The perfect snack for Wimbledon! These little cupcakes are ‘ace’ and you really ought to take full ‘advantage’ of making them. Perfect with a glass of champagne mixed with orange ‘deuce’. Ok…we’ll stop now.
Ingredients
For the cupcakes
- 150g self raising flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 15g cornflour
- 1 small orange, zest only
- 175g soft unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
- 175g caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- 50g raspberries
- 50g strawberrie, roughly chopped
For the Pimm’s syrup
- 150ml Pimm’s
- 50g caster sugar
For the Pimm’s buttercream
- 275g unsalted butter
- 50ml milk
- 2 tbsp Pimm’s
- 350g icing sugar
To decorate
- 6 strawberries, sliced
- A few mint leaves
Method
- Preheat your oven to 180°C / 160°C Fan / Gas Mark 4, and line a 12-hole muffin tin with cupcake cases.
- Sieve the flour, baking powder and cornflour into a large bowl and stir in the orange zest.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy. Then alternately whisk in the eggs and flour mixture until everything is combined. Lightly crush the raspberries and strawberries, then fold these into the batter.
- Divide the mixture between the cupcake cases and bake in the oven for 25 minutes.
- While your cakes are baking, make the syrup by gently heating the Pimm’s with the sugar in a medium saucepan, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat and bring to a gentle bubble for around 6 minutes until you have a thick syrup. Pour into a jug and leave to one side.
- As soon as your cupcakes come out of the oven, prick the tops all over with a toothpick and brush them with the Pimm’s syrup. Leave them to cool in their tray for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- While the cakes are cooling, make the buttercream. Mix together the butter, milk and Pimm’s on a low speed until smooth. Keeping the speed low, gradually add in the icing sugar and mix until smooth and thick. Transfer your icing to a piping bag with a 1cm star nozzle.
- Once the cupcakes are completely cool, pipe each one with a swirl of icing and decorate with the sliced strawberries and mint leaves.
Lead image: Yury Sevryuk via Getty images.