Sweet Twen-teen Part 1: The Cake

Hello lovely readers! In this house us girls are BIG on celebrations, heck we'll celebrate a Monday if we feel like it! So when it comes to birthdays we go all out, especially on cake and drink. Since February was Lizzie's birthday month we have decided to share her favourite cupcake and cocktail recipes with you, as mentioned in our Introduction blog post. 

This is Lizzie's birthday cake, doesn't it look pretty! It not only tasted amazing but was also the inspiration behind our white chocolate cupcake recipe we're gonna share with you all today! We tried many variations of this recipe until we got it right, it wasn't as easy as we thought. We can't say this is the worlds best, however we think its pretty close.

White Chocolate Cupcakes (makes 10)
4oz Butter
3oz Sugar 
2 eggs 
A drop of Vanilla extract 
4oz Self-Raising Flour 
5oz White Chocolate 

Heat the oven to 180 degrees. Melt 3 and a half oz (100g) of white chocolate. We suggest doing this gently in a bowl sitting over a pan of hot water (a Bain-marie for all you baking enthusiasts!) and stirring occasionally. 

Once complete set aside to cool slightly. In a separate bowl beat together butter and sugar until a lighter colour. Add eggs one at a time plus vanilla, mixing until combined. Then add the flour and once combined stir in the cooled melted chocolate. 

Spoon evenly into the cases (fill 3/4 full) and bake for 15 minutes or until a knife comes out of the cake clean. Please keep an eye on them after 10 minutes as all ovens cook differently (however if you're like us, we like to sit and watch them cook in the oven anyway so this won't be a problem!).

White Chocolate Buttercream 
100g white chocolate 
100g butter 
250g icing sugar 
A dash of milk 
White chocolate shavings for decoration 

Melt white chocolate, using the same method as the cake recipe, and set aside. Then beat butter, icing sugar and milk together until smooth. When you're ready to ice the cakes, beat the cooled melted chocolate into the icing. Use the finished icing straight away because it will set very quickly after use. Decorate with toppings of your choice. 

Tips and Tricks 

• Don't panic if they look too brown! Due to the high sugar content (because of the white chocolate) this is normal. 
• Don't want to eat them all at once? (although we doubt this will happen) Store them in an airtight container for up to a week.
• For the smoothest of buttercream use an electric hand whisk 
• Can't buy chocolate shavings? Put your white chocolate in the fridge for an hour and use a veg peeler to grate curls from the cold chocolate block.
• Make sure the melted is cooled to avoid ruining the icing 

As this was a birthday celebration we modified the recipe to create Lizzie's super awesome birthday cake (see first photo)! For this all we did was doubled both the cake and icing recipe and baked in two round cake tins for 25-30 mins. 

This went down a treat alongside Lizzie's favourite cocktail, Purple dream. Fear not, this much anticipated recipe will be on its way very soon! 

Love the Cup & Tail Girls xxxx