I’ve had the idea of a white Russian cake swimming around my head for while (thankfully, it’s part of my job description to think about recipes all day) and I decided to make these as a little take-home treat for The Breakfast Club. I gave one to a friend of mine and she text me saying ‘Now I wonder why anyone would ever NOT put booze in their baked goods!’

I wanted them to have a real kick (what’s the point of a cocktail cupcake if you can’t taste the booze?) so they were doused in kahlua at every opportunity. The advantage of this is that they will keep for longer than your average cupcake too.

makes 8-12

125g very soft butter
125g sugar
2 eggs
125g self-raising flour
2 tbsp kahlua
For the syrup
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp vodka
1 tbsp kahlua
For the buttercream icing
125g very soft butter
250g icing sugar
1-2 tbsp kahlua
dark chocolate, for grating

• Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a muffin tray with cases.
• Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until well combined. (Add a spoonful of the flour if the mixture looks like it’s curdling.)
• Sift over the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and fold together.
• Stir in the kahlua, adding a little more if necessary to achieve a dropping consistency.
• Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
• Meanwhile, heat the sugar and water in a saucepan until the sugar has dissolved. Remove the pan from the heat and let it cool a little then stir in the vodka and kahlua.
• Remove the cupcakes from the oven and pierce all over with a skewer (a strand of spaghetti works well here).
• Using a pastry brush, brush the syrup over the top of the cupcakes and set aside to cool completely.
• For the buttercream icing, beat the icing sugar and butter together in a bowl for about five minutes, or until really pale and fluffy. Beat in the kahlua.
• You can either pipe the icing onto the cakes, I used a 1cm plain nozzle, or spread it on with a palette knife.
• Finely grate over some chocolate.

Tags: cupcake

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