Whisky Sour cupcakes

"The Americans are a funny lot; they drink whiskey to keep them warm; then they put some ice in it to keep it cool; they put some sugar in it to make it sweet; and then they put a slice of lemon in it to make it sour. Then they say "here's to you" and drink it themselves." - B. N. Chakravaty

Not being a fan of whisky myself, this particular cupcake experiment came about when I was asked to make whisky-based cupcakes for a friend's birthday. Correct me if I'm wrong, whisky drinkers, but I believe a whisky sour is a cocktail made of whisky (often Bourbon), lemon juice, sugar, and sometimes an egg white, with a maraschino cherry as garnish.

I went with a whisky and lemon cupcake with a sour lemon buttercream and of course decorated with lemon zest and the obligatory maraschino cherry.

The decoration really was the cherry on the top - they looked great and whisky-loving friends confirmed they tasted great too!

Ingredients

Makes 12

For the cupcakes:

• 225g plain flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 110g softened butter
• 170g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 200ml whisky
• 50ml lemon juice
• 2 tsp lemon zest

 For the icing:

• 165g softened butter
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp lemon extract
• 250g icing sugar 

For the decoration:

• lemon zest
• maraschino cherries

Instructions

• Pre-heat your oven to 180ºC and line your cupcake pan with cases.
• Beat together the butter and sugar until completely mixed. Mix in the eggs.
• In a separate bowl, sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda together. Slowly add a bit of the whisky into the rest of the cake mixture, followed by some of the flour mix so that the mixture does not curdle. Continue to alternate these, ensuring it is all mixed in before adding the next element.
• Add the lemon juice and mix until completely incorporated. 
• Fill cupcake cases about ⅔ full and bake for about 15 minutes at 180ºC until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
• Take the cupcakes out of the oven but leave in the pan to cool for at least five minutes before then moving the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely. 
• While you wait for the cupcakes to cool, make the icing. Beat the butter until creamy and light in colour. Add the lemon juice and lemon extract. Then start adding the icing sugar, little by little, adding and mixing until fully incorporated. Depending on what consistency you want, you may want to add extra icing sugar to make it thicker, or a little more lemon juice if it is too thick. 
• Pipe the buttercream icing onto the cupcakes any way you want and decorate with some lemon zest and a maraschino cherry.

Enjoy!

“There are few hours in life more agreeable than the ceremony known as afternoon tea”

Spiced apple cake with caramel drizzled on top

I completely agree with the title of this post - a great quote from 'The Portrait of a Lady' by Henry James. So when a friend recently suggested a catch up over tea and cake (she knows that if she suggests cake, I will offer to provide the said cake!), we invited a few friends to join us and it soon turned into 13 people for afternoon tea!

Alongside the multiple pots of English tea, I also made a lemon cake with lemon buttercream, a spiced apple cake drizzled with caramel, a homemade alternative to jammy dodgers, and flapjacks.

Cake leftovers were taken to work the next day and my colleagues are still demanding the recipe for the spiced apple cake, so I will publish that in a later blog post.

The jammy dodgers were sables (French butter biscuits) with good quality raspberry jam inside and a little vanilla sugar sprinkled on top. I used this BBC FOOD recipe. They were delicious !

Jammy Dodgers

My Mum is a great baker (and in fact a great chef in general). Growing up we were spoilt with freshly baked goods, and flapjacks are one of her specialities. A few years ago she passed me the recipe and I have had so much success with them - whether for afternoon teas or taking along to football matches as post-match sustenance. They are super easy to make so maybe I will share the recipe at some point ...

 

I ran out of time so the lemon cake was very simply decorated - lemon buttercream with citrus sugar sprinkled on top. Despite the presentation, it was still tasty.

Lemon cake with lemon buttercream