Gin and Tonic Cupcakes!
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Soft and delicious gin & tonic soaked sponges, with gin & tonic buttercream frosting, lime, and more… My favourite gin and tonic cupcakes
Gin & Tonic
So I love a good G&T… and my friends have recently discovered the love as well, so we have quite a few Gin bottles now. I have my personal favourites which are flavoured ones like rhubarb & ginger, and elderflower and vanilla… but my friends just love them all.
I always love baking with my favourite drinks, and this is definitely a good excuse to bake something delicious like these gin & tonic cupcakes. Obviously, these should be served with an ice cold G&T, but happily can be done without.
Cupcakes
I wasn’t entirely sure where to start with this, so I sorta went with it and baked a batch of normal cupcakes with some gin and some tonic added. I used the normal ratios of 150g sugar/butter/flour and 3 medium eggs with 2 tablespoons of gin, and 2 tablespoons of tonic.
I found that the mixture was quite runny, and therefore baked quite solidly and wasn’t as light? I therefore tried it again with more flour, but a bit more gin and tonic and it got the flavour and the texture bang on.
These cupcakes are light, delicious and I adore them – and the sponges bake perfectly for the theme. The gin syrup drizzled over the baked cupcakes bring an even more delicious flavour.
Frosting
When I made my no-bake champagne cheesecake and no-bake limoncello cheesecake for example, I was a little nervous of using alcohol. Luckily, they were no-bake treats so the flavour never really disappeared, but it can easily disappear when actually baking.
I find that the buttercream is a lot more flavoured in comparison to the sponge (if you don’t use the syrup, with, the sponges are great) but I love the combination of the sponge and buttercream together. The lime gives it a flavour that I love, but it is optional.
It is slightly more slack when you flavour the frosting with the syrup, so you must use block unsalted butter. If you use a spread or margarine for the frosting, which you should never do anyway, you will have a soupy frosting that won’t work.
Decoration
I used my favourite piping tip as always, and I use large disposable piping bags to make it far easier to achieve the result you can see in the images. You can obviously decorate them how you want though, this is just how I do it.
The combination of flavours along with these ADORABLE iced jems baking cups with the little (and yes not edible) green stripey straws are so cute, but I also adored the zest and wedge of lime as well – anything to fit a decoration theme and I am there.
Tips & Tricks
- You must use block butter for the frosting and you mustn’t use a spread. This is even more important for this recipe as you are adding more liquid than usual.
- I buy my cupcakes cases from Iced Jems – here! And my little straws to decorate are also from Iced Jems – here!
- You can use any gin and any tonic – and you can swap the tonic for lemonade if you prefer.
- You can use anything to decorate it with, but I love a wedge or two of lime with my G&Ts!
- These cupcakes will last in an airtight container for 3 days at room temperature!
- You can easily leave out the gin and the tonic and use G&T Flavouring instead!
Gin and Tonic Cupcakes!
Ingredients
The Cupcakes
- 150 g unsalted butter/baking spread
- 150 g caster sugar
- 3 medium eggs
- 200 g self raising flour
- 3 tbsps gin
- 3 tbsps tonic
Gin Syrup
- 50 g caster sugar
- 3 tbsps gin
- 3 tbsps tonic water
The Buttercream
- 150 g unsalted butter (room temp)
- 375 g icing sugar
- 3 tbsps gin
- 2-3 tbsps tonic
Decorations
- lime zest
- lime slices
- straws
Instructions
Cupcakes
- Heat your oven to 180ºc/160ºc fan and prep 12 cases
- Beat the butter with the caster sugar until light and fluffy
- Add the eggs and flour and mix again
- Add in the gin, and the tonic, and then beat again.
- Spoon the mix into the cupcake cases evenly and bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes or until a skewer poked into one of the cakes comes out clean and they are springy to touch – leave them to cool fully on a wire rack.
Gin Syrup
- Add the sugar, gin and tonic water to a pan on boil for a minute so the sugar dissolves. Brush/Spoon over the baked cupcakes.
Buttercream
- Beat the butter with an electric mixer for a couple of minutes to loosen it – gradually beat in the icing sugar until well combined (this can take up to 5 minutes).
- Add in the gin and tonic one tablespoon of each at a time, and beat fully each time.
Decoration
- I used a 2D Closed Star Piping Tip to decorate my cakes but you can do whatever you like!
- Once iced, add a lime or lemon slice to the cupcake, and add part of a straw for show. Sprinkle on some lime/lemon zest and enjoy!
Notes
- YOU MUST USE ACTUAL BUTTER FOR BUTTERCREAM – I can’t stress this enough. I get comments often about ‘why is my buttercream so runny’ and 9/10 times its because the incorrect butter was used.
- You can’t use stork, or a spread, or a substitute for buttercream. This is even more important for this recipe as you are adding more liquid than usual.
- I buy my Cupcakes Cases/Baking Cups from Iced Jems – here! And my little straws to decorate are also from Iced Jems – here!
- I used Bombay Sapphire Gin for these cupcakes, and Fever Tree Tonic as it has a strong flavour. You can use any you like, but better quality ones with a better and stronger flavour are important.
- You can use anything to decorate it with, but I love a wedge or two of lime with my G&Ts!
- These cupcakes will last in an airtight container for 3 days at room temperature!
- You can easily leave out the gin and the tonic and use G&T Flavouring instead!
ENJOY!
Find my other Cupcake Recipes on my Recipes Page!
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J x
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I followed the instructions and used lurpak for the cup cakes mix which needed another 10 minutes cooking time they have turned out really nice so wondered if block butter had been used would this have bought the cooking time down to what’s recommended?
Baking times can vary due to a multitude of things, such as ovens, oven settings, how you mixed it – so it’s hard to say for certain if it’s the lurpak or not. It may just be that your oven requires a longer baking time x
wow wow wow these are amazing !!
I used White Wings Gluten Free SR flour and had extra large eggs so only used 2 and they are amazing 🙂
I wonder how they will go with the Elderflower Fever Tonic water ?
Hi Jane, I absolutely love your recipes. I’ve made these cakes which were really yummy! But I would have liked a stronger flavour of gin. Could I put double the amount of gin in the cake mix and leave out the Tonic??
I know you’re very busy but if you could respond I’d appreciate it as I’m hoping to make these again soon but want the all ok from you before I try it x
Can you colour this buttercream on top or do you think a simple lemon buttercream with colour would work better and be less runny? Can’t wait to make it for a hen party!!
Hiya! You can do either – both sound great! Hope this helps! x
Was going to make these for a hen party. We are not usually gin drinkers, could you use a pre-mixed gin and tonic instead of buying a large bottle of gin?
Hi Jane
Do the cupcakes freeze undecorated..?
Yes absolutely, for up to 3 months! x