These Mince Pie Cupcakes are a combination of my two favourite things – Mince Pies and Cupcakes.

The cupcakes have a light brown sugar sponge, a hidden mincemeat centre and are topped with golden buttercream.

Light Brown Cupcake

In this recipe, I used light brown sugar instead of caster sugar. The light brown sugar gives the cupcake a lovely hint of caramel which works so well with the mincemeat centre.

Beat the butter and sugar together until it is pale and creamy. For the cupcakes, I prefer to use a baking spread like Stork but you could also use unsalted butter. Both will work perfectly for this recipe.

Related Recipes

Mince Pie Rolls

Christmas Cupcakes

Gingerbread Loaf Cake

Add in the remaining ingredients and mix until the batter is completely combined and smooth. One of the great things about baking cupcakes is that you don’t need to mix the batter for too long. Stop as soon as the mixture has come together, over-mixing the batter can cause the cupcakes to become dense, and even sink in the centre after baking.

Split the mixture between the cupcake cases. I use these Baking Cups from Iced Jems, they come in so many different colours and designs and love their Christmas range.

Everyone has their own way of splitting the batter, I prefer to use a small ice cream scoop. It helps to ensure that all the cases have equal amounts of batter.

Baking the Cupcakes

There are a few different ways to tell if the cupcakes are baked. They should be golden brown in colour and if you gently press your finger on the top of the cupcake ft should spring back when you remove your finger.

Another way to test the cupcake is by using a cake tester. The cake tester should come out clean, if there is cupcake batter on the tester, or your finger leaves a dent in the top of the cupcake you pop them back into the oven for 3-4 minutes and repeat.

Mincemeat Centre

Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, remove the centre of the cupcake using a cupcake corer. Fill the centre of the cupcake with mincemeat and leave them to one side.

I decided to use shop-bought mincemeat for ease, but you could use a homemade one if you prefer.

Golden Buttercream

To make the buttercream I used Golden Icing Sugar, like with the light brown sugar the golden icing sugar gives the buttercream a lovely gold colour and a lovely hint of caramel. If you can’t get ahold of any golden icing sugar you could use regular icing sugar, it will work just as well.

Beat together the icing sugar and butter until it is pale and creamy. As I said above, I used a baking spread for the cupcake batter but for the buttercream, you MUST use unsalted butter. Unsalted Butter normally comes in 250g blocks wrapped in foil. If you use anything else it will be too soft and the buttercream won’t hold its shape when you pipe it onto your cupcakes.

If it is too thick add a tablespoon of whole milk and beat again. Repeat until the buttercream is the desired consistency.

I piped the buttercream onto the cupcakes using a 1M Piping Tip, I love the swirl it creates, but you can use any piping tip and I finished it off with some sprinkles.

Alternatives

If you prefer, you can use normal icing sugar. It will work perfectly for these cupcakes.

You also don’t need to use light brown sugar, just replace it with caster sugar.

Equipment

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