Hendricks Gin Cupcakes

In honor of Jade's Birthday I wanted to bake her some cupcakes to kick off the celebrations. With a little inspiration from my Big Sis we created the Hendricks Gin Cupcake which perfectly compliments the brands ethos of embracing the unusual.

I wouldn't say that they were perfect, as so often with experimental cooking they need a little bit of tweaking, but they have a lot of potential and with more gin they will be perfecto :-)  So the recipe below is the slightly amended version but I would taste the syrup and add more gin to taste.

 

Worth mentioning that it's the first time I've got to use my beautiful cake stand that my friend Lisa brought me, up until this point it's just been a very elaborate fruit bowl :-)

Hendricks Gin Cupcakes

Cupcake

• 150 g Butter, softened
• 150 g Sugar
• 3 Eggs, beaten
• 150 g Self-Raising Flour, sifted
• 1 tbsp Milk

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/ gas 4. Cream together the butter and sugar until light, fluffy and pale. Gradually mix in the beaten egg alternating with the flour to stop the mix from curdling. Finally, stir through the milk. Place 12 paper cupcake cases into a muffin tin and divide the mixture between them. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden and springy to the touch. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. Once cooled prick with a fork and the spoon over the syrup and allow it to soak in. The repeat before icing.

Syrup

• 25g Sugar
• 25ml Water
• 75ml Gin (preferably Hendricks)
• 100ml Tonic
• 25ml Lime Juice

Dissolve the sugar and water in a small saucepan over a moderate heat. Simmer for a couple of minute until all the sugar is completely dissolved. Take off the heat and allow to cool. Then combine the cooled syrup with the gin, tonic and lime juice.  

Icing

• Icing Sugar
• Water
• Lime Juice
• Green Food Colouring

Slowly combine 2 tablespoons of icing sugar and 1 tablespoon of water and lime juice together and keep adding and mixing until you have enough to cover you cake and the consistency is thick and not too runny. Test to see whether you need to add more lime or more water then add your food colouring and then decorate your cakes.

Don't like gin?
The concept can easy be adapted if you're not a gin lover. Just simply swap the spirit used in the syrup part to rum, whiskey, vodka, Pimms and the tonic to something else, lemon juice, pineapple juice etc. Then use the icing part to either compliment the flavour like I did (lemon, lime) or use it to incorporate a new one which will create a cocktail cupcake, for example:

Rum Syrup + Mint Icing with green food dye = Mojito Cupcakes
Rum Syrup + Pineapple Icing + Desiccated Coconut Sprinkles = Pina Colada
Tequila Syrup + Orange Icing with red food dye = Tequila Sunrise