chocotini Archives - Cakeophilia

This is not really one of my usual “recipe” blogs, but I wanted to share with you the awesome cocktail inspired cupcakes which I made yesterday for my friend Colleen’s Hens Party.

I’ve been thinking about what kind of cupcakes to make for a week or so. Somehow the idea of a Tequila Sunrise cupcake had sprung to my mind. I have made Margarita Meringue cupcakes in the past, which have been very popular and so I thought that a Tequila Sunrise cupcake would be really fun. It also would give me an opportunity to play with a new buttercream technique I’ve been wanting to try.

The possibilities for cocktail cupcakes are endless. I’ve already blogged about champagne cupcakes which are completely delicious, and just as I am blogging right now I’m thinking that Kir Royale cupcakes would be incredible- a champagne base with a blackcurrant champagne buttercream! Yum!!!

Gin and lemon cake is pretty well known, but how about something with a midnight twist- I’m thinking about the cocktail known as the Aviation. This is a gin-based cocktail with the addition of lemon and maraschino liqueur. Gin and lemon cupcake base, lemon and maraschino buttercream… A cherry on top of the cupcake would finish the flavour. I’m so excited about these I can hardly wait to make them!

But before I get carried away I should really tell you about the cocktail cupcakes that I made yesterday.

I wanted to have a couple of flavours, although I would have done three had I the time and energy… I’ve got some kind of lurgy right now. So I chose Tequila Sunrise and Hot Chocotini. Here they are:

Tequila Sunrise and Hot Chocotini cupcakes

Tequila Sunrise cupcakes

The Tequila Sunrise cupcakes first then… I made a basic recipe for Victoria Sponge using one egg to yield 12 mini cupcakes. I flavoured the mixture with the juice (about a tablespoon) and grated rind of an imperial mandarin (these have the most iconic “mandarin” flavour), and a tablespoon of Orange liqueur. You could also use plain orange juice and orange rind.

Once the cupcakes were baked, I pierced the tops all over with a skewer and brushed them with grenadine while they were still hot. Once they were cool, I flavoured 250 g of buttercream with 3 tablespoons of good gold tequila. I took about an eighth of the buttercream and placed it in a separate bowl, and coloured it a beautiful deep red using a combination of “Christmas red” and “claret” Sugarflair colour gel. I really like Sugarflair gels. Amazing colours.

I fitted a piping bag with a petal tip (Wilton 104), then carefully placed all of the coloured buttercream in a line along one side of the bag. After refrigerating this for a while I spooned the rest of the buttercream into the bag. I lined the narrow side of the tip up with the stripe of coloured buttercream, then starting from the centre of the cupcake, I piped in a spiral, rotating the cupcake with my other hand as I went. On some of the cupcakes I had the coloured stripe on the top, and others, I rotated the tip so that the plain coloured buttercream was on the top and the colour was on the bottom. The technique seems scary, but actually it was reasonably easy to master. The secret is to have your buttercream at the right temperature so that it holds together nicely. You soon learned to move the cake in such a way that ruffles and straight petals are created where you want them. You just need to make sure your tip is perpendicular to the surface of the cake.

The flowers and the photos below were created by swivelling the tip 180 degrees in the piping bag before starting to pipe. This caused a change in the orientation of the coloured stripe halfway through the piping process. It’s a great technique- it’s practically impossible to create an ugly flower!

Hot Chocotini Cupcakes

For 12 chocolate mini cupcakes, I made another one-egg Victoria Sponge recipe, and substituted 2 tablespoons of flour for 2 tablespoons of cocoa, plus half a teaspoon of vanilla and a big pinch of salt. I know that sounds weird but chocolate and salt really go together!

For these cupcakes it was really all about the frosting. I have some whipped cream flavoured vodka in my cupboard, and thought that that would be a great component in ganache. I went a step further, and instead of making the ganache with cream, I made it with the vodka. It packed a big punch! To make 250 g of ganache, I used equal parts chocolate and vodka. I think if I was going to make these again, I would use half the total weight of chocolate, a quarter weight of cream, and a quarter weight of vodka. I say this because just one cupcake left me feeling pretty lightheaded!

The method for making ganache is the same whether you use vodka or cream. You heat the liquid up to nearly boiling point and then add the chopped chocolate, stirring gently until the mixture is smooth. Once the mixture is cool, I usually beat the mixture with an electric mixer for 30 seconds or so until it starts to stiffen slightly. You need to be careful though because if you beat it too much, it will turn to fudge! Mmmm, vodka fudge….

I loaded the ganache into a piping bag fitted with my favourite Wilton 1B star tip. The piping on the cupcakes is created by simply forcing the mixture down onto the cupcake without moving the star tip at all. This creates little wiggles and ruffles in each fin of the star.

To give these cupcakes the real hot chocolate feel, I roasted some mini marshmallows with a kitchen blowtorch, and popped one on top of each cupcake.

To get the frosting a little sparkle, I loaded some gold leaf powder onto a big squirrel-hair paintbrush, and carefully puffed the powder onto the surface of the cupcake.