Name: Recipe: Dark & Stormy Cocktail Cupcakes
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 14 -18 cakes
Ingredients: 175 g Plain Flour; 110 g Sugar (I use soft light brown for colour and flavour but any would work); 50 g Cooking oil (Sunflower or rape/canola); 1½ tsp ground ginger; ½ tsp baking powder; ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda; Pinch salt; 30 g golden syrup; 30 ml dark rum; 80 ml water; 150 g double cream; 25 ml dark rum; 25 g icing sugar

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Inspired by the classic dark and stormy cocktail these mini rum and ginger Cocktail Cupcakes are filled with a rum cream,so yummy!

A dark & stormy is a classic sailor’s drink. Long and thirst quenching it is perfect after a long day on the water.

Years ago I took part in Ramsgate week – we both sailed and partied hard. Each crew were given a sheet of drinks tickets – valid for one free drink each, every day in the bar. Of course those less honest; or to put it more charitably, more enterprising than I, photocopied the drinks tokens ensuring that the drinks flowed literally freely all night.

I am sure that I would not be able to keep up with it now, but still do enjoy the occasional (sole) dark and stormy.

I’ve used the classic pairing of ginger and rum to make these dark and stormy cakes – the batter is based on my bung it all in whizz and go Easy Peasy Ginger Cake – made entirely from store cupboard ingredients it remains the most popular recipe on the site and is well overdue a new airing and photography.

I would like to learn more about rum – I know that they are at least as complex and as varied as whisky, and are a drink to be savoured in their own right rather than mixed in cocktails. I have tried a few good rums over the years and have enjoyed them. The latest bottle was Ron Zacapa 23 from Alexander & James retailing at just under £50. Made from sugar cane in south-western Guatemala the rum is then matured in the romantically named, high altitude House in the Clouds. Once mature the rum is blended, the Ron Zacapa 23 is a blend of rums between 6 and 23 years old and then the rum is returned to casks that once held whisky, sherry and wine.

The resulting rum is magnificent, and in all honesty probably far too good to bake with (but they do say never cook with wine that you would not drink, and surely the same applies to rum?) It is the colour of fresh conkers, a deep reddish brown and intensely flavoured with caramel, raisins and dark chocolate. Delicious! A perfect seemingly seamless hand woven palm band surrounds each bottle. It would make a lovely present for a rum lover and comes packed in an attractive burgundy box.

I baked in my mini muffin pan, or you could bake cupcakes and pipe a swirl of cream on top of each – but you will need double the amount of whipped cream.

5 from 1 vote

Dark & Stormy Cocktail cakes made with ginger cakes filled with a rum cream

Recipe: Dark & Stormy Cocktail Cupcakes

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

20 mins

Total Time

30 mins

Inspired by the classic dark and stormy cocktail these mini rum and ginger Cocktail Cupcakes are filled with a rum cream,so yummy!

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Baking

Keyword: Cocktail Cupcakes

Servings: 14 -18 cakes

Author: Helen Best-Shaw

Ingredients

For the Cakes

175 g Plain Flour
110 g Sugar I use soft light brown for colour and flavour but any would work
50 g Cooking oil Sunflower or rape/canola
1½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
Pinch salt
30 g golden syrup
30 ml dark rum
80 ml water

For the Rum Cream

150 g double cream
25 ml dark rum
25 g icing sugar

Instructions

Preheat the oven to GM4/180C
Place all the ingredients for the cake into a mixing bowl and beat until you have a smooth batter – you can do this by hand but I use a hand held mixer.
Dollop into a greased mini muffin pan (or into fairy cake cases in a baking pan) and bake at 180C / GM4 for 15 – 20 (depending on the size of your cakes) minutes until risen and springy.
Remove from the oven, allow to rest for a few minutes, then remove from the baking pan and leave to cool on a wire rack.
To make the rum cream place the cream, rum and icing sugar into a bowl and whisk until it holds a peak.
Slice the mini cakes in half horizontally and sandwich them together with a teaspoon of the rum cream (if you have made cupcakes then simply put a dollop of cream on top).
Keep in a cool place and serve the same day.