Making spiced apple and blackcurrant cupcakes with Fruit Shoot

This post is a collaboration with Fruit Shoot

When Big Girl was a toddler we went through a phase of baking cupcakes every week, but with more and more after-school activities and playdates I seem to have forgotten all about baking. That’s why I was excited when Fruit Shoot sent the children cooking utensils and challenged us to recreate a new Fruit Shoot-inspired recipe with real fruit, celebrating that Fruit Shoot is made with real fruit and there are no artificial colours or flavourings.

When I was trying to come up with a fun half-term activity for the children to do at home on Tuesday afternoon, making the spiced apple and blackcurrant cupcakes, a recipe created for Fruit Shoot by Bake Off star Holly Bell, seemed to be a great idea.

I set up the kitchen table with ingredients–only missing fresh nutmeg–and cooking utensils. I also quickly grated an apple, and after that it seemed like the little chefs could take over.

With the help of another grown up, Big Girl and Big Boy poured all the ingredients into a big bowl and mixed it all together. They completed the cooking project with big smiles, looking extremely excited when they later showed me the finished product.

In addition to grated apple, we had a bag of frozen berries they used in the mix for the spiced apple and blackcurrant cupcake recipe, which was inspired by the ingredients in the core Fruit Shoot range.

I was thrilled with the outcome as the cupcakes were moist and delicous. In fact, I ended up munching on cupcakes for the rest of the day and the following day. The fruity cupcakes also turned out to be a brilliant half-term lunch box treat for the kids the next day when we went on one of our list of half-term morning excursions.

Most importantly, the cupcake experience made me remember how much children enjoy helping out in the kitchen, and since the flexible recipe included ingredients we often keep at home, I could definitely see us using this recipe again.

Thank you Fruit Shoot for inspiring us to get back into baking!

Spiced Apple and Blackcurrant Cupcakes by Holly Bell

Ingredients
175ml oil (sunflower, groundnut, rapeseed, for example)
180g muscovado sugar
170g self raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 large eggs
160g grated apple
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
150g blackcurrants (fresh, dried or frozen)

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4 and line a 12 hole cupcake tin with large cupcake cases. Mix all the ingredients together until there are no more lumps or traces of egg yolk visible. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes, and leave to cool.

Tags: Activities for children, Baking, Cupcakes, Fruit Shoot, Review, Sponsored post