Strawberry Margarita Cupcakes

A recent phenomenon in the world of cupcakes is cuptails! Or caketails. Basically, cocktail flavoured cupcakes. I love cupcakes and I love cocktails! Perfect match :)

There have been a few big birthdays recently! These strawberry margarita cupcakes were for Rachel's 21st. She works in a cocktail bar and started birthday celebrations with a cocktail, so I thought it was the perfect idea!

I really struggled to find a recipe that didn't use actual rum. I had bought rum flavouring, as I don't drink rum, so buying a whole bottle would be a waste. Next time I might use real rum as the flavouring wasn't quite right and smelled quite orangey. I also wanted to use canned strawberries because they are out of season at the moment, so the fresh ones are very expensive! I spent ages looking and in the end I decided that I should just kind of follow a recipe, making my own alterations as I went.

Recipe:

Cupcake:

- 175g butter

- 175g caster sugar

- Finely grated zest of 1 lime

- Juice of 1/2 a lime

- 1 tsp rum flavouring (or 2 tbsp rum)

- 3 large eggs

- 175g strawberries (if canned, then drain and chop them, if fresh, then hull and chop them)

- 280g self-raising flour

Icing:

- 500g icing sugar

- 60g butter

- 60g strawberries (if canned, then drain and chop them, if fresh, then hull and chop them)

- Zest of 1 lime

- Juice of 1/2 a lime (you can add extra at the end as long as it doesn't ruin the consistency!

- 1 tsp rum flavouring (or 2 tbsp rum and add extra icing sugar until you get the desired consistency)

Decorations:

- pink/red and green neon sugar (for the sugar rim)

- Lime, quartered and sliced

Before making the cakes and icing, everything should be at room temperature.

The recipe says it makes 15 cupcakes, but I managed to make 22!

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Line 2 muffin trays with cupcake cases, or bake one tray and reuse it.

2. Cream the butter for as long as you can. 

3. Add the sugar, lime zest, lime juice and rum flavouring, mix.

4. Beat in the eggs one at a time.

5. Sift in the flour in and mix again.

6. Put a heaped tablespoon of batter into each cupcake case. 

7. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes.

8. While the cakes are cooling, start to make the icing. Cream the butter until it is pale and fluffy. 

9. Add the icing sugar, strawberries, lime zest, lime juice and rum flavouring. Mix it together s-l-o-w-l-y at first so that icing sugar doesn't fly everywhere!!

10. Pipe the icing onto the cakes.

11. Sprinkle the coloured sugar onto a plate, and roll the edges of the iced cupcakes in the sugar, to create a sugar rim. Put a piece of lime in the side. You can also cut up strawberry pencils and use them as a 'straw'.

These are all of Rachel's cakes!

Zoe x

Lemon Cheesecake with Berries

These cheesecakes are really yummy and easy! Plus you can have fun deciding how to layer and decorate them!

Recipe:

For the base:

- 8 digestive biscuits

- 90g caster sugar

For the cheesecake:

- 400g cream cheese

- 90g icing sugar

- Zest of 1/2 a lemon

- Juice of 1/2 a lemon

- 600ml double cream

For the topping:

- Mixed berries (frozen or fresh)

- Caster sugar

- Creme de cassis (blackberry liqueur)

- Lemon juice

1. Break up the digestive biscuits. I put them in a sandwich bag and bash them with a rolling pin.

2. Heat the sugar in a pan over a medium heat. Do not stir it with a spoon or any other utensil, just swirl it around in the pan. 

3. When it has all caramelised, like in the picture above, add the broken up biscuits and stir, like the picture below.

4. Leave this mixture to cool and harden on a plate in the fridge. When you take them out of the fridge to serve them, you might need to break them up again with a rolling pin!

5. Whip the cream, until it is thick and can hold a soft peak when you lift the whisk out.

6. In a separate bowl, mix the cream cheese, icing sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice together. 

7. Mix a large spoonful of the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture, then carefully mix the rest of the rest of the cream. You want to do it carefully so that you don't knock lots of air out of your whipped cream.

The first way that I decorated them was with fresh berries (or frozen berries) and a berry sauce. Heat some lemon juice, creme de cassis and caster sugar in a saucepan, bring it to the boil, then turn the heat down and thicken the sauce up for a few minutes, then leave it to cool. Remember that the sauce will thicken up even more when it has cooled. The berries that I used were frozen, so I defrosted them in the microwave and left them to cool.

To layer it up, spoon caramelised biscuits into the bottom of whatever you are serving it in, I chose margarita glasses, then put the cream cheese mixture on top, followed by the berries, drizzle with some of the sauce and top with more of the caramelised biscuit crumbs.

Or the second way that I decorated them was with a berry compote. Put some frozen mixed berries into a saucepan with some sugar, lemon juice and creme de cassis, heat them up until the berries go from this....

...to this! The berries should have broken down and the sauce should have thickened up.

I spooned the caramelised biscuit crumbs into the bottom of the glass, then the cream cheese mixture, then the berry compote. I topped it with a few slices of fresh strawberries.

Zoe x