Brûlée crusted Fig cupcake

Brûlée crusted Fig cupcake 

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Fresh fruit brulee crust ... yummm!

Not too exciting if you are located in the UK but for Australian's "Yay" a range of Billingtons Sugar is available from Woolworths (at least in Victoria). The range includes the much coveted muscovado and golden caster sugar. 

Now you can bake cake, desserts and the like from your Nigella, Jamie, Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood books without substituting ingredients. Plus the golden caster sugar makes for a fabulous brûlée crust when sprinkled on cut fresh fruit and given a quick torch. 

Sprinkling cut fruit with *golden caster sugar and "torching" makes for a quick dessert cupcake topper.

Whether from a kitchenware store or the hardware shop, mini blow torches make quick work of melting sugar into a caramel crust.

Very ripe fruits only hold the brûlée for a few minutes before they start to dissolve into a lovely caramelly drizzle... perfect topper for dessert cupcakes, cheesecake or even a pavlova. My stepson (when he was old enough to wield a torch) loved making brûlée crusted banana slices to serve with vanilla ice-cream. Brûlée fruit is wickedly good on cornflakes, your porridge or morning yoghurt. 

Today I used fresh figs, but halves of small ripe plums, or apricots, wedges of fresh peach, banana slices, orange segments and the like make a fab quick dessert. Cupcake bases that work well include almond sponge, vanilla sponge or butter cake, spiced and nut flour cakes. Ummm, something creamy for the topping is good, whipped cream, cream fraiche, a yoghurt whipped cream combo or perhaps your favourite butter cream. 

Have your cupcakes ready and just before serving lay you pieces of fruit cut side up on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with golden caster sugar, liberally (but don't go crazy!!). Light your torch, pass the flame over the sugared fruit pieces (almost like spray painting, even sweeps) holding the tip of your torch 7-8 cm (around 3 inches) away from the sugar. You sugar will start to bubble and caramelise. All done,  just wait a few minutes before handling, sugar drips burn! Enjoy. 

Happy Baking :)

* can't get golden caster sugar? raw or white caster sugar work well or just plain white sugar in a pinch.  

Ready to stretch your sugar skills? How about a toffee dipped hazelnuts or banana chips how to...

Want to know more about brown sugar? Updated chart here 

Brown Sugar

1. brown sugar 2. dark brown sugar 3. coffee sugar 4. raw sugar 5. muscovado sugar 6. demerara sugar

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Brown sugar adds a wonderful richness, colour & depth of flavour to your baked goods. The most common type of brown sugar is produced with the addition of treacle (molasses) to refined white sugar, making it easy to whip up a batch of your own brown sugar if you find yourself without.

To make brown sugar; for every cup of white sugar add 1 1/2 tablespoons of treacle (molasses) process in a food processor until thoroughly mixed and the sugar takes on the appearance of store bought brown sugar. Use and store as per normal.

treacle + white sugar = brown sugar

To make dark brown sugar; for every cup of white sugar add 3 tablespoons of treacle (molasses) process in a food processor until thoroughly mixed and the sugar takes on the appearance of store bought dark brown sugar. Use and store as per normal.

Hard sugar; Brown sugar can lose moisture and become very hard, to soften a small amount of brown sugar add a wedge of apple or partial slice of bread to your sugar jar, seal the jar and leave overnight the sugar will adsorb the moisture from the apple/bread and become soft again. Remove the apple/bread & discard. Repeat when necessary. 

seal a wedge of apple with your brown sugar overnight to soften your sugar

To soften larger quantities of sugar, cover with several pieces of damp paper towel, seal tightly and leave overnight. Remove paper towel the next morning.

For the "oh my god the sugar is hard as a rock and I need it NOW!!" moments; put the sugar in a microwave save bowl, cover with a single sheet of damp paper towel, seal the bowl with a piece of plastic wrap and microwave on high for 10 seconds, repeat until the sugar is soft enough to fluff with a fork. Use immediately.

Muscovado sugar; A very moist minimally refined sugar with a strong distinctive flavour & aroma. Are you a Nigella fan in Australia and can't find muscovado sugar? You can in a pinch substitute brown sugar (you may need to add a little more fluid to your recipe too) but you are missing out on a real flavour treat. You can buy it online in Oz at The Essential Ingredient.  

Golden caster sugar is another ingredient you will come across in cookbooks particularly from the UK, in Australia it's is sold as "raw caster sugar". The raw standard and caster sugar are partially refined cane sugar and impart a slight honey note/colour to your baked goods.

golden caster sugar sold as raw caster sugar in Australia

Demerara sugar; another "raw" sugar this partially refined sparkly sugar is lovely in coffee & imparts a crunchy sugar finish to the top of fruit pies, shortbreads etc. 

Coffee sugar crystals; a large granule sugar to use as the name implies... "in your coffee". Also can be used for topping baked goods and desserts where a crunchy finish is desired.

Happy Baking :)

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Update on Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at 10:47AM by The Lone Baker

New online (or instore) supplier of light and dark Muscovado Sugar in Australia... The Essentential Ingredient...  great shop for all those hard to find ingredients in Australia... and I have been using their vanilla extract for, goodenss me * cough * splutter for almost 20 years. 

Update on Sunday, February 1, 2015 at 10:17PM by The Lone Baker

Billingtons sugar range is currently available from Woolworths in Australia. The range includes muscovado and golden caster sugar. 

Golden caster sugar and raw caster sugar

Golden caster sugar is lighter in colour than the raw caster sugar, it brulees well and doesn't effect the colour of merigue (too much). Like the raw caster sugar it adds more flavour that white sugar. 

Muscovado can be replaced with dark brown sugar, recipes will work... however muscovado has a lovely distinct flavour and aroma ... so if you can find it go for it :)