BAKING | First cakes of the year: Black Forest and Pina Colada

January is almost over and I noticed: I had not baked yet. With some alcohol left from Christmas (mainly Sailor Jerry's rum), I thought, the first cakes of the year just have to be boozy ones. I did a quick search on the internet for cocktails including rum, but since I did not intend to buy any more alcohol just to bake some cakes, I decided I would have to make Sailor Jerry's work in my Pina Colada cakes. And when I decide to have a little baking session, I like to bake more than just one flavour and thought I'd try something new and German. Black forest! Boom! I thought I'd just substitute the Kirsch/cherry liqueur with the rum, but whilst getting the ingredients I came across this cherry brandy at Lidl. It wasn't too pricey, so I got that one. 

And here are the results:

For the Pina Colada Cupcakes I used the Coconut and Pineapple Cupcake recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery's Book (it's all I need for my baking. I just tweak their recipes.) and replaced the milk with coconut milk and rum, in both the cake and the icing.

Pina Colada Cupcakes

For the Black Forest cakes I used the Chocolate Cupcake recipe from the same book and grated some dark chocolate into the batter. For the cherry filling and icing I used the "Kirsch syrup" and "Chantilly Cream" recipe from this goodtoknow.co.uk recipe. I had to use those cherries that come in jars and mashed them up with a little cherry jam and Cherry Brandy. 

Black Forest Cupcakes

I have a vegan cupcake book borrowed off a friend at the moment, so looking forward to trying some of the recipes in it. 

Thanks for stopping by!

x ♥ x