Cocktail cupcakes? Oh yes!

I have recently discovered the show Mad Men (ah, the biting satire on gender roles in 1950s America; thank goodness we live in a more enlightened time and place.  Ahem.) and less recently, the joy of cupcakes.  Imagine my delight, then, when I came across this:

http://thisisrocksalt.com/2012/03/24/mad-men-season-launch-you-need-these-cupcakes/


"A juniper-scented, gin-soaked sponge with a light and tangy lemon icing..."?  Oh yes, I need these cupcakes, I really do.  Luckily, a friend's birthday tea party last weekend provided the ideal opportunity to try them out. 

I couldn't quite bring myself to use most of a whole block of butter in the cakes AND an entire whole block of butter for the frosting (mostly because I only had one block!) so I fudged the quantities somewhat for the cake and made slightly less frosting, supplementing the butter with gin and lemon juice (for extra tang and because let's face it, gin makes EVERYTHING better).  I was also so inspired by the description of the 'gin-soaked sponge' that I decided a drizzle of lemon-gin syrup would be just what was required. 

My cakes weren't as perfectly pretty as the original examples, but they did come out exceptionally well.  This is probably the most tender, even-crumbed and moist cupcake recipe I've tried yet -- will definitely be using it in future!

Tom Collins Cupcakes

125g butter
2/3 cup caster sugar
zest and juice of one lemon
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup gin

Preheat oven to 180C (185 if you are my oven).  Beat softened butter, sugar and lemon zest together until light and fluffy (I used my hand blender with whisk attachment on medium speed); beat in eggs one at a time.  Fold in half of sifted dry ingredients, then gin and lemon juice, then remaining dry ingredients.

Divide mixture between 12 cupcake cases.  Bake for 20 minutes, rotating halfway through cooking time, or until cakes are lightly browned and spring back when pressed (mine took about 22 minutes).

Lemon-gin syrup
2-3 tbs gin
juice of one lemon (reserve zest for decoration)
2 tbs sugar

Mix together until sugar dissolves.  Drizzle about a teaspoon or so of syrup over each cake while still warm.

Frosting
350g(ish) icing sugar
125g butter, softened
zest and juice of one lemon
a splash of gin

Mix all ingredients together until well-combined, adding more liquid or more icing sugar as required until correct consistency (pipe-able or spreadable) is reached.  Ice cakes when cool; sprinkle with reserved lemon zest.