Crumbs!: Singapore Sling Cupcake

This is the final flavour of cocktail cupcake in the original five, using cherry brandy and gin...

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Singapore Sling Cupcakes!

The Singapore Sling is a South-East Asian cocktail and was developed sometime before 1915 at the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel Singapore.

Makes about 12 cupcakes

You will need:

For the cupcakes:

110g/4oz margarine, softened
110g/4oz caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
110g/4oz self-raising flour
1-2 tbsp milk
Zest of 1 orange

For the icing:

140g/5oz butter, softened
280g/10oz icing sugar, plus a little more as required
Red food colouring
2 tbsp cherry brandy
2 tbsp gin
1 tbsp grenadine syrup

For the garnish:

Straws
Yellow sugar crystals
Glacé cherries
Cocktail sticks
Orange fondant icing
White fondant icing

Method:

Cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.
Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until pale.
Beat in the eggs a little at a time.
Fold in the flour using a large metal spoon, adding a little milk until the mixture is of a dropping consistency.
Fold in the orange zest and mix thoroughly.
Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until they are half full.
Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until golden-brown on top and a skewer inserted into one of the cakes comes out clean.
Set aside to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack.

Fondant Orange Wedge Garnish:

Unfortunately I forgot to take photos of this stage of production until finished, so I will use the photos from a previous post (Mojito cupcakes). The process is identical, though the dark green in the photo should be substituted with dark orange, and the paler green with paler orange.

This needs to be made early so that it can set before used to decorate - a good time is while the cakes are cooking.

Take some of the white icing and combine it with a little of the orange to make a pale orange colour - this will form the inside of the orange wedge.
Take this newly formed colour and roll it into a cylinder
Roll out the orange icing into a layer about 0.5cm thick.
Brush the pale cylinder formed in stage 2 with water and roll along the dark orange icing until entirely covered - you should now have a single cylinder with an outer dark orange and inner pale layer.
Cut the messy ends off to form a neat cylinder shape.
Slice the cylinder with a sharp knife into 0.5cm thick slices.
Cut each slice through the centre to create half moon shapes.
Finally, using a cocktail stick, press in detail to the pale orange centre to make your orange wedge more recognisable.
Now leave the wedges until they are firm, then they can be used to garnish.

Icing

For the buttercream icing, beat the butter in a large bowl until soft. Add half the icing sugar and beat until smooth.
Then add the remaining icing sugar until the mixture is smooth and creamy. (If may appear a little dry at this stage, do not worry as there will be more liquid added in the upcoming stages).
Add the food colouring and mix until well combined.
Add the gin, cherry brandy and grenadine, mix well until combined. (At this point taste the icing to check the balance of flavours and adjust by adding more of anything if necessary).
The icing will now be quite runny, so slowly add icing sugar, until the mixture is thick, smooth and creamy.
Spoon the icing into a piping bag with a star nozzle and pipe the icing using a spiralling motion onto the cupcakes in a large swirl.

Decoration:

Sprinkle the yellow sugar over the icing.
Cut the straws down to a miniature size and gently press them into the icing.
Stick a cocktail stick into the same number of cherries as you have cakes. Then press the cocktail stick into the icing.
Finally, garnish with a fondant orange wedge.