Eggless christmas cupcakes

Ingredients

• 450 g self raising flour + 50g plain flour
• 350 g mixed dried fruits
• 320 g dark brown sugar (such as muscavado)
• 250 ml sparkling water
• 80 g chopped pecans
• 100 g ground almonds
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3 teaspoons ground mixed spice (cloves, nutmeg, coriander seed powder)
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons cornflour
• Zest of 1 lemon
• Zest of 1 orange
• 50 ml lemon juice
• 60 ml orange juice
• 2 teaspoons natural yogurt
• 1 ½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablepsoons sunflower oil

To decorate:

• 250 g marzipan
• 250 g white icing (ready to roll)
• Golden syrup (or dark corn syrup) to brush on the cakes and stick the decorations on
• Red and green food colours
• Icing sugar to dust
• Edible glitter

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Preparation

• Mix together the dried fruits (chop up any large pieces) and chopped pecans with 50g plain flour. Set aside.
• In a large bowl sift together the self raising flour, baking powder, baking soda, mixed spice, cinnamon and cornflour. Sift again then gently fold in the ground almonds, lemon and orange zest.
• In a separate bowl whisk together the sugar, lemon juice, orange juice, yogurt, apple cider vinegar and oil.
• Add the wet ingredients to the sifted flour mixture and add the sparkling water. Whisk and then fold in the flour-dusted fruits and nuts. Be careful not to overwork the cake batter.
• Spoon the mixture into a lined cupcake tray. Bake at 160 degrees C for around 20 minutes or until a skewer poked through the centre comes out clean.
• Don't open the oven door for the first 15 minutes of baking. Allow to cool. Brush with warm golden syrup and first stick on thin discs of marzipan .
• Brush the marzipan with more golden syrup and repeat for the icing. If you don't want it to be too sweet, roll the icing thinner.
• Colour your white icing with your food colours and roll the red into little berry-sized balls and roll the green, then cut into holly shapes. Dust with a flurry of icing sugar and edible glitter.