A hen party seemed a great opportunity to try making some cocktail themed cupcakes. I slightly adapted a recipe from one of my (many) baking books.
Firstly, the recipe to make 12 cupcakes will use a small bottle of prosecco (or give you an excuse to finish off a standard bottle).
Secondly, I forgo the handmade decorations that were part of the recipe and the typical hen party themed toppers for some unicorn inspired ones that I found in the supermarket. They were so cute that I couldn’t resist 🙂
The inclusion of orange zest to the cake and frosting gives it a lovely freshness and balances the sweetness.
Makes 12
190g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
115g unsalted butter, softened
200g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
2 eggs
125ml prosecco
zest of one orange
2tbsp orange juice
Filling
4 tbsp water
2 tbsp cornflour
175g fresh strawberries, chopped into small pieces
75g icing sugar
4 tbsp prosecco
Frosting
115g unsalted butter, softened
440g icing sugar
4 tbsp prosecco
zest of 1 orange
2 tbsp orange juice
Cupcake toppers
- Pre-heat oven to 180C and line a 12 hole cupcake tin with paper cases.
- 2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar using an electric whisk until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla bean paste, then add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Add half of the flour mixture along with the prosecco and beat until combined. Add the remaining flour mixture, orange zest and orange juice and mix until combined.
- Using an ice cream scoop, divide the mixture between the paper cases. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until risen and golden. Leave to cool in the tin for 2 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- To make the filling, stir the water and cornflour together in a pan and bring to the boil (mind turned jelly like but don’t worry, mine still came out okay).Add the strawberries and icing sugar, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until the mixture is combined. Add the prosecco and simmer for a further 5 minutes until the mixture has thickened. Set aside to cool.
- To make the frosting, put the butter, icing sugar, prosecco, orange zest and orange juice into a bowl and meat with an electric mixed until well combined and is at a piping consistency. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle.
- Use a cupcake corer/apple corer or small knife to remove the centre of each cupcake. Spoon the strawberry filling into the holes. Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes and top each cupcake with a topper.
Eat the leftover pieces of cake with leftover jam filling and icing (just to make sure they taste good 😀 )
mrswbakes 