White Chocolate and Macadamia Cupcakes With Berry Frosting

This is an elegant, sweet treat of a cupcake with beautifully contrasting colours between the bake and the frosting. I find that the tartness of the berry frosting helps to cut through the sweetness of the cake.

The cupcake batter is once again based on the vanilla cupcake recipe in Dan Lepard's excellent book, Short and Sweet. This is my go to recipe for a reliable, tasty cake.

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Ingredients
Makes approx. 8 cupcakes in muffin cases

125g caster sugar
125g unsalted butter, very soft
2 eggs
2 tsps vanilla extract (feel free to try almond instead for a variation)
150g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
100g good quality white chocolate, roughly chopped
50g macademia nuts, roughly chopped
1 quantity of berry frosting.

1. Preheat your oven to 180C/160C Fan/350F/Gas 4 and place 8 muffin/cupcake cases in to your muffin tin.
2. Using an electric mixer beat the sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla extract for around 3 minutes on the highest speed until light and fluffy.
3. Next sift in the flour and baking powder and beat for another 30 seconds or so. You will end up with quite a thick batter.
4. Gently stir in the chocolate and nuts being careful not to break them up any further.
5. Fill each case up to about two thirds then place the tray in the over for around 20-25 minutes until golden brown and firm.
6. Let the cupcakes cool completely before decorating with the frosting.