Gin and Tonic Cupcakes

I was recently asked to make some Gin and Tonic cupcakes for a birthday party, and as I had never tried an alcoholic cupcake recipe before, I was keen to give it a go! Plus Gin and Tonic is one of my favourite tipples, so to be allowed to combine it with cake, what could be better!

I started by making the candied lime peel for the decoration. Using a vegetable peeler I stripped off the top layer of the lime and sliced the zest into thin strips.

I then boiled sugar and water to create a syrup, and soaked the zest strands in it until soft before transferring them to a bowl of sugar. 

The end result looked lovely with their sugary crystal coating, and they passed the 'drop' test by making a tinkling sound when dropped onto a plate.

The cupcake batter was a basic lemon sponge, and then soaked with a lemon juice, tonic water and gin syrup, at this point it's best to think of it as a lemon drizzle cupcake! I used Bombay Sapphire gin for my cupcakes, and was worried that the slightly subtle taste would get lost. Unfortunately I couldn't taste the gin flavour when I tried a sample, but on a couple of taste tests, it was decided that the quantity of gin was enough to give an alcoholic twang. I would have maybe used slightly less lemon juice as it's such a strong flavour and can overwhelm more delicate ingredients. 

The butter icing also contained the gin syrup, which gave a lovely smooth and glossy appearance to the icing when piped.

The silver '70' decorations were cut from fondant and then painted using an edible silver paint. I loved the contrast between the pale icing, silver numbers and sharp green of the zest, and in silver foil cupcake cases and with a sprinkle of silver glitter on top, I think they looked perfect for a birthday celebration.