I love rhubarb – I love rhubarb so much that I have been fantasising about rhubarb vodka for months. Finally, I have some and an equally rhubarb obsessed friend to enjoy it with. As an accompaniment to our rhubarb vodka drinking this week, I thought I would make some rhubarb cupcakes (thankfully rhubarb is still just about in season) and the obvious accompaniment was custard.  These have two flavour (Rhubarb/Custard) swirled icing, with compote in the centres and a drizzle of rhubarb syrup on the top which really cuts through the sweetness.

Ingredients:

For the cakey bit:

• 200g unsalted butter softened
• 200g golden caster sugar
• 200g self raising flour
• 3 medium eggs
• 1 vanilla pod seeded (or 1tsp vanilla essence)

For the compote

• 400g rhubarb
• 4tbsp golden caster sugar

For the icing

• 250g unsalted butter softened
• 500g icing sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla essence
• Rhubarb vodka (2 tbsp) Optional
• Rhubarb syrup

To decorate

• Rhubarb syrup

Method:

1. To make the compote Put the rhubarb in a pan with 4 tbsp sugar and heat gently, covered, until tender. Uncover, turn up the heat slightly, and allow some of the juice to evaporate. Taste for sweetness, adding more sugar if necessary, then drain the rhubarb, reserving the juice (this is the rhubarb syrup). Allow to cool.
2. Pre-heat your oven to 170c and line a cupcake/muffin tin with 12 cases
3. Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat together until light and creamy making sure you use a spatular to clear down the sides
4. Add the eggs one at a time whisking in and making sure each one is fully combined before adding the next
5. Sift in the flour and fold in being careful not to over stir it
6. Divide the mixture between the 12 cases but don’t fill more than 2/3
7. Bake for approximately 20 mins until they are golden and spring and a skewer comes out clean
8. Remove from tins and place on cooling rack
9. When they are completely cool, core the cupcakes and spoon in the compote to the centres and replace the sponge circle.
10. For the icing, soften the butter with your whisk, add in the icing sugar and whisk fully batch at a time
11. Divide the icing between two bowls equally. In one bowl add the vanilla essence and a couple of drops of yellow colouring and in the other add a few tbsp of the rhubarb syrup and vodka plus a couple of drops of red food colouring
12. Pipe on to the cakes (see tutorial below for how to do two colour icing)
13. Drizzle some of the syrup over the cupcakes (I had to reduce the syrup down a bit more to make it more jammy)

They taste pretty good (Adrian – my fiance – says these are his new favourites)

Inside shot:

Also if you fancy trying this at home – I found this great tutorial for doing the two-tone icing: