I currently have few mums. I have my actual mother and then I have Queen Viv who always tells me off for not keeping a tidier house much like a mum does, M who is mum-like and my adopted mum Barbara from Barbara Bakes. Barbara is an excellent mum as she is always encouraging and never nags me to clean my house (although that may be because she has never seen it).
I tried to convince Queen Viv that I am actually a very tidy person and that it was a constant battle with Mr NQN’s love of messiness. She was suspicious until she saw my fridge. My fridge is perfectly ordered and stacked.. It’s like a little microcosm of my ideal world. Looking at a fully stocked and neat fridge makes me happy and it is one area where Mr NQN will not intrude and throw his dirty socks or pile up his sailing or bike equipment. Unless of course he is going to get a drink out of the fridge which means that he will of course drink straight from the bottle. I’ve given up holding out a glass for him. And remind me to tell you about his “pants bombs” one day…
But I digress, back to mum Barbara (and she lets me call her mum, not mom). At Christmas, she sent me these gorgeous Blue Baroque cupcake wrappers and a sweet note. I received them just after I arrived back from Austria and so they had an even deeper meaning as I had visited gorgeous Schonbrunn Palace where I had fallen in love with their blue and white porcelain room. It was where Maria Theresia played cards and there are 213 blue ink images set into the framework in an imitation of porcelain. I wanted to stake up a tent and live there. Would the excuse that I had indeed time travelled and was actually Maria Theresia work? Sadly not and that confrontation with the palace staff remained a fantasy.
So when I saw these cupcake wrappers I knew they were destined for a Baroque Cupcake and they would of course sit on this fabulous cake stand that my friend The Second Wife and her fiancee Gravy Beard gave me as a gift. When I saw theirs I cooed in possibly an over the top fashion such was my adoration of it so they went out and found me another antique one (although I promise you I was not hinting, merely admiring!). The flavour would have to be apricot inside and I would make use of the famous Staud’s apricot jam from Austria which is the renowned jam maker’s most popular flavour. Of course like all things imperial it would have to be a bit over the top so I brushed the tops of the cupcakes with the apricot jam but I also scooped out the inside and filled it with the jam. The cake has a delicate, soft crumb and you get an overload of pieces of apricots and jam in each bite.
You’ll have to excuse the slightly odd baroque swirls. I should have perhaps bought a stencil but this was a late night inspiration job and internet shopping hasn’t progressed so far as to land me a purchased item within the hour.
So tell me Dear Reader, if you could be anyone in a past life, who would it be?
Baroque Cupcakes (Apricot filled Cupcakes)
An Original Recipe by Not Quite Nigella
Makes 8
- 1/2 cup caster or superfine sugar
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
- 90g butter at room temperature
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup milk plus 1 squeeze of lemon juice into the milk to curdle it
- 6-7 dried apricots chopped finely (I prefer Turkish apricots)
- a few drops of apricot essence
To decorate
- 70grams/ 2.5 ozs Apricot Jam
- White Fondant
- a little cornflour or icing sugar to dust
- Royal Blue icing pen
- Sugar Flowers
- Metallic sprinkles
- Gold and silver lustre dust
Buyer’s Tip: Sugar flowers, icing pens, sprinkles and lustre dust are available from specialty cake decorating stores. Prepared fondant is sold in supermarkets under the brand “Orchid” and is called White Icing.
1. Preheat oven to 150c fan forced or 170c non fan forced.
2. Add all ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix on low speed until combined and then a higher speed until batter becomes pale. Spoon into patty tins.
3. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool in tin.
4. Sift a coating of icing sugar or cornflour over a clean flat surface. Grab a section of fondant and knead until it becomes pliable. Roll it out and dust a rolling pin with icing sugar or cornflour and roll fondant out to about 1/2 cm thick. Use a round cutter to cut out round.
5. To adhere the fondant onto the cupcake top, brush with a little warmed apricot jam and then place fondant rounds on top.
6. Take blue writing pen and draw baroque style patterns. Dot some icing under a sugar flower and affix to the top and sprinkle metallic cachous and lustre dust if desired.
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71 Comments | Add your own
these are adorable !
