I suppose it would go without saying that my love for flowers extends beyond growing them in the garden and putting them in a vase. I love wearing them, drawing them and giving them. I also love cooking with them and am especially in love with rosewater and orange flower water in baking.
A couple of weeks ago as we were off to Twickenham to watch The Saints in the rugby premiership final I decided to girly up the day a bit with some pretty cupcakes made in the new Katie Alice silicone cases I just pinched from work! (Available online here) I still can’t work out if I’m supposed to feel guilty when I pinch my own things…
This is one of the simplest recipes for cupcake batter I’ve ever used and they came out great! It made 10 cakes in the silicone cases.
RASPBERRY AND ROSEWATER CUPCAKES
For the cakes – 175g Self raising flour – 110g softened butter – 110g golden caster sugar – 2 large eggs – 1 teaspoon vanilla extract – 1 tablespoon rosewater (or to taste)
Pre-heat over to 190°C/Gas Mark 5
Sift flour into a large bowl, add all the other ingredients and mix with an electric mixer. Split half the mixture between cases, dot one or two raspberries in the middle of each one and then divide the rest of the mixture so the raspberries are hidden. Bake the cakes for 15-20 minutes. Leave to cool.
For the icing – 80g Softened butter – 200g Icing sugar – 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract – tablespoon of rosewater (or to taste) – a little drop of red food colouring – 2 tablespoons seedless raspberry jam
Beat the butter with an electric mixer for a couple of minutes until pale, light and fluffy. Carefully add the icing sugar and mix for another five minutes or so – the more you mix it the lighter and fluffier the icing will be. Add the rest of the ingredients and give a final mix until all well combined.
It’s not very often I pipe icing as I’m usually more of a rustic looking cake kinda girl, but on this occasion I quite fancied it and I promise that it had nothing to do with the fact that I had just pinched a Katie Alice icing set from work. Okay it’s totally because of that… again, should I feel guilty? It does have my name on it! I also topped them with some freeze dried raspberries which I picked up in Waitrose.
These were really lovely little cakes and the sharpness of the hidden raspberry in the middle gave a really great contrast to the sweetness of the icing. All of the baking accessories seen here can be bought online from The English Table or contact Creative Tops for you’re nearest stockist
Katie x