honey joy cupcake
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I do love a bit of retro, it makes people happy, it makes me happy :) and can anything be more retro that breakfast cereal? Hmmm, now I've said that you can probably think of examples that are more retro but ssshhh that will spoil the segue into today's story.
Okay, cereal/childhood, childhood/cereal, those TV advertisements with Tigers, Monkey's, Roosters and Toucans to boot... little toys and collectibles hidden in the colourful boxes and those cute individual cereal packs that you always wanted your mum to buy you.
That's probably a slightly glossed over version of childhood memories, no soggy flakes floating in milk today but rather a small vanilla cupcake, brushed with warmed honey, swirl of milky white chocolate ganache and topped with a mini honey joy.
Honey Joys are a "side of the box" corn flake recipe that has been popular with Australian kids for generations. The Aussie alternative to the marshmallow rice krispies treats in the US perhaps?
Simple and inexpensive to make, honey joys are usually baked in cupcake paper liners in a cupcake pan. Today I've used silicone half sphere baking pans to make mini honey joys, but a buttered mini cupcake pan would also be suitable.
silcone sphere baking pan, standard honey joy, baked mini honey joys
Honey Joys
Ingredients
- 4 cups corn flakes (breakfast cereal)
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 90g (3.17 OZ) butter or margarine
Method
Preheat oven to 150C - 302F (130C/266F fan)
Melt butter, sugar and honey together in a saucepan until frothy. Add corn flakes and mix well. Working quickly spoon into the holes of silicone pans or buttered mini cupcake pans. Bake in a slow oven 150°C for 10 minutes for silicone or 7 to 9 for minis. Cool. Store in a single layer.
Cake batter
Preheat oven to 180C/350F (160C/320F fan)
Ahhh, being a bit "Australian" sizing today because I've used smaller than standard cupcake but bigger than mini paper liners. Patty cake/Fairy cake sized... though I'm not really sure what the correct name for them is. You can use a mini cupcake tin and paper liners for a slightly small result.
Line two 12 cup trays with paper liners (the small patty/fairy cake size)
Ingredients
125g butter (4.4oz)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup (150g) castor sugar (superfine)
3 eggs
1½ cups (225g) *self-raising flour
¼ cup milk (60ml)
optional
1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons of honey warmed in microwave until runny
Method
Beat butter, extract, sugar, eggs, sifted flour & milk on low speed with an electric mixer until ingredients are just combined. Increase speed to medium & beat for 3 minutes until smooth and pale in colour.
Drop spoonfuls of mixture into the paper liners. Bake about 20 minutes for patty cake sized and 15 to 17 for mini cupcake size. The cakes will be lightly golden with a slight spring when the centers are gently touched.
Allow to cool in tins for 5 minutes removing to a wire rack. Brush tops of cakes with warm honey is using. Leave cakes to cool.
Ganache
Ingredients
250 grams (8.8 OZ) white chocolate (finely chopped)
125 mls (4.2 fluid OZ) cream
Method
Combine the chopped white chocolate and cream in a dry and heat proof bowl over simmering water. (Do not let the water touch the bowl).
Stir occasionally until both chocolate and cream are almost all combined, but you can still see a little chocolate unmelted.
Remove bowl from heat and stir until the chocolate and cream are fully combined.
Refrigerate until the ganache thickens and reaches piping consistency.
Stir the ganache and either fill your piping bag and pipe a donut shape on top of each cake with a large round piping tip or use a teaspoon to drop a spoonful of ganache in the center of each cake.
*Store any remaining ganache in the refrigerator.
Top each cupcake with a honey joy just before serving.
*can't find self-raising/rising flour where you are?
From the Australian Women's Weekly this easy conversion; To convert plain flour into self-raising flour, add two teaspoons of baking powder to each cup of plain flour. Adding one teaspoon of cream of tartar and half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda to one cup of plain flour gives the same result.
*left over ganache can be rolled into truffles or gently melted in the microwave for a white chocolate sauce.
Happy Baking :)
You might also be interested in chocolate scones
or Little Lime Lemon Lamingtons
I'd love to see on Facebook too.