My friends all know I love to bake...they also know I love gin! So when my friend Kim saw this recipe online she tagged me in it straight away! This recipe is from The Craft Gin Club website and its very straightforward to make, like a classic lemon drizzle but with a sneaky bit of gin added in. The cake came out lovely and lemony and smelt divine! However, when it came to the drizzle it seemed so much liquid that I triple checked the recipe to make sure I was reading it correctly. I decided to omit the tonic, for fear of drowning my cake, but even without that my cake was still sat in a small puddle of liquid when I removed it from the tin after cooling and it completely overwhelmed the cake, leaving it soggy in the middle. Upon tasting I thought the cake was lovely and moist and had a lovely fresh lemony taste, with the gin adding a touch of sweetness. The general feed back was a bit like marmite - people either loved the addition of gin or they hated it but I think gin can be divisive like that anyway! I would happily make this cake again, but with HALF the liquid in the drizzle and then I think it would be spot on!
Ingredients
3 Eggs
240g Butter
240g Caster Sugar
240g Self Raising Flour
2 Lemons
200ml Gin
25ml Tonic Water (I left this out)
130g Granulated Sugar
How To Make
1. Preheat the oven to 180'c and grease and line a loaf tin. Cream together the butter and caster sugar until light, fluffy and pale.
2. Beat in the eggs and then fold in the flour and the grated zest of both lemons. Stir through 100ml of the gin and the juice of 1 lemon. Pour into your loaf tin and bake for 45 minutes until risen, golden and a skewer test comes out clean.
3. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool while you make the drizzle. Mix the remaining gin (here I would only use about 30ml next time), tonic water, granulated sugar and the juice of the second lemon in a bowl. Prick the cake all over with a skewer and then pour over the drizzle.
4. Leave the cake to cool in the tin. Once cool and the drizzle has soaked in and the sugar crystallised on top, remove from the tin and serve!
Last year my sister had her 30th Birthday party and it was a "Cocktail & Canapes" theme. My Mum organised all the savoury canapes and asked me to do the sweet ones. They needed to be easy to pick up and not require a plate and so, sticking with the cocktail theme, I decided to do cocktail jelly shots and cocktail cupcakes - complete with "Shot Tops" which are little pipettes that you fill with a liquid of your choosing and stick them in the top of the cupcake. When eating you can infuse the cupcake with the liquid - or squirt it in your mouth as some did at the party!!! Anyway, after lots of research I settled on 3 flavours and Gin & Tonic one was one of them. I adapted my lemon sponge recipe to incorporate the Gin and once baked and iced (I tinted mine yellow) I decorated them with a slice of lemon and a shot top filled with gin and tonic. Makes 12.
Ingredients
6oz Stork
6oz Caster Sugar
6oz Self Raising Flour
3 Eggs
Zest of 1 Lemon
1 tbsp Gin
For the icing...
200g Stork
400g Icing Sugar
2 tbsp Lemon Juice
1 tbsp Gin
How to Make
1.
Preheat the oven to 160'c and place 12 cupcake cases into a muffin tray.
2. Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then gradually add the eggs one at a time, adding a spoonful of flour to prevent curdling.
4. Fold in the rest of the flour and the lemon zest. Lastly stir through the gin. Spoon the mixture evenly between the 12 cases. Bake for 20-25 minutes until risen and golden and a skewer test comes out clean.
5. Leave them to cool on a wire rack. Once cooled make the icing. Beat the butter until soft and fluffy and then mix in the icing sugar, lemon juice and gin. Pipe onto the cupcakes and decorate however you wish.
Last year my sister had her 30th Birthday party and it was a "Cocktail & Canapes" theme. My Mum organised all the savoury canapes and asked me to do the sweet ones. They needed to be easy to pick up and not require a plate and so, sticking with the cocktail theme, I decided to do cocktail jelly shots and cocktail cupcakes - complete with "Shot Tops" which are little pipettes that you fill with a liquid of your choosing and stick them in the top of the cupcake. When eating you can infuse the cupcake with the liquid - or squirt it in your mouth as some did at the party!!! Anyway, after lots of research I settled on 3 flavours and one of them was a Rossini, which is Prosecco and strawberries. I used my vanilla sponge recipe and subbed the vanilla for prosecco and for the strawberry element I soaked some fresh strawberries in prosecco and popped them in the middle of my cupcakes as a little surprise. I topped them with vanilla buttercream, freeze dried strawberries, wafer butterflies and a prosecco shot. Makes 12.
Ingredients
6oz Stork
6oz Caster Sugar
6oz Self Raising Flour
3 Eggs
150ml Prosecco plus 2 tbsp
12 Whole Strawberries
For the icing...
450g Icing Sugar
200g Butter
1 tsp Vanilla
2 tbsp Milk
How To Make
1. Soak your strawberries in 150ml of prosecco. Preheat the oven to 160'c and line a 12 hole cupcake tray with cases.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar. Then beat in the eggs, one at a time with a spoonful of flour. Fold in the flour and stir through the 2 tbsp of prosecco.
3. Spoon into the cases and bake for 20-25 minutes until risen, golden and a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool.
4. Once the cakes have cooled, cut a strawberry sized hole in the cakes (I used a cupcake corer). Pop a strawberry into each one.
5. For the icing, cream the butter until soft and then combine the rest of the ingredients. Pipe over the cupcakes and decorate as you wish.
Last year my sister had her 30th Birthday party and it was a "Cocktail & Canapes" theme. My Mum organised all the savoury canapes and asked me to do the sweet ones. They needed to be easy to pick up and not require a plate and so, sticking with the cocktail theme, I decided to do cocktail jelly shots and cocktail cupcakes - complete with "Shot Tops" which are little pipettes that you fill with a liquid of your choosing and stick them in the top of the cupcake. When eating you can infuse the cupcake with the liquid - or squirt it in your mouth as some did at the party!!! Anyway, after lots of research I settled on 3 flavours and one of them was Baileys, I know its not strictly a cocktail but with a chocolate sponge I thought this would go down a treat at the party and it was a nice contrast to the two other flavours I had devised. For this one I used a recipe on Bakingmad.com which makes 24 fairy cakes but I used it to make 12 cupcakes. I decorated them with chocolate covered coffee beans and a baileys shot.
Ingredients
40g Butter
140g Caster Sugar
100g Plain Flour
20g Cocoa Powder
1.5 tsp Baking Powder
1 Egg
50ml Baileys
80ml Whole Milk
For the icing...
125g Butter
500g Icing Sugar
15ml Milk
45ml Baileys
How To Make
1. Preheat your oven to 170'c and line a 12 hole cupcake tray with cases. Mix together butter, sugar, flour, cocoa powder and baking powder until it resembles breadcrumbs.
2. In a jug mix together the egg, baileys and milk. Then add slowly into the mixer to combine. Divide between the cupcake cases and then bake for 20 minutes until risen and golden. Transfer to a rack to cool.
3. For the icing mix together the butter and icing sugar until it resembles breadcrumbs. Then add the milk and baileys and pipe over the cupcakes. Decorate as you wish.
