Cupcakes and cocktails

Wellington on a Plate is in full swing. Last night, a friend and I went along to Martha's Pantry for Cupcakes and Cocktails. Going by the almost-exclusively female group that had assembled, it would appear that others had the same idea as us: a fun night out for the girls. We were warmly welcomed with a Pimm's winter cocktail and tiny club sandwiches à la high tea, put on our pinnies and took our places at beautifully decorated tables.

An elegant welcome at Martha's Pantry

Martha's Pantry has a long tradition on its premises and is operated in family-style; we met the two sisters who own the café, their mother, their cousin (who taught me cupcake decorating at Tempt last year) ... the embedded family culture was obvious. We were given the super-simple recipe that Martha's Pantry use for their cupcake base. This would be good to try if I need to whip up some cupcakes in a hurry, as everything goes into a blender for just a few seconds and then straight into the oven - easy peasy!

While the cupcakes were cooking, we were given a lesson in cocktail making. We learned about using jiggers (yes, that's a real word), Boston shakers, and practised making a cocktail for ourselves - lots of fun and noise! Then it was on to decorating cupcakes Martha's style. Their secret seems to be using large piping nozzles on little cupcakes, making one simple, fluid movement to ice the whole cake. Again, their icing recipe was very simple, so this might become my quick-fire backup.

Cupcakes and cocktails

We piped some white chocolate onto baking paper, then finished our decorating by making some delicate tape roses out of sugar paste. The sugar paste was very soft and crumbled easily so this style of rose was probably easiest to make from it. The result was a pretty, elegantly styled cupcake perfect for high tea (or dessert, as it was night time) and a fabulous girls' night out.

Rose cupcakes