Day Of The Leaplings

February 29th is Leap Day. Babies born on this day are called Leaplings. As their birthday only comes once every four years they can choose to celebrate their birthday, on the non-leap years, a day early on February 28th, a day later on March 1st, or they can wait four years and only celebrate on Leap Day.

Legally they grow a year older each year (they don’t have to wait 72 or 84 years to be able to buy a drink!) In New Zealand if you’re born on the 29th of February, your birthday is officially 28th February on the other years. In many other parts of the world it is on the 1st of March in those years. In Australia, it was decided in a court case in 2018 (really 2018!) when an offender argued successfully that she should be tried as a child for offences committed on 28th February 2018. The prosecutors had argued from a different historical position that she should be tried as an adult – with substantially larger possible penalties.

The rest of us can celebrate Leap Day as a day of balance, as this extra day was added to keep the calendar year aligned with the seasonal and astronomical year.

When thinking of celebrating birthdays, I usually think of colourful cakes. One of my favourites, Neapolitan cake, is a tricoloured cake inspired by the colours of Neapolitan ice cream. The most common Neapolitan ice cream block contains three flavours – chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.

As a big fan of cupcakes, I decided to make a cupcake version of this classic cake. My Neapolitan Cupcakes feature slices of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry cupcake sandwiched together with strawberry jam, topped with vanilla cream frosting and a sprinkling of grated milk chocolate. Serve with scoops of Neapolitan ice cream for a truly indulgent celebration!

Neapolitan Cupcakes
makes 9 cupcakes

 

Ingredients
for the cupcake batter
1 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cornstarch (cornflour)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
125g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup superfine (caster) sugar
2 eggs

for the chocolate cupcakes
1 teaspoon cocoa powder, sifted
2 teaspoons water

for the vanilla cupcakes
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons water

for the strawberry cupcakes
3 tablespoons strawberry jam
pink food coloring

to assemble
extra strawberry jam

for the vanilla cream frosting
1 cup double cream
1 tablespoon powdered buttermilk or powdered milk*
1 tablespoon powdered (icing) sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

To serve
grated milk chocolate or chocolate sprinkles

Instructions
Preheat oven to 180C / 350F.
Line a 12-hole muffin pan with 9 paper cases.
In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, cornstarch and salt. Set aside.
In a medium sized bowl, cream together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy and pale.
Add eggs one at a time and beat well.
Add the flour mix and fold through until combined.
Divide the mixture evenly into three bowls.
To make the chocolate batter add the cocoa and water to one bowl and mix until thoroughly combined.
To make the vanilla batter add the vanilla and water to the second bowl and mix until thoroughly combined.
To make the strawberry batter add the jam and enough food colouring to achieve desired pink colour to the third bowl and mix until thoroughly combined.
Using an ice-cream scoop, spoon the chocolate batter evenly into 3 paper cases. Repeat with vanilla and strawberry batter making sure to clean the ice cream scoop between batches.
Bake for 10 – 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of a cupcake comes out clean.
Allow to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

To assemble:
Remove cupcakes from paper lining.
Carefully cut each cupcake horizontally into three even slices with a serrated knife.
Assemble the cupcakes making sure that each cupcake has a different coloured top, middle and bottom.
Use a thin layer of strawberry jam to sandwich the layers together.
To make the vanilla cream frosting, whip together the cream, powdered sugar and milk powder with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined.
Add the vanilla extract and whisk on high speed until stiff peaks form.
Spoon whipped cream into a piping bag and pipe onto cupcakes.
Sprinkle with chocolate.

*I use milk powder in my icings to balance the sweetness but you can omit the milk powder and replace it with extra powdered sugar.