As part of my reward for judging the Tesco Real Food cupcake decorating competition I attended a cake decoration masterclass with Mich Turner MBE at the rather lovely Make Lounge in Islington. I was both looking forward to, and slightly dreading the class as I was under the impression that my cake decorating skills are limited, happily I was proved very wrong and I now have the cake decoration “bug” and spent £25 last weekend on edible glitter, cutters and fondant icing. The skills I learnt in the class are a topic for another post, but I put them to good use today to make some Christmas cupcakes.
Several months ago I attended the launch of Fever-Tree’s Mediterranean Tonic Water, which is designed specifically for the vodka drinker, and very delicious it was too. I feel rather guilty as I have not written about it yet, I am blaming the blog backlog; which I am slowly catching up with. I was also given some samples of Fever-Tree’s Ginger Beer which I used in my cupcakes. This ginger beer is brimming with three types of ginger, the drink is light and refreshing, but at the same time warming. Well worth a taste.
The cakes are based on my ever popular (and most read post on the blog) Easy Peasy Ginger Cake recipe. I reduced the amount of ginger, and used Fever-Tree Ginger Beer in place of the water. I think that it is even better than the original recipe due to the excellent quality of the Fever-Tree ginger beer. Like the original recipe this version still is as easy peasy as “bung it all in the food processor and whizz”, all ingredients are from the store cupboard and the cakes are vegan (and thus cholesterol free), although I used buttercream for icing.
Easy Peasy Ginger Beer Cupcakes (makes 30)
350g plain flour
225g sugar (I use soft dark brown for colour and flavour but any would work)
100g cooking oil (sunflower or rape/canola)
1 tsp ground ginger (adjust according to taste and fierceness of the ginger beer)
1tsp baking powder
½ – 1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ – 1 tsp ground allspice
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
Pinch salt
About 60g treacle *
200ml ginger beer
25ml water
Place all the ingredients into the food processor bowl and whizz until you have a smooth golden brown batter. Fill cake cases about 2/3 full and bake at GM4/180C for about 14 mins until risen and a cocktail stick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Buttercream (for 30 cakes)
250g butter (or non diary spread – I use Pure)
600g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbs milk
Cut the butter into small cubes and allow to soften. Beat with an electric mixer for 5 minutes until pale and fluffy, slowly add half the icing sugar beating all the time. Add the vanilla essence and milk, beat. Slowly add the rest of the icing sugar and beat for a good 5 minutes until fluffy. If you are using a non diary “butter” you may need to adjust the amount of icing sugar.
I iced half my cakes then coloured the remainder of the buttercream. If you use liquid food colouring you may need to add a little more icing sugar.
Decorate to your heart’s content and enjoy!
sounds very good – and they look so pretty with the snow flakes – just the thing for this british winter!
They look really beautiful – I love all the glitter and decorations. Whereabouts did you buy them from? – I don’t think there’s anywhere round me that I can find stuff like that! It sounds like you enjoyed the class too.
I must try vegan cupcakes and these sound amazing – I love ginger!
these look delicious- if you’ve not eaten them already, pls send one over with Ed. I am sick and have not been interested in eating for 2 days until I saw these ( hope you made them with butter…)
Hope you enjoyed them Erica!
I am a fan of everything ginger in baking so these really call to me. Love your red frosting – so hard to get good colour like that!
What pretty, festive cakes. Love the idea of using ginger beer in the recipe – bet they are delicious.
Remarkably good – vegan and festive with that ginger beer. Jolly good idea. You did a good job transferring those snowflakes onto the cakes, they’re so fragile aren’t they?
It took me several goes to work out that regal icing for the snowflakes need to be rolled somewhat thicker than for the stars!
I let them dry for a good few hours.
I am ADDICTED!
They look really beautiful – I love all the glitter and decorations. Whereabouts did you buy them from? – I don’t think there’s anywhere round me that I can find stuff like that! It sounds like you enjoyed the class too. I must try vegan cupcakes and these sound amazing – I love ginger!
Although Christmas is but a distant memory it is still winter. And with ginger beer and cupcakes and buttercream, need I say anymore!
These look wonderful. Definitely going to have to try and make these for Christmas!
i think these cupcakes are really nice and christmasy …. I will try and make them sometimes
thanks for putting the website on the internet
me and my friend ella like them
:)