One of my lovely friends was having a birthday party that me and the boy were invited to. With any kind of party I always like to make an effort and take bits over, whether that be sausage rolls, jelly or maybe even a pudding I always like to take something.

This time my genius boy said I should make something other than a birthday cake, so I had a hunt and decided to test out making gin and tonic cupcakes.

I’m not going to lie I bloody love gin.  Gin is my drink.  I couldn’t wait to make/eat these bad boys and they were going to be perfect for this party.

I hunted and hunted the internet for what I thought was the best recipe and found some amazing ones.  I’ve taken the various cake gurus recipe and adapted… Mainly more gin is added.


What I used:


The cakes

  • 175g unsalted butter
  • 175g Caster sugar – preferably golden
  • 175g self raising flour
  • 25g plain flour
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1tsp baking powder
  • 1tsp Nielsen-Massey vanilla paste
  • 3 tbsp tonic water
  • 2tbsp Beefeater gin
  • Zest of 1 lime


The Icing

  • 250g unsalted butter softened
  • 500g icing sugar
  • Sprinkles for the top
  • Lime juice
  • 4tbsp (but maybe add more if needed) Beefeater gin

Optional limes chopped up for decoration…. A suggestion was those sweetie lime so you can eat them too!

 

How to do it… 

Firstly get the oven on and preheat to around 180c but a bit lower for a fan. Get your favourite cupcake cases and pop them into the cake tray.  I used a muffin try to make sure there was substantial amount.
Grab a large bowl (like my lovely one from TK maxx… which was a a £10 bargain!) then sift in together the baking powder and flour but don’t do anything with it…just yet!

If you have the benefit of an eclectric mixer then blend together the sugar and butter until its all creamy and fluffy.  Once it’s looking good slowly add the eggs but make sure you mix well!  Add the flour mixture then slowly stir in tonic water.  To make these a bit healthier (if possible) use slim line tonic.

Once everything has been mixed together start filling the cases and bake for 25 minutes.  Once you remove the cakes just leave to cool for about 15-20 minutes before starting decoration.

You can’t have a cupcakes with delicious icing… butter icing!
For the icing, just mix the soft butter and icing sugar together until deliciously creamy (try to resist eating it). Then blend the remaining gin (throw a little more though as it helps secure the flavour) to the mixture.  Finally as your cakes are nice and cool put a healthy amount of icing on top, then add some sprinkles and a lovely wedge of lime…and ta-da gin and tonic cupcakes!