Rhubarb & white chocolate buttermilk cupcakes

When it comes to a definition of muffins vs cupcakes, I am always at a loss, pretty much - I have been looking it up a gazillion times and am observing recipes by other foodbloggers with English as their mother tongue on both sides of the pond, only to get more confused... when I picture them both in my mind, the muffin is the one with the funky hairdo. I mean, the cupcake will be almost flat on top, whereas the muffin, using lots more raising agents, grows taller as it bakes and therefore ressembles Boney M more than Sinéad O'Connor.
So by that token, these little beauties above are cupcakes. I was inspired by my friend Pille recently who seems to have returned from a certain farm with a tractor-load of rhubarb... I have to pick mine up by the 400g-pack at my local supermarket, but it isn't easy to resist. Rhubarb, albeit inedible in its unrefined form, is one of the greatest flavours of spring. I especially like it in these buttermilk cupcakes, paired with white chocolate, which can sometimes have an almost sickly sweetness to it. The rhubarb, however, tones it down a notch and adds its wonderfully tart, but intensely fruity flavour - a match made in heaven. These cakes are incredibly moist and will stay so for a day, maybe longer, but I've not been able to verify that: I've made four batches in the last two days and they seem to disappear at lightening speed and in very mysterious ways... and nobody in the family seems to notice anything!

More rhubarb ideas on thepassionatecook:
Rhubarb & almond tarte (April 2006)
Cheese bites with rhubarb chutney (June 2004)
Threesome of curd dumplings on rhubarb & strawberry compote (May 2005)
Rhubarb & raspberry jam (May 2004)
Rhubarb crème brulée (July 2006)
Rhubarb cheesecake with sesame base (March 2006)

Rhubarb & white chocolate buttermilk cupcakes
(makes 10 large cupcakes)

150 g caster sugar
80 g butter (softened)
2 large eggs
225 self-raising flour (or plain flour plus 1 tsp baking powder)
150 g butter milk
400 g rhubarb
150 g white chocolate (roughly chopped)

Pre-heat oven to 225 C.
Beat the butter and the sugar until creamy. Add the eggs and beat to a homogenous mass. Add the flour, then the butter milk.
Clean the rhubarb by generously cutting off the ends of the stalks, then peeling off the fibrous skin. Don't worry about any thin parts remaining on the stalk, the tougher fibres will usually come off readily, what remains should soften while cooking.
Cut the rhubarb stalks into small bits (slices, halfed if your stalks are very thick), then fold into the batter. Add the white chocolate and work into the dough gently and quickly.

Line a muffin tray with paper cups, fill with the cupcake mixture up to the edge. The rhubarb will take a lot of space initially, then shrink as it cooks, while the dough will rise a little - leaving the cupcakes level with the edge of the paper, or protruding only slightly from it.
Bake for 20 - 25 minutes - insert a metal skewer to test for doneness, although this is a bit tricky to tell, as the rhubarb is very moist... if you get lots of dough on your stick, continue to cook, if there's only a thin film, you can remove them.

If you can resist eating them immediately, serve them when cooled - they're even better the next day. Return them to the cool oven to store them overnight, as their crust will go soft/soggy in an airtight container/fridge.

Comments

[Pille]

We finished the last of these particular farm rhubarbs yesterday - it took us 4 batches of muffins, 1 rhubarb tosca cake, 1 rhubarb & marzipan pie, 2 jars of rhubarb & ginger jam, and 1 batch of puff pastry cones with rhubarb & thyme chutnry & Camembert to achieve that:) Today I picked up ca 700 grams fresh asparagus, and a kilo of rhubarb from the market, so there's still plenty of opportunities to try your lovely rhubarb recipes listed above!

[Bonnie]

These do look amazing and I'm not suprised that they didn't stick around...

I've come to define cupcakes and muffins in my own way. This is how I differentiate and define:

Cupcakes will always have icing - regardless of what type.

Muffins will sometimes have icing and sometimes not...

Cupcakes shouldn't really have (as far as I'm concerned) any chuncky bits in them. They should be fluffy cakes.

I personally, note personally, would have called these muffins.

