One of the upsides of holiday baking is the revisiting of old recipes.  Recipes you hoard, covet, and savor during this celebratory time of year.  Recipes I posted a year ago, and am now revisiting for the first time since the original post.  Recipes that leave me second guessing myself, and wondering “wait? really?” “that can’t be right?” or better yet “where are the eggs?”  Yes, I did manage to allude to the fact that there should be eggs in a certain favorite holiday recipe of mine (cough* cough* gingerbread cupcakes) I just forgot to add them to the ingredient list.  Thankfully that was the biggest mistake I found in my Holiday post review.  The few other problems that arose were a direct result of me second guessing myself and over thinking/complicating things.

I had a special order this year for some Holiday themed mini cupcakes, and this is what I came up with.  Two different kinds of mini cakes.  For one of them, I revisited, and corrected, my recipe for gingerbread cupcakes, filled with lemon curd, and topped with a lemon curd swirled whipped cream.  The red topped cakes.  For the second cake, I made a variation of my butterscotch bourbon cake, but instead of bourbon I used a little heavy cream.  I filled these cupcakes with apricot jelly and topped them with an apricot buttercream.  These little green topped cakes have become a new favorite of mine.

Mini Butterscotch Cupcakes with Apricot Buttercream (in green)

Butterscotch Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Butter
• 1 1/2 cups Brown Sugar
• 1/4 cup Heavy Cream (or whole milk)
• 4 Eggs
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 1/4 cups Self-Rising Flour

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F (177C).
2. Line two mini cupcake pans.
3. In a sauce pan, melt together the butter, brown sugar, and cream until the butterscotch forms.  The sugar should be fully incorporated into the butter and cream, but the mixture should not be as smooth or as hot as what you would need for a regular caramel.
4. Transfer the butterscotch into a mixing bowl.
5. Allow the butterscotch to cool slightly, for a few minutes.  Make sure that it is not hot enough to curdle the eggs, but not cool enough that it begins to seize up and solidify.
6. Beat the eggs into the butterscotch one at a time.
7. Add the salt.
8. Sift in the flour, and continue to stir until the flour is fully incorporated.
9. Scoop the batter into your lined cupcake tins.
10. Bake for 10-15 minutes.

Apricot Buttercream

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Butter (room temp)
• 1 – 1.5 lb Powdered Sugar
• 1/2 cup Apricot Jelly
• a pinch of Salt

Directions:

1. Beat the butter until fluffy.
2. Beat in the jelly.
3. Add a small pinch of salt.
4. Gradually add powdered sugar until you obtain the desired consistency.

Mini Gingerbread Cupcakes with Lemon Curd (in red)