Milo and Pear Cupcakes

Milo & Pear Cupcake with Cinnamon Icing

Hubby has invited a few colleagues home for dinner tonight. The ones who remain alone in Maranello in the week, only returning home for the weekend. The ones who are regulars at La Brace. One of them, F, for those who remember, is from Ferrara.

I didn't plan on making anything particular for dessert as Eldest Son has tonnes of homework (for once) to be completed during the week and as I didn't discover this till the night before - meaning that he had done almost nothing up till now and it's therefore a race against time to get everything done by Friday. And since he's incapable of working on his own, it means that I will have to sit next to him and hold his hand (plus a cane) as he works.

Then Hubby made some comment about the guys having a sweet tooth. Alamak, and here was me not planning on offering any dessert! So while the kids were away at school this morning, I found another excuse not to continue with the unpacking or iron the more than 30 shirts waiting for me and spent some time baking cupcakes. Ran out of chocolate, saw that I have a tin of Milo left and so decided to make Milo and Pear Cupcakes with Cinnamon Icing.

Makes 12 small cupcakes :

170g Flour

2 Tsp Baking Powder

1/2 Tsp Ground Cinnamon

A pinch of Ground Cloves

150g Sugar

150g Salted Butter

150ml hot Water

50g Milo Powder

2 Eggs

1 Pear

2 Tsp Vanilla Essence

Sift the flour, baking powder and spices together. Add in the sugar.

In another bowl, melt the butter in the hot water. Add in the Milo powder, the eggs and vanilla essence. If you are using bananas, use a fork to smash them and then add them in the Milo mixture.

Add in the flour and fold in. If using pears, place a few small pieces in each cup before pouring in the cake mixture. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180ºC for about 22 minutes.

The Icing :

150g Salted Butter

150g Icing Sugar

1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon

1 Tsp Lime Juice

Melt the butter and beat together with the sugar and cinnamon. Add in the lime juice and mix well. Do not put icing on warm or hot cupcakes or it'll melt.

Banana Version for the school's Bake Sale

I much prefer the version with banana. Which is even better when you add in grated coconut mixed with sugar that you would have dry-roasted beforehand.

Trio of Desserts

I served my cupcakes as part of a trio of desserts : Milo and Pear Cupcakes, Mango Kiss Vodka Cocktail and Grilled Banana with Coconut Sauce.