Spring is here and Easter is around the corner. To celebrate the dual occasion, we wanted to share our recipe for this Jelly Bean Jubilee Cupcake. Did you know it’s an award-winning cupcake? It’s true!
Surf Sweets recently invited us and 15 other gluten- and allergen-free bloggers to participate in a baking competition. The theme was to use their new Spring Mix of organic jelly beans. Lo and behold, we won Second Prize! Here’s the story behind the recipe:
A jubilee is a time of celebration or rejoicing. This recipe was a celebration of Surf Sweets’ new jelly beans. Each cupcake is topped with a bright, flavorful jelly bean. We also endeavored to repurpose and incorporate jelly beans into the cupcake in creative ways—chopped jelly beans offer sweet surprises in the cupcake batter; melted jelly beans help to create a sweet, slightly fruity buttercream frosting; and pink jelly bean powder is dusted on the frosting for an extra pop of flavor and visual interest. Lemon juice in the cake batter complements the natural fruit flavors of the jelly beans.
Jelly Bean Jubilee Cupcakes
Makes 12 cupcakes
Ingredients
One 8-ounce bag Surf Sweets Spring Mix Jelly Beans
For the cupcakes:
6 tablespoons salted butter (3/4 stick), room temperature
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon GF pure vanilla extract
1 large egg, room temperature
1 large egg white, room temperature
2 tablespoons lemon juice (fresh squeezed preferable)
3 tablespoons buttermilk, room temperature
1 1/2 cups Artisan Gluten-Free Flour Blend
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 1/4 teaspoons GF baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup Surf Sweets Spring Mix Jelly Beans, chopped
For the frosting:
1/2 cup + 2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 cup + 1/2 cup Surf Sweets Spring Mix Jelly Beans, divided
1/4 cup water
2 large egg whites
Pinch salt
3/4 cup salted butter (1 1/2 sticks), removed from the refrigerator when you start the buttercream
1/2 teaspoon GF pure vanilla extract
Steps
1. Set aside 12 jelly beans, one to top each cupcake. You should have about 1 cup of jelly beans remaining.
To make the cupcakes:
2. Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. Line a standard cupcake tin with paper liners.
3. Measure 1/4 cup jelly beans. Slice the jelly beans in half. Set aside.
4. With an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add the vanilla.
5. Add the egg and the egg white, one at a time, mixing to incorporate after each addition.
6. Add the lemon juice and buttermilk, and mix until combined.
7. In a separate bowl, combine the flours, starches, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and mix well with a whisk.
8. Add the dry ingredients all at once to the sugar mixture and mix for about 10 seconds at medium-low speed to incorporate.
9. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the chopped jelly beans, and mix at high speed for about 5 seconds, just until the batter is completely mixed and smooth.
10. Divide the batter evenly among the 12 paper-lined cups on your cupcake tin. Make the top of the batter as smooth as you can.
11. Bake for 25 minutes.
12. Allow the cupcakes to cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then remove from the tins and let cool completely on a wire rack.
13. While the cupcakes are cooling, make the frosting.
To make the frosting:
14. Add 1/4 cup jelly beans to a spice grinder and grind until the flavorful, colored candy shell becomes a fine powder and you’re left with the clear, jelly centers. Separately reserve the pink powder and the jelly centers.
15. Add the jelly centers, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup whole jelly beans, and 1/4 cup water to a heavy saucepan.
16. Put a candy thermometer in the mixture and heat to 245 deg F. Hold at 245 deg F for at least 5 minutes.
17. Meanwhile, in a stand mixer using the whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites and salt at medium-high speed until frothy.
18. Add the remaining 2 teaspoons of sugar to the egg whites and whisk until soft peaks form. Turn the mixer off and let the egg whites sit until the sugar mixture comes up to temperature.
19. After the sugar mixture has been at 245 deg F for 5 minutes, you’ll need to remove any undissolved jelly centers. Use a slotted spoon, or strain the sugar mixture through a fine metal mesh. Either way, be very careful—the sugar it hot!
20. With the mixer at medium speed, slowly drizzle the hot sugar mixture into the beaten egg whites.
21. After all the sugar is added, continue whisking the mixture until cool, about 10 minutes.
22. While the sugar-egg mixture is whisking for those 10 minutes, cut the butter into tablespoon-size pieces.
23. When the sugar-egg mixture is cool, leave the mixer running at medium speed and add the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, allowing enough time for each tablespoon of butter to incorporate after each addition, until all the butter is added.
24. Add the vanilla and mix to combine.
25. Switch to the paddle attachment and mix for an additional 1 to 2 minutes at medium-high speed until the air bubbles are out of the frosting and the frosting is silky smooth.
To finish the cupcakes:
26. Use a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip to pipe a Dairy Queen-type spiral of buttercream on the cupcakes.
27. Sprinkle each cupcake with the reserved pink jelly bean powder.
28. Top each cupcake with a whole jelly bean.
Degrees of Free-dom
This recipe is: gluten-free, peanut-free, tree-nut-free, fish-free, shellfish-free, soy-free, vegetarian.
Nutrition Info
Since this recipe uses Surf Sweets products, we didn’t go through the trouble of figuring out adding their nutrition info to the other ingredients in the recipe. Sorry!
Enjoy!
–Pete
Congrats on your win! Wish you could deliver cupcakes to Columbus!