Now that the sun is shining and the summer is truly here afternoon tea parties are a perfect way to get people together outside in the garden. A cup of tea in vintage bone china is always refreshing along with the cooler drinks like elderflower cordial; and of course home made cakes are perfect at any time!

I was very happy to be hosting an afternoon tea party recently for a special celabration – any excuse to get baking! I’ve been looking forward for some time to having a go at Fiona Cairns’ Coconut and Chocolate Stripy cake from her ‘The Birthday Cake Book.’ She uses dark chocolate buttercream to cover the coