So in advance of baking these little Scottish cupcakes, you’ll need to prep your own Irn-Bru Syurp as follows…
1.Buy your Irn-Bru. It must be the full sugar version as the diet ones won’t reduce to a syrup. I used a 2 litre bottle which gave me enough to experiment but a 500ml would suffice (& save time) if you’re only using it for one batch of cupcakes.
2.Place your Irn-Bru into a pot large enough to hold it & bring it to the boil.
3. Boil until the Irn-Bru reduces to around a 10th of it’s original volume. It took around 2.5 hours for 2 litres to reduce down to 200ml but obviously the less Irn-Bru you use, the less time it’ll take.
4.Once it’s ready it’ll be a thin syrup consistency and a deep orange colour. Remember it will be very hot and as such will be a bit thicker once it cools down.
For the Cupcakes
1.Pre-heat your oven to 170°c and line your muffin tray with 6 cupcake cases.
2.Sift the flour, sugar & baking powder into a large bowl. Add the butter and mix on a medium speed until the mixture resembles a sandy consistency.
3.Gradually add half the milk to the mixture. Whisk the egg & syrup into the remaining milk and again gradually add to the other ingredients. Mix until only combined - do not over mix!
4.Using an ice cream scoop, fill your cupcake cases 2/3 full and bake for around 20 minutes until a skewer comes out the cupcakes clean.
When cool enough to touch, transfer to a wire wrack to cool completely.
For the Icing
1.Sift the icing sugar into a large bowl, add the butter and mix on a slow-medium speed with a clean tea towel over your mixer to prevent your kitchen filling with icing sugar!
2. When the butter & sugar start to come together, gradually add your Irn Bru syrup a spoonful at a time. Continue to mix until completely combined and of a light & fluffy consistency. If you want a deeper orange colour then you can add a dab of orange food colouring also.
3.Pipe on to your cupcakes when they're completely cool and sprinkle with a little blue sugar if desired.
• Find this recipe and more at bakingwithgranny.co.uk/
