Cocktail in a cupcake: Mojito

In case you weren’t aware, yesterday was Valentine’s Day.  Now, I’m not a huge fan of Valentine’s Day.  This partially stems from a couple of incredibly awkward situations when I was still at school, but mostly it boils down the fact that I’m a little bit bitter and more than a little bit cynical.  (Though I’ll happily take any roses that unexpectedly come my way – they happen to be my favourite type of flower.  Which I realise is totally cliché.  And probably a little hypocritical, too.)

So the obvious way to ignore Valentine’s Day: cocktails and a James Bond film (we chose Goldfinger) with a couple of friends who share my cynicism.  A suitably non-pink cocktail: the Mojito.  And because we love baking: mojito cupcakes.  Oh yes…

These cupcakes turned out very rummy (would you have expected anything less?), and very yummy – the glaze and added rum soaks right into their centres.  As Kat put it, “I think these are my new favourite cupcakes!”

Mojito cupcakes

Makes 16 cupcakes
Recipe from BakeSpace

Adding rum after the glaze is totally optional, but let’s be honest, why wouldn’t you?  The recipe isn’t quite as time-consuming as it looks, mostly because the glaze can be prepared whilst the cupcakes are in the oven, and the icing whilst they are cooling.  I’m sure that if you used dark or spiced rum, the cupcakes would taste quite different, but equally yummy!

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:
225g butter, softened
200g brown sugar
230g self-raising flour
¼ tsp baking powder
4 eggs
Zest & juice of 1 lime
2 shots white rum
Handful fresh mint, chopped (or you can use 1 tbsp dried mint)

For the glaze:
5 tbsp white rum
Juice of 1 lime (about 2 tbsp)
2 tbsp brown sugar
A few leaves of fresh mint, finely chopped (or 1 tsp dried mint)
Further 8 tbsp white rum (optional)

For the icing:
85g butter, softened
185g icing sugar
Shot of white rum (perhaps a little extra…)
Zest & juice of ½ a lime (about 1 tbsp zest and 1 tbsp juice)
Brown sugar, to taste
Fresh mint, finely chopped (to decorate)

Directions

To make the cupcakes:
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Line a muffin with tin with 16 paper cases or set out silicone moulds.

2.  Cream the butter and brown sugar together in a large bowl.  Add all the other batter ingredients and mix well.

3.  Spoon the batter evenly into the prepared cases and bake for 18-20 minutes.

To make the glaze:
4.  Whilst the cupcakes bake, mix the glaze ingredients together in a small saucepan.  Set on a low heat and allow to simmer for about 5 minutes until a little syrupy.

5.  When the cupcakes are done, remove from the oven, poke a few holes into the tops of each (I used a pointy chopstick) and about 1 tsp of the glaze per cupcake into them.  Spoon in about ½ tsp of extra rum over the top of the glaze (optional, but so good).  Allow the cupcakes to cool on a wire rack.

To make the icing:
6.  Cream the butter and icing sugar (be prepared for an icing sugar explosion).  Add the rest of the icing ingredients (except the chopped mint) and continue mixing until smooth.

7.  Pipe the icing over each cupcake once they have fully cooled.  Sprinkle with some freshly-chopped mint to garnish before serving.

Enjoy!  (Responsibly, of course…  Ahem.)