to June on the calendar, I always expected to be wearing my skirts and flip flops on day one. Over the years, I've slowly come to terms with the fact that, in Vancouver, this will never be the case.

We have had a few small bright spots here in Vancouver. At the moment, the sun is streaming through my window, hitting me directly in the forehead. How nice. How lovely. But, both you and I know that this won't last long. It looks like it's up to C&C to bring a little summer into our rainy days. And what better way to do that than with cupcakes?



Fruit tarts are a favourite of ours. It's a treat that we always indulge in while sitting outside the Granville Island Public Market, watching the little English Bay taxi boats tow tourists around. The fresh Okanagan fruit on top tastes like summer ought to. These cupcakes mirror the same feeling - it uses an almond cake, vanilla custard, and a light apricot glaze to make you feel like you've just sunk your teeth into the fruity representation of summer.

So if you live above the N45° line, try to baking something light and fruity this summer when it's pouring outside. And if you do, leave us a message with the recipe. Maybe together we can trick our brains into thinking it's 35°C out. Lets not let the inevitable torrential downpour dampen our spirits. And yes . . . pun intended.



Fruit Tart Cupcakes
Makes 12

3/4 cups + 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
3 eggs
1 cup self rising flour (or 1 cup flour (minus 2 tsp), 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 salt)
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup milk mixed with 1/4 cup yogurt
1/2 thick custard (I just bought a custard powder and made it according to the directions)
Fruit for decoration (I would recommend kiwi, strawberries, peaches, grapes)
1/2 apricot jam

1)Preheat oven to 350C

2)In a small bowl sift the flours together well. In a separate medium bowl, beat butter, sugar and vanilla and almond extracts together until super light and creamy (I'm talking about a full 5+ minutes with an electric mixer here). Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after every addition. Fold in the flours alternately with the milk/yogurt mixture. Note: since all yogurts are different (I use very watery skim yogurt), you may have to use more milk or a couple Tbsp more yogurt.

3)Divide the mix evenly among 12 baking cups. Bake for 15 minutes (or until your tester comes out clean). Let cool.

4)Cut out the centre of each cake (leave about a 1 cm border). Fill each cake hole (hehehe) with custard. Cut the fruit and arrange over the custard. Heat your jam until really runny, and brush it over your fruit/tops of your cakes.



the fruit on top makes it healthy . . . right?