It’s always lovely when customers give you something, especially if it can be used in baking! Last Monday two little girls – who have been loyal customers since Willow Bough opened – called in for their usual hot chocolate and gave me a lovely bag of fresh mint they’d picked that morning from their garden. I could have used it for fresh mint tea (or taken it home to garnish my Pimms!) but instead chose to use it for cakes.

The challenge I have with mint – as much as I love it – is that I find it hard to disassociate it from toothpaste! So I wanted to find a cake that would complement the fresh taste of the mint without giving me that ‘just brushed’ feeling!

Because it’s summer, which makes me think about ice-cream just a bit too much, I thought I’d try mint-choc cupcakes. I used a basic chocolate cake mix, with just a hint of peppermint extract so the mint flavour isn’t too overpowering and finished each cake with a delicious minty buttercream icing in a pretty pale green shade, topped off with the fresh mint leaves. They look almost as good as they taste!

Mint choc cupcakes – makes 12

Ingredients

For the cake:

8oz butter

8oz sugar

4 eggs

6oz self-raising flour

2oz cocoa powder

A few drops of American peppermint extract

For the icing:

5oz butter

7oz icing sugar

A few drops of American peppermint extract

A few drops of green food colouring

Fresh mint leaves to decorate

 

Method

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy before adding the eggs one at a time. Sift in the flour and cocoa powder and mix, adding the peppermint extract. Fill the cupcake cases until they’re three quarters full and bake in the oven on around 150c for 20 minutes. Once baked (test with a skewer, which should come out of the cake clean) leave to cool on a rack.

To make the icing, cream together the butter, icing sugar and peppermint extract until smooth. Add green food colouring a drop at a time, until you have the colour you want. I like the icing to be quite a pale green, as it contrasts well with the brightness of the fresh mint leaves and the darkness of the chocolate cake. Using a palette knife apply the icing to each cake, giving a smooth finish. Top each cake with one or two fresh mint leaves, put on a cake plate and invite your friends over to enjoy!

 

Willow Bough Tea Rooms is open 9am-5pm Monday to Saturday and can be found at 11 Merton Park Parade, Kingston Road, Wimbledon SW19 3NT.