At our wedding, we decided to serve the cake after the wedding ceremony, rather than waiting until the evening reception. As well as the main cake, some very helpful and wonderful friends baked up a couple of delicious treats for the guests to enjoy. One of these treats was from the same recipe book where I found the inspiration for our wedding cake: Red velvet and chocolate heartache. Can you think of a more wonderful name for a book? I love it. The quirky, wonderful thing about this book is that all of the recipes are gluten free, contain at least one vegetable, and rarely use butter. Healthy cake? Absolutely. Delicious? Most definitely. My kind friend Fiona willingly baked dozens of miniature raspberry and elderflower cupcakes for our wedding, perfectly bitesized, and so delicious that the photographers didn't manage to get a photo of them before the guests ate them all.
I walked past a greengrocers on Friday and saw some raspberries on offer for £0.55 per punnet / 2 for £1. I knew I needed to buy them and bake up some of these delicious summertime cupcakes to share with friends that evening. The elderflower gives these cakes quite a distinctive flavour - if you are not sure how much you love this delicate yet distinctive flavour, I would recommend using less cordial in the icing - perhaps 1 teaspoon instead of 1 tablespoon.
Raspberry and Elderflower Cordial Cupcakes (recipe adapted from Harry Eastwood)
ingredients (makes 6)
1 free range egg
70g caster sugar
100g courgette, peeled, topped & tailed (1 medium-sized)
1.5 tbsp elderflower cordial
1 tsp baking powder
60g ground almonds
60g raspberries (fresh or frozen ones that have been defrosted)
icing
200g icing (confectioner's) sugar
1.5 tbsp elderflower cordial
40g unsalted butter at room temperature
2 raspberries (to give pink colour)
1) Preheat oven to 180C / gas mark 4 / 350F and line a cupcake tray with 6 cases
2) Whisk together egg and sugar for 5 mins until quadrupled in size
3) Grate the courgette and add, along with the elderflower cordial, whisking until combined
4) Mix in the flour, ground almonds and baking powder
5) Gently fold in the raspberries, being careful not to crush them too much
6) Spoon mixture into cupcake cases, filling until two thirds full. Don't worry about the mixture being runny - this is normal. If it seems easier, put mixture into a measuring jug and pour into cases rather than spooning.
7) Bake in pre-heated oven for 25mins, or until baked.
8) To make the icing, sieve the icing sugar into a mixing bowl, along with the rest of the ingredients and beat until smooth.
9) Pipe or smooth icing onto cakes and enjoy!
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