Miss Melicious Cupcakes Book!

Miss Melicious Cupcakes is the debut cook book by Miss Melicious (Missy) and it is out in stores today! Now you can recreate all your favourite Miss Melicious treats at home!

This quirky little book is filled with distinctive Miss Melicious flair. It boasts recipes for a large variety of cupcake flavour combinations sporting names such as Cherry Bomb, Beet Box, French Toast and Fuzzy Navel. There are also cookie and whoopie pie recipes adding to the deliciousness. Each recipe has a fun photograph accompanying it, styled to reflect the ‘personality’ of each sweet treat.

We were lucky enough to be invited to the book launch, an event which suited the book to a T. There was body paint, burlesque dancers, a drag queen, balloon animal creations, boozy slushies, jugglers, and of course, towers of cupcakes to try.

The cupcake book is available now at all good bookstores, so get your hands on a copy. While you are out shopping, why not visit Miss Melicious (Missy) in person at her Auckland store!

In the mean time, here’s a recipe from her book…

Audrey
Simple and elegant but full of flavour. Our ‘star’ of vanilla cupcakes!

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:
125 g butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1 ½ cups plain flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 cup milk
edible pearls, to decorate

Preheat oven to 180 ºC (160 ºC fan-forced).  Line a cupcake pan with liners.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.  Add egg and vanilla and beat well.
Combine dry ingredients. Add to batter in thirds alternately with milk. Begin and end with dry ingredients. Mix well after each addition.
Fill liners two-thirds full and bake for 18–20 minutes or until tops spring back when touched gently.
Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then remove and cool completely before frosting. Decorate with edible pearls.

Vanilla Butter Cream:
125 g butter, softened
4 cups icing sugar, sifted
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
a few drops teal gel paste

Beat butter and slowly add icing sugar until crumbly.  Slowly add milk, vanilla and gel paste until the desired consistency and colour is reached. Add more milk if required.  Beat for 3–5 minutes until light, fluffy and creamy, but still firm enough to pipe.

My very own ‘Audrey’ cupcake, which I took home for the boys to share.

*Recipe reprinted with permission from Miss Melicious Cupcakes, published by Penguin Group NZ, RRP$30.00. Copyright © Missy Fleming 2012
Image copyright © Shadbolt