They are so daintily decorated and so tempting! Marvelous!
Cheers,
Rosa
Who can resist a cupcake. The addition of the apricot jam will ensure they are moist and taste great too.
I have those cupcake papers! They are lovely! What a lovely gift!
Those cupcakes look divine – I love the addition of apricot! YUM!
I too am someone that needs to have a well stocked and organised fridge!!!
Such pretty cupcakes Lorraine
Those are gorgeous!
Perfect for a DIY high tea!
Past life? pass on that.
Oh Lorraine! How absolutely gorgeous – I’m going to have to try these out soon. Perfect for Easter methinks =)
Lorraine
They are beautiful. I can imagine sitting down to eat them in a corsetted dress, big and powdered hair and lots of lace.
SSG xxxx
These are so pretty, Lorraine!!!
I love that you have so many Mums to love you and tell you off. 
Today, if I could be anyone, I’d like to be Sir Richard Francis Burton. 
These look very sweet and remind me of a childhood favourite- the good old butterfly cupcake.
the wrappers are so pretty and so are your cupcakes! (: Apricot jam, one of my favourites besides strawberry! YUMS!
Gorgeous!! The wrappers go perfectly with the cake stand (not to mention the lovely cupcakes inside!)
Love the cupcakes Lorraine! They remind me of those fabulous German Baroque houses with the porcelain googahs all over the walls and those fab stoves that look like they came out of a fairytale… like your cupcakes!
Superb inspiration – I too love Schonbrunn, though I never got to see the 1000s of rooms………we spent time at the Marionette Theatre and in the kids musuem. And I love the cupcakes too..the wrappers, the fillings and the frostings!!! And all about your Mums and Moms!
I’ve just realised my nan used to cut the middle out of cupcakes and put jam in the middle, then ice the top.
Yum, so many childhood memories come flooding back!
Thanks Lorraine!
What beautiful cupcakes Lorraine. I like the cupcake wrappers. Apricot essence I dont think I have ever tried anything with it. Cant wait to try this for an upcoming baby shower.
How Divine are those cakes??? I MUST bake & make.
I”m intrigued… pants bombs???
Oh these look great! That blue & white room is so magnificent! I love it!
Gorgeous, Lorraine! Simply stunning.
these look great lorraine the blue wrappers are gorgeous
the wrappers are gorgeous! And the cakes look pretty good too.
Wow, Lorraine, these are beautiful! These gorgeous cupcakes are the perfect match for the stunning liners. And I love the addition of lustre dust, it really adds such a special touch!
I love it. What a great idea!
Gorgeous! Both the cakes and the decoration.
Oh how pretty.. I love how food can transport us through time and space.
Pants bomb? Sounds kinda sneaky..
Lovely! Where does one buy apricot essence in Sydney? My boy is a keen brewer and needs some for a particular beer. And maybe I’ll make cupcakes
You are so lucky to have your mother still living. I lost my mother on Dec 31, 2003 when I was 47 years old. She never got to meet my daughter-in-law or my grandson from her and my youngest son.
Cupcakes are a good alternative when You don’t want to mess up the cake pans and have to wash them.
Gorgeous – and blue is my favourite colour!
My mom turns 75 on Monday and she informed me that she wants cupcakes. Good timing.
I’m baking cupcakes right now, sweet potato ones…but nowwhere as pretty and dainty as those!
Haha, you need to come give me fridge-organizing lessons…my fridge is a stuffed mess!
They look beautiful! You’ve done a great job.
Beautiful cupcakes! My version of icing cupcakes is a glop of frosting on the top. If I’m really inspired I will even smooth it out.
Oh and if I could be anyone I would be Scarlett O’Hara. I hope you’re allowing fictional characters.
These are so lovely.I love the colours. I’d be someone who had money & comfort. The past seems like hard work.
Purdee, purdee, purdeee!!! “Pants bombs” intriguing but not purdee, hehe!
You have excelled yourself with these cupcakes Lorraine – amazing!
They look so delightful. Ahhh, cooking from travel memories are the best!
Please do not campaign for internet shopping that delivers within the our. I will go broke!
They are so purdy (as in pretty)!
