This speculoos cupcakes recipe is to celebrate the recent arrival of Biscoff style speculoos spread in UK shops!
Speculoos spread, once only sold in Europe is now available at Waitrose. Speculoos biscuits are spicy golden biscuits sold as Lotus biscuits in the UK. You may be familiar with them as the little oval biscuits in cellophane packs served with coffee.
Speculoos spread is a similar consistency to smooth peanut butter or Nutella – but with the added benefit for those with nut allergies of not containing nuts. In common with Nutella, fans of speculoos spread wax lyrical about eating it direct from the jar on a spoon.
To flavour the cupcake sponges I have used here koekkruidden, a Dutch spice mix that lends itself beautifully to baking, especially for a speculoos flavour. The Steenberg’s version of the blend is made up of ground cinnamon, ginger, cloves, cardamom and aniseed.
If you cannot get hold of koekkruiden then use this list as a guide to blend your own mix. And if the staff in Waitrose don’t know what Speculoos spread is, try asking for ‘Lotus spread’ or ‘Lotus caramelised biscuit spread’. Take care however googling images of ‘lotus spread’ as I ended up discovering a rather racy minx with lacy knickers sprawled over the bonnet of a sports car (!)
- 125g unsalted butter, softened
- 125g caster sugar
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp koekkruidden spice powder (available from Steenbergs)
- 125g self-raising flour, sifted
- 2 tbsp milk
- 4-6 speculoos or Lotus biscuits sliced into shards/chunks.
- Preheat oven to 180c/ Gas 4.
- Using an electric mixer with a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Next beat in the eggs and vanilla extract.
- Fold in the flour a third at a time until just combined. Fold in the milk taking care not to over mix.
- Evenly spoon the batter into cases, two thirds full.
- Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes or until a cocktail stick will come out clean.
- Leave the cakes in the tins for a few minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
- Decorate using my speculoos buttercream recipe and shards of speculoos biscuits.
Clarification: This is not a sponsored or a review post. I bought my own speculoos spread on holiday in France.
Rosa Mayland says
November 9, 2012 at 7:50 amOh, I love that paste! What gorgeous cupcakes. So droolworthy.
Cheers,
Rosa
Jacqueline says
November 9, 2012 at 5:46 pmBeautiful cakes and photos Sarah 🙂
Laura@howtocookgoodfood says
November 9, 2012 at 6:51 pmI bought my very first jar a couple of weeks ago from the Richmond Waitrose and was delighted to see it being stocked here along with the crunchy version which I must try out next. My kids adore it so i know they will love these cupcakes as will I !! xx
Chris says
November 10, 2012 at 6:51 amThey look lovely. Just the other day I ate speculoos spread for the first time and now I made my own with speculos biscuits in the blender.
Homemade by Fleur says
November 10, 2012 at 7:21 amI have got myself a jar recently too and I add it it to everything at the moment. It’s great on crumpets and in porridge. wonderful idea for using it in a cupcake. Do you know where that spice mix can be brought either online or in a shop? It’s just my sort of thing especially with the aniseed. X
laythetable says
November 10, 2012 at 8:07 pmI’ve been addicted to speculoos spread for a while but hadn’t though to make cupcakes with it, defo need to give them a try. Haha at the googling!
thelittleloaf says
November 20, 2012 at 1:20 pmThese look and sound AMAZING. Fellow blogger Giulia brought me some speculoos back from Belgium before you could buy it many places in the UK so I’m very excited that it’s now available in Waitrose 🙂 Love the combination of spices too – might have a go at making that mix myself.
Cupcake Ideas says
February 2, 2013 at 4:44 amThis is way too delicious, i have to add it to my blog if you dont mind 🙂
Danielle Vedmore says
June 25, 2013 at 10:07 pmHave heard alot about this spread – seriously need one!