Mojito Cupcakes

 

My parents are celebrating their 25th Wedding Anniversary on Tuesday, and to celebrate, they had a huge garden party with all of their family and friends. My Mum gave me a two tiered dumb waiter to fill with as many cakes and bakes as I could; I filled the top tray with a selection of cocktail inspired cupcakes, decorated with all the usual cocktail garb, and on the second tray I had brownies and flapjacks... so the next few recipes will be everything that adorned my parents party, starting with mojito cupcakes!
 
Ingredients:
For the sponge:
6oz unsalted butter
6oz golden caster sugar
3 eggs
6oz self raising flour
1tsp baking powder
2tsp chopped mint leaves
Zest of a lime
Juice of 1/2 a lime
50ml white rum
 
For the frosting:
60g unsalted butter
250g icing sugar
25ml white rum
Few drops green food colouring
Straws and small slithers of lime to decorate
 
Pre-heat your oven to 180c and line your muffin tin with cases.
 
In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until soft. Add the eggs, and mix until just combined.
Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold into the mixture, making sure to get rid of any lumps.
Next, add the chopped mint leaves, lime juice and zest, and rum and gently mix into the batter until the mint leaves are evenly distributed.
Spoon the mix into the cases and bake for 20-25 minutes, until the tops are golden and springy to the touch, and a skewer inserted into the middle of a cake comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool.
 
For the frosting, use a spoon to cream together the butter and half of the icing sugar in a bowl. Next add the rum and food colouring and stir in before adding the rest of the icing sugar and mixing until thoroughly combined.
Once the cakes are cool, use a piping bag to spiral the frosting onto each cake. Decorate with a short length of straw and slither of lime.