I would be Sei Shonagon of Pillow Book fame so I could wear lots of pretty layers in my kimono and change according to the season.
Such dainty cupcakes! And mothers – even virtual ones – are the best, aren’t they?
So lovely, they’ve managed to unsquelch my face from your last post…LOL. Nigella would be proud – surely she’s one of your mums too?
Very cute! And yes, instant internet shopping could be dangerous.
the exquisite cupcakes you’ve made are certainly worthy of those beautiful wrappers!
now, about this pants bomb story…
So dainty! Your mind works in wondrous ways when you get a culinary idea but tell me Lorraine just who ate the scooped out bits,Lol.
I don’t think I would like to live in the past, life expectancy was way too short,equating to even less time to enjoy Food wonderful Food
so beautiful cupcake!!thankyou!!kouky
thankyou for this so beautiful cupcake!!kouky
DARLING cupcakes! I want them all!!
!!! *stunned* are they edible!? tehehe they look like displays!
Oh, Lorraine, these are beautiful cupcakes, and I LOVE the wrappers! I wish I could make such wonderful decorations.
I think I’d be someone like George Eliot or Charlotte Bronte, only I want to be them during one of the odd moments when they felt happy.
These are so beautiful – Im going to try them for my Mad Hatter’s Tea party if I recover in time! xxx
Ps. Pants bomb?
Beautiful cupcakes daaaaaahling, a stunning creation.
). I would have wanted to be someone totally fab and eccentric.
While I don’t believe in past lives, I like to think I’d be someone like Marie Antoinette (with head though
Have a wonderful weekend!
*kisses* HH
This is what baking in all about to me: since we don’t really need to eat sugar and butter, but we do need to be entertained, this is entertainment! Lovely! I can eat them and dream I was Marie-Antoinette’s courtisane friend. (maybe a another quenn that did not get beheaded at the end)
Aren’t you a lucky galt to have so many moims who care about you! When I head to Seattle next month I will be sure to lookour for some more of the beautifil cupcake papers I saw.
Excuse the swirls? Lorraine, these are beautiful!
Is it silly that, if I could be anyone in a past life, I’d just wish to be a noraml someone who was content, at peace with herself, and who loved and was loved by wonderful people?
Awww, these are sooooooooo pretty. I love pretty cakes (if you haven’t noticed!).
they’re adorable, Lorraine! The decorations on top are cute…and filled with apricot jam?!? I would be in heaven if I ate one of these…well, pretty close anyway
Do we really want to know about Mr NQN’s “pants bombs”?!?
Wow they are so pretty!!! You have a skill at cupcake decoration that’s for sure! I would have loved to be marie antoinette (but maybe before the unpleasant beheading)I would love to sit in my boudoir eating cake all day!
I use to think of myself as a clean person. I was appalled by the state of ones homes, and then I had children. Oh so much more than dirty socks… I try and try but never ever get ahead of it. Good luck and your cupcakes are gorgeous.
Very very pretty cupcakes, Lorraine!
They look soooo cool! Love how detailed they are
They are absolutely gorgeous Lorraine!! Loving all the detal on them.
Absolutely gorgeous Lorraine!
I’m sure I should have been Jackie O and spent my days styling the White House, throwing amazing state dinners and summering on the French Riviera.
Miss B xx
Wow!! Dont those cupcakes look just divine! How do you manage to blog almost every day??!!!
these look so good!
What cute little cupcakes! Love the white and blue cases.
Btw: the brand of the fondant is Orchard (I use it all the time) and not Orchid
Apricot with those pretty blue cases looks fantastic. I would like to be Marie Antoinette in the Sophia Coppola film although obviously without the decapitation at the end.
beautiful cupcakes and a nice way to remember your trip to austria – I like your tent fantasy – sounds like one to try on your next trip – would make a great blog story
These are gorgeous, Lorraine and I like that the swirls have individuality hehe. It’s always great to hear how other bakers get inspired by the real world.
Beautiful cupcakes!!
What a treat to come home from
“holiday” to your sweet post. Your gorgeous cupcakes are worthy of serving at a palace! I should think that if you brought them a tray of these they would let you nap on the sofa. xoxo Mum
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