Peach melba cupcakes

Our friend Roz is emigrating to Australia tomorrow, so for a going away present I made her a batch of cupcakes with an Aussie-inspired theme: peach melba. The dessert was famously invented in the 1890s for the Australian opera singer, Dame Nellie Melba, by the chef of the Savoy in London, and consists of poached peaches with vanilla icecream and raspberry sauce, scattered with flaked almonds. So here are my peach melba cupcakes: vanilla, peach, raspberry and almond cupcakes, with a peach yoghurt icing and topped with a slice of peach, a raspberry and a couple of flaked almonds. Good luck Roz!

Ingredients

4 oz butter

4 oz caster sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

4 oz raspberries

4 oz self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp ground almonds

2 ripe peaches, stoned and diced

For the icing

3 oz butter, at room temperature

5 oz icing sugar

3 tbsp peach yoghurt

½ tsp yellow food colouring

½ tsp pink food colouring

To decorate

1 peach, thinly sliced

18 raspberries

36 flaked almonds

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease 18 silicon cupcake moulds and place on baking trays.
2. In a large mixing bowl cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together until pale and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture and beat well.
4. Add the raspberries and beat until crushed.
5. Sift in the flour and baking powder, add the ground almonds and beat until just combined.
6. Add the diced peach and fold together with a metal spoon.
7. Divide the mixture between the prepared moulds and bake for about 15-20 mins until springy when gently touched and a cake tester comes out clean.
8. Remove from the moulds and leave to cool on to a wire cooling rack.
9. While the cakes are cooling, sift the icing sugar into a large mixing bowl with the butter and a teaspoon of boiling water, and beat until smooth.
10. Add the yoghurt and food colouring and beat together.
11. Once the cakes have cooled completely, place in paper cases and decorate each with the icing (either use a palette knife or a piping bag).
12. Decorate each cupcake with a slice of peach, a raspberry and a couple of flaked almonds.