rhubarb & passionfruit crumble cupcakes...fabulously light and summery!

when the summer weather doesn't appear as hoped for, one has to make do with creating their own taste of summer and this is where the idea for these cupcakes came. i love rhubarb...my grandma used to make rhubarb pie when i was younger and home in Ireland for summer holidays and we'd eat big slices of it with fresh cream or ice-cream and i just loved the tartness of the rhubarb with the sweetness of the cream. for the cupcakes though, i wanted it to be more of a crumble taste but still have that contrast of tartness and sweetness. so i settled on a rhubarb cupcake, with a passionfruit filling, a thin layer of vanilla buttercream icing and a layer of biscuit crumbs.

i used sauces that i had bought at the local market that runs every sunday in Howth - the passionfruit curd was the same as the one i used as the topping for the brownie cupcakes i made recently and the rhubarb was a gingered rhubarb jam. i mixed the rhubarb jam straight into the batter exactly like the marmalade cupcakes i made some time ago so click through to that for the recipe. they were really moist and soft. using the cone method for each cupcake i cut out a piece and filled it with the passionfruit curd. the vanilla buttercream went on top in a thin layer as buttercream can often be overpowering and i didn't want it to be such a predominant flavour in the cupcake. then the biscuit crumbs (crushed up digestive biscuits...about 4) were pressed on top. i piped a little buttercream on top and popped a sugar swirl to decorate.

the taste was fantastic. i loved it! the flavours combined together to make a lovely light, summery cupcake that you felt you could easily eat 4 or 5 more. the great thing was that no flavour was too dominant - they all kinda blended together perfectly.

so if the summer isn't going the weather-way you want it...create your own little bite of summer!