Maple Syrup & Pecan Cupcakes

It's my birthday on Saturday and there is a tradition in my department that the birthday boy/girl provides cake for the rest of the department. Of course my department have come to expect something stupendous from me given my reputation for cupcakes so I have to deliver.

The pressure, the pressure.........

This year I thought I would go for an Autumn theme and toyed with blackberries and hazelnuts but then I saw these:

at Lindy's Cakes.

"That's it!" I thought, "Maple Syrup cakes with Autumn Maple Leaves"

So I ordered the cutters and set about researching recipes. Pretty soon I found a cake recipe, but finding a recipe for the buttercream/frosting, oh my word!!

I found recipes using egg whites, recipes using egg yolks, recipes with comments saying that the quantities are all wrong and one that used meringue powder (what on earth is meringue powder?). I eventually found a recipe that looked suitable at Baking Bites, but the recipe was in cups! Not even sure if the site was using US or Canadian cups! After googling conversion sites and trying to find out how many UK ounces to a cup I discovered that it depended on the ingredient being measures since cups is volume and ounces is weight (or mass if you want to be pedantic).

Aaaargh!!

I just want to make maple syrup flavoured buttercream!!

Last night I made the cakes.

Disaaaaaaster!

The cakes overflowed and then baked with rock hard crusts and virtually nothing underneath (I thought there was too much baking powder in the recipe). In the bin they went and I returned to my old faithful victoria sponge recipe with added maple syrup and pecans.

Tonight I made the buttercream (my usual recipe with added maple syrup) and decorated them.

Here are the results:

I just hope my department appreciate them!