Chocolate and rum syrup cupcakes with lime buttercream.

Step 1

To make the cupcakes
Place the sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium heat, if the sides of the pan begin to stick, dip a pastry brush in water and dip in the pan where the sugar has burnt. It is important that no stirring happens in this stage, but swirling is ok
Preheat the oven to gas mark
Cream the butter and sugar together using a hand held mixer for around 5 minutes or until the butter and sugar becomes light and fluffy.
In batches, add the self- raising flour, the tea spoon of baking powder with one egg at a time to the butter and sugar mixture and mix well until everything is blended.
Once the flour and eggs have been blended, add the coco to the mixture and mix well. Add the milk to loosen the mixture.
Divide the mixture in 12 muffin cases – I like to add a tablespoon at a time to each case so that the cupcakes are fairly even in size and appearance.
Bake the cupcakes for 15-20 minutes or until risen, golden brown. If you have one, test with a metal skewer to make sure the cupcakes are cooked and no mixture is on the skewer.
Place the cupcakes aside and leave to cool whilst you get on with the rum syrup.
Once the sugar has dissolved turn the fire of the heat and add the rum to the syrup.
Pour two tablespoons of the rum syrup over each cupcake.
Let the cupcakes soak in their boozy bath for 15 minutes as this makes it easier to spread the lime buttercream.
Place the butter and lime juice in a mixing bowl and add the icing sugar in patches, and stir with a wooden spoon until all the icing sugar is in-cooperated.
Once the butter and sugar is mixed well, place the icing in the fridge for 30 minutes as this makes the buttercream easier to pipe. After 30 minutes remove the buttercream from the fridge and place in a large icing bag using a 1M nozzle tip in order to achieve swirls. If not using a piping bag, spread the buttercream on each cupcake using a pallete knife.