Blackberry Buns

The idea for this recipe came to me one afternoon while I was at Ballymaloe. I was wearing my black velvet and gold sequinned cardigan and before I knew it I was jotting down some notes and sketches inspired by this combination. If you are lucky you might have some blackberries growing on the bushes near where you live at the end of Summer

Ingredients

• 100g unsalted butter, softened
• 150g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 120ml buttermilk
• 200g plain flour
• Half a teaspoon of salt
• Half a teaspoon of baking powder
• Half a teaspoon of baking soda
• 24 blackberries, dusted with flour (about 225-250g of blackberries in total should be enough for the bun cakes and decoration)

To Decorate

• 300ml whipping cream
• 12 blackberries
• Edible sparkly gold dust optional
• Fresh mint leaves

12 hole mini cake pan, greased and the sides lined with parchment paper (a muffin tin will work also)

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 160°C fan oven/180°C conventional oven.
2. In a large mixing bowl cream the butter and the sugar using an electric whisk. Mix in the eggs one at a time before adding in the vanilla extract. Pour in most of the buttermilk and stir into the mixture.
3. Sift in the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda and mix until combined.
4. The mixture should be a loose, dropping consistency – add in the remaining buttermilk if required.
5. Spoon the mix into the lined tray and place 2 blackberries on top of each one. Dusting the blackberries in the flour well help prevent the fruit from sinking to the bottom of the bun cakes. Bake for 20-25 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
6. When the buns have cooled, slice each one in half across the middle. Pipe some cream into the middle of each bun. Pipe some more cream into the top of the buns and to finish decorate each one with a mint leaf and a blackberry rolled in some of the edible gold sparkles.