Impress your family and friends with these cute Mini Christmas Puddings. These Mini Christmas Pudding Cupcakes are mini upside-down chocolate cupcakes with soured cream, ground almonds and sour cherries inside, then topped off with a custard flavoured glacé/glaze icing, and a sprig of edible holly to complete the festive picture.
Have you ever noticed that around this time of the year all the festive party foods tend to get smaller and smaller?
I went grocery shopping today and saw tons of party foods but in miniature style. Mini spring rolls, mini cheesecakes, mini… well, everything!
What I can’t workout though is whether major supermarket chains do this because miniature foods are…
- In high demand by consumers.
- They can make more money simply by making everything smaller so technically, you’re not getting as much value for money, and they make more profit.
But mini foods are way too darn cute. Which is probably why it’s a bit of both.
And these Mini Christmas Pudding cupcakes are definitely way too cute to pass up on.
Let’s imagine for a minute you’re hosting a Christmas party. Everyone has been fed a traditional Christmas dinner (and if you’re in the UK, that would be roast turkey with all the trimmings – yum!), and you’re getting ready to bring out the desserts.
Then out you come with these cute as a button mini Christmas puddings (which are really cupcakes in disguise). Your guests will be wowed and will probably ask where you managed to pick up cute mini Christmas puddings!
And of course you’ll probably brag that you made them – go on, brag away! If you’re in for even more brownie points, you could also mention that everything on these mini Christmas puddings are edible too. 🙂
What I love most about these mini Christmas pudding cupcakes, apart from the obvious miniature size, is their flavour. They’re not just average chocolate upside-down cupcakes. They’re better than real Christmas puddings in my opinion (probably because I hate Christmas pudding anyway). They’re made with ground almonds, sour cherries, and dark chocolate – not a cocoa ‘chocolate’, we’re talking real chocolate here with some additional cocoa powder too for that extra chocolate kick.
And to top off the festiveness, the glacé icing is flavoured like custard too. We couldn’t have a Christmas pud without custard, could we? Not forgetting the sprig of holly on top to complete the holiday festiveness.
These Mini Christmas puddings are so easy to make and can even be made ahead of time and frozen until you need them. The only preparation needed is to create the holly sprigs ahead of time – I would recommend at least one day for drying though. Once the holly sprigs are dry, they will last for months on end in an airtight container.
However, if you don’t have the tools needed for creating the holly sprigs, you can easily substitute for real holly sprigs, or even bay leaves for the leaves and red M&Ms or sixlets or any other red small round sweets/candy for the berries.
Mini Christmas Puddings with Custard Icing
Yield: 16 mini cupcakes
Prep Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
These Christmas pudding cupcakes are mini upside-down chocolate cupcakes with sour cherries, custard flavoured icing and a sprig of edible holly.
Ingredients:
Holly Sprigs
- Leaf green sugarpaste (rolled fondant)
- Red sugarpaste
- CMC/Tylo powder or gum tragacanth
- Holly cutters
Christmas Puddings
- 25g (0.9 oz) dark chocolate, chopped
- 70g (2.5 oz) unsalted butter
- 50ml soured cream
- 1 large egg
- 70g (2.5 oz) self-raising flour
- 70g (2.5 oz) caster (superfine) sugar
- 50g (1.8 oz) ground almonds
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 45g (1.6 oz) dried sour cherries
Custard Icing
- 125g (4.4 oz) icing sugar, sifted
- ½ tsp custard powder, sifted
Directions:
Holly Sprigs
- Make the holly sprigs at least 1 day before making the Christmas puddings. Before we start, I would recommend making more holly sprigs than needed just in case any break.
- Grab a handful of leaf green sugarpaste (rolled fondant), or alternatively colour white sugarpaste using a leaf green gel or paste food colour and knead well to soften.
- Add around ¼ tsp of Tylo/CMC powder or gum tragacanth and knead well. Immediately roll out the sugarpaste thin enough that it is workable, yet thick enough the holly cutter can emboss the sugarpaste.
- Cut out and emboss the holly, remembering to cut out more than needed in case of breakages. Set aside.
- Using the red sugarpaste, roll small holly berries. You will need 3 for each holly sprig. Set aside to dry for at least 24 hours.
- Once dry, using a little cooled boiled water or some edible glue, attach the berries to the holly and allow to dry.
Christmas Puddings
- Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/Gas mark 5, and spray a mini muffin tray with non-stick spray. Set aside.
- Melt the chocolate and the butter over a low heat then remove from the heat and allow to cool a little. Stir in the soured cream and eggs.
- In another bowl, sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder. Then add the sugar and ground almonds. Gently stir in the chocolate mixture until just incorporated, then fold in the sour cherries.
- Spoon into the muffin tray so they are ¾ full. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Allow to cool in the tray. If freezing, place them into a freezer bag for up to 3 months.
- When ready to use, trim off any domes on the cupcakes using a serrated knife, then flip them upside down.
Custard Icing
- To make the custard flavoured glace/glaze icing, sift the icing sugar and custard powder into a small bowl and add 2 tbsp water to make a thick paste. Place the cupcakes on a wire rack upside-down and spoon the icing over.
- Immediately add the dried holly sprigs and allow to set.
If you don't have the tools or ingredients needed to make the holly sprigs, you can easily substitute the holly leaves for bay leaves - you can even sugar them first! Or real holly, of course! For the berries, any small round sweets/candy will work too. Or you could roll up some of the sour cherries.
Scaled and adapted from BBC Good Food.
Equipment Used
Too cute for words! I love mini foods especially for parties because you can taste a little of everything! These are just darling and so festive!
Mini puddings look very festive and yummy!
Wicked recipe! Will have to give this a go in the next day or two… 😀
So cute, as well as beautiful photos and food styling!