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Back in March, Kensington Palace announced on Twitter that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry will be enjoying a lemon and elderflower cake that will ‘incorporate the bright flavours of spring’ at their wedding on May 19.
The cake will be made by Californian chef Claire Ptak, who focuses on using organic and seasonal produce in her recipes, and will be covered in buttercream and decorated with fresh flowers.
If you, like me, are salivating at the thought of this sweet cake touching your lips, then look no further than this recipe by Quinn Spencer, the executive chef at Tommy Collins.
“This is a very tasty and versatile recipe,” he says.
“It is well balanced with acidity and the icing has a wonderful floral note of elderflower. As elderflower is not common in Australia and only in season in the UK at the moment, we’ve used an elderflower cordial that is readily available from most supermarkets.”
Alright, enough talk. Let’s get cooking and eat some cake.
Elderflower, Lemon and White Chocolate Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcake mixture
• 250g Butter
• 250g White chocolate
• 185g Bottlegreen elderflower cordial (available from major supermarkets)
• 210g Flour
• 150g Self-raising flour
• 1 1⁄2 tsp Baking powder
• 480g Caster sugar
• 4 Eggs
• 30ml Light flavoured oil (vegetable or grape seed)
• 125g Yoghurt
• Zest of 1 Lemon
• 1⁄4 tsp Citric acid
Elderflower icing
• 400g Cream cheese, softened
• 100g Butter, softened
• 100g Icing sugar mixture
• 200g Bottlegreen elderflower cordial
• Flowers to decorate – Quinn recommends Alyssum flowers, the edible flower closest in resemblance to the elderflower that are currently in season in Australia
Method
1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius.
2. Melt butter and white chocolate with elderflower cordial.
3. Mix flour, self-raising flour, baking powder and caster sugar together. Sift twice to ensure smooth.
4. Whip eggs, oil, yoghurt, lemon zest and citric acid.
5. Fold all ingredients together.
6. Grease cupcake trays with butter, or line with cupcake liners. With a spoon, or piping bag if available, portion mixture into cupcake trays. Each should be 3⁄4 full.
7. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a skewer can be cleanly removed from the centre of the cupcake.
8. Allow to completely cool before icing.
9. For elderflower icing, place cream cheese, butter and icing sugar mixture in a bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat until light and soft.
10. Add elderflower cordial to the icing mixture gradually, beating until combined.
11. Pipe or spread the icing on to cupcakes.
12. Decorate with flowers.