To make things even more confusing - in the North of England they call cupcakes - with or without icing, buns. Go figure.

But they look so good I may have to bake a batch. YUM!

[Dagmar]

I'm going insane after reading all rhubarb posts, including Pilles :-) I will surely try these ones as they look amazing!

Regarding the name, I tend to use the name Fluffins after reading a cookbook by a Swedish author. More on that in my fluffins post: http://www.acatinthekitchen.com/?p=217

[johanna]

well, well, if the queen of cupcakes is talking, i'll have to stick by her definition! will not rename this one, if that's ok with you, bonnie... once you start eating them, you won't care much about the name anymore anyway!
fluffins is very interesting indeed... no fluff involved here, i've never been one for icing. except pure chocolate.
speaking of fluff, though, i saw "fluff" a marshmallow product in the supermarket last week... anyone know if/how/where to use that?

[david]

Actually, if you look up the definition of 'muffin' it means 'cake'. There really isn't much difference, except you rarely see muffins get frosted.
Too bad!

[Anne]

I couldn't care less what they're called - but man, I'm *so* making these! They sound incredible! :)

[Kit]

These sound delicious, but we haven't seen any rhubarb here for a couple of years, it doesn't seem to enter into the SA mindset - I'm sure I'd find some if I was determinedly sleuth-like, but seeing as the children probably wouldn't eat it anyway....

Just to add another element to the linguistic debate, we call cup-cakes - fairy cakes and they are usually iced and have a more cakey, light texture, whereas muffins in England used to be a fluffy, flattish, bread roll that you halved and toasted for tea lavishly spreading with butter which melted so it dribbled down your chin - they had a slightly chewy texture... now of course in SA the American muffin rules, which as you say bulges high above its paper case and isn't usually iced...

[Dagmar]

Anne is so right, the name doesn't matter :-)

Johanna, you can for example use the marshmallow fluff as frosting or filling. There are some odd recipes at http://www.marshmallowfluff.com

[Wendy]

Wow. These look so wonderfully moist. Roll on Saturday: I have to try out this recipe!

[peabody]

My mom is a rhubarb fanantic. I will have to send her this recipe. She will swoon, big time.

[Claudia]

After baking some cakes with rhubarb I still can't get enough of it. Your cupcakes (i wouldn't call them muffins either!) look delicious. They sure make their way to my baking list.

[laura k]

I always figured muffins you could eat for breakfast, cupcakes you could eat for dessert. And English Muffins are the flat, craggy delicious things I put peanut butter on and eat everyday.
These look awesome sauce and I will definitely have to try this recipe out. Thanks for sharing it!

[Culinary Cowgirl]

Oh my gosh...those look fabulous...now I know what to do with the rhubarb sitting in my fridge!

[valentina]

Oh, I love the look and the thought of these. I only came to know rhubarbs in the uk and I love them. I have received some this week and apart from a rhubarb brulle recipe, yours is going to be the second recipe to be made.

[Anna]

Yes! I was just ogling rhubarb cupcakes yesterday and thinking that I needed to try to make these (my usual rhubarb recipes are rhubarb pie and rhubarb rice pudding.) Will have to try this.

[Maninas]

WOW this looks fantastic! I shall absolutely have to try this! :D

[Johanna]

the recipe looks great and the discussion of cupcakes vs muffins strikes a chord with me - I have just started to realise everyone is taking cupcakes and muffins have disappeared from sight in recipe books - how peculiar!

[Cara]

This recipe is delicious! We have rhubarb everywhere at our farmers market right now and I've been trying all sorts of new recipes. This is my favorite so far. Thanks!

[Choclette]

I made a batch of these yesterday and they were delicious - everyone that tried them gave them the thumbs up. I think I agree with the general view that these are muffins not cupcakes. Generally I would expect more butter and less flour in cupcakes and that they would be iced. I don't think of muffins as having icing sugar on.

[Knally]

I've just tried these this month (since I had a rhubarb glut!) and they were a big hit. My sister has taken the recipe back to Cornwall where it's becoming very popular.
We both used a mixture of yogurt and milk instead of buttermilk since that's not readily available, and it worked well.