Flavored Cupcakes with Flavor Paste: Cherry, Mango and Mint

The maker of FunCakes flavor pastes recommends 30 g of paste per 500 g of batter or frosting, which is 6%. For 12 cupcakes, that works out in practice like this:

• Batter: a standard batch for 12 (about 200 g flour, 150 g butter, 150 g sugar, 3 eggs, 100 ml milk) weighs roughly 750 g, so it needs about 45 g of paste.

• Frosting: for 12 generously piped swirls, plan on 400–450 g of frosting and 25–27 g of paste in it.

• Mint paste: start at 4% (about 18 g per 450 g of frosting), taste, and only then add more. Peppermint is strong and gets more intense on the tongue as the frosting rests.

Mix the paste into the batter at the very end, together with the liquid, so it spreads evenly and the batter isn't overmixed. For the frosting, add it by the teaspoon to the finished, fluffy base. Paste is mostly sugar, so if you're using the full amount in the batter, you can cut the sugar by 15–20 g.

Bake the cupcakes at 170–175 °C (340–350 °F) for about 18–22 minutes. That's below 200 °C (400 °F), the point above which, according to the manufacturer, the paste's flavor fades and you'd need to add more. So the standard amount is enough. For more on dosing the different pastes and what they suit, see the article Flavor pastes for frostings and batters: how much to use.

Cherry cupcakes work best with chocolate, or with a delicate vanilla cake and a mascarpone or butter frosting. FunCakes cherry flavor paste contains 30% cherries and citric acid, so it tastes fruity and slightly tart, not like candy.

Three combinations that have proven themselves:

1. Mini Black Forest: a cocoa cake, cherry frosting made with mascarpone and whipped cream, topped with dark chocolate shavings and one cherry.

2. Vanilla + cherry: a light cake, a teaspoon of cherry compote in the hollowed-out center, and cherry buttercream on top. The article Filled cupcakes: how to fill them with cream or jam shows how to core and fill the center so the cupcake keeps its shape.

3. Cherry + almond: 30 g of almond flour in the batter instead of the same amount of wheat flour, frosting with cherry paste, and toasted almond flakes on top.

Cherry paste barely colors the frosting, which comes out a pale beige-pink. That's why you should tint it (more on that below). For how to turn it into a frosting for cakes and cookies too, see Cherry frosting made with flavor paste.

Mango cupcakes need a tart or rich counterpart: lime, coconut or white chocolate. Mango on its own is sweet and quickly blends into a frosting that has no acidity.

• Mango + lime: grated zest of 1 lime in the batter and a tablespoon of lime juice in the frosting with mango paste.

• Mango + coconut: replace 30 g of flour in the batter with desiccated coconut, and sprinkle the decorated cupcakes with toasted coconut flakes.

• Mango + white chocolate: a frosting of mascarpone and melted white chocolate, with the mango paste mixed in. You'll find how to melt white chocolate without it seizing in the article How to melt white chocolate without it seizing.

FunCakes mango paste contains 30% mango and the colorings carotene and curcumin, so it tints the frosting a warm yellow on its own. If you want an even stronger mango flavor, add a tablespoon of puree reduced by half to the full amount of paste. The frosting can't take more puree alongside the paste; without paste, you can use more (see the comparison below).

Mint cupcakes almost always call for a chocolate cake. Mint in the frosting and cocoa in the batter is an "After Eight" type of combination, where the mint refreshes and the chocolate adds depth. On a light cake, mint often tastes like toothpaste.

• Cake: chocolate, ideally with a little dark chocolate in the batter.

• Frosting: buttercream or mascarpone, with mint paste at 4–6%.

• Topping: dark chocolate shavings, or a drop of ganache in the middle of the swirl.

FunCakes Green Mint paste contains 2% peppermint oil and colorings, so it turns the frosting green on its own. Don't combine mint with another strong paste (cherry, mango), as it will overpower everything.

For cupcake frosting, paste is the most reliable because it adds hardly any water. Puree gives the most natural flavor but can easily split the frosting. Freeze-dried fruit has the most intense flavor but is pricey and only works for fruit. Flavoring or extract adds only taste, with no color and no body. The comparison at a glance:

• Flavor paste: consistent flavor and strength, stands up to baking, and about 45 g in the batter is enough for 12 cupcakes. The flavor is a bit "bakery-style", not like fresh fruit.

• Fruit puree: the most natural flavor, but the water in it breaks buttercream. It needs to be reduced by half. As the only flavoring, use it at no more than 10–15% of the frosting weight (40–60 g per 400 g); alongside a full dose of paste, just a tablespoon.

• Freeze-dried fruit powder: intense flavor and color with no water, 10–15 g per 400 g of frosting. It's better to sift out bits of skin and seeds.

• Flavoring or extract: flavor with no color and no body. It works well for mint (pure peppermint oil), but for mango and cherry it tends to taste like candy.

So paste is the best choice when you want all 12 cupcakes to taste the same and the frosting to hold up on the table for the whole party. For a "fresher" note, you can add a tablespoon of reduced puree to the paste.

Mango and mint pastes color the frosting on their own; cherry paste doesn't. Frosting with cherry paste comes out a pale beige-pink, with mango a warm yellow, and with mint a light green.

• Cherry: for 400 g of frosting, add a pinch of pink or red gel color (a bit on the tip of a toothpick). Red toned down with a drop of purple looks more like cherries than strawberries.

• Mango: if you want a deeper orange, add a trace of orange gel color.

• Mint: for a pastel mint, the color from the paste is usually just right; you can fine-tune a deeper shade with gel color.

A white base makes the color cleaner: whip buttercream made with pale butter for 5–8 minutes until it turns white, otherwise every shade will look yellowish. For how to whiten frosting completely, see the article Snow-white buttercream: how to whiten it and get rid of the yellow tint. Always add gel color after the paste, because the paste itself shifts the tone.

Choose sturdy paper liners in a color that suits the flavor, and take the cupcakes out of the pan 5 minutes after baking, because a liner peels away from the cake mainly because of steam. If the cupcakes stay in the metal pan, moisture builds up between the paper and the cake. Let them cool on a wire rack.

Other things to keep in mind:

• Fill the liners two-thirds full. More batter overflows the edge, and then the frosting has nowhere to sit.

• Match the liner color to the flavor: light blue or green suits mint, purple or pink suits cherry. PME paper liners hold their color after baking, and a pack of 60 lasts for several trays. You'll find more colors and sizes among the paper cupcake liners.

• Dark chocolate batter shows through light liners. For mint cupcakes with a cocoa cake, choose a deeper color, or foil-lined liners, which hide the dark batter completely.

• Silicone molds are reusable, but the cupcake has no portable "wrapper" in them, so paper is a better fit for a party.

Paper, foil and tulip liners are compared in detail in the article Muffin and cupcake liners: paper, foil or tulip?