Scotch Whisky Puddle Cupcake

My Aunty Clare taught me to me "puddle cakes" when I was a little girl staying on her farm. 
Yellow butter cupcake with Scotch Whisky Marmalade. 

Aunty Clare  liked "a wee drop or two" in her cooking, I thought pavlova's were a Creme De Menthe flavoured dessert as a child, apricots & peaches were brandied, there was something in those devilled kidney's that wasn't just Worcestershire sauce and the scotch whisky trifle we had at Christmas time put hairs on your chest! 

Whilst I wouldn't recommend drenching your trifle with scotch whisky, Aunty Clare's Orange Whisky Marmalade that filled her "Puddle cupcakes" are a nice gift for those who are brave at heart. 

Scotch Whisky Puddle Cakes

12 to 24 baked yellow butter cakes

Aunty Clare's Scotch Whisky Marmalade

Ingredients
750g (1.6lb) of washed bitter (Seville) oranges
750g (1.6lb) of sugar
1 tbs of Treacle
2 tbs of Scotch Whisky

Method
Put your oranges in a pot and cover with just over a litre of water (1.5 pints), cover your pot and simmer for an hour until fruit is soft. Remove the fruit from the pan with slotted spoon and put aside to cool. 

Measure the liquid from the pot to make 3 cups (use water to make up the volume if you are a bit short). Stir in the sugar. 

Halve your cooled oranges, scoop the flesh and the pips into a piece of muslin and tie to make a bag. Cut the peel coarsely. 

Put your sugar liquid, and muslin bag in a clean pot and stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. 

Increase the heat and cook at a rolling boil for 10 minutes until the marmalade has reached setting point. Cool for 10 minutes, stir in whisky and pour into sterilised jars or make puddle cupcakes.

To make a puddle cupcakes; Use a cookie cutter (Aunty Claire used a scone cutter) to mark out a circle on top of your cupcakes. With a small knife take away a shallow circle of cake within the circle you marked.

Pour or spoon warm Scotch Whisky Marmalade into circle.

Notes: Changes I made... I used sweet oranges and only used a little bit of peel cut the peel into a fine shred. 

Setting point; Remove pan from heat when testing. Everyone is using different sized pots, so use setting time as a guide only and test early, otherwise you might end up with rubbery marmalade.  Aunty Clare wasn't using a sugar thermometer, she used the cold saucer method... put a teaspoon of hot jam on the sauce if after a minute you can push the marmalade with your finger and it wrinkles/holds it's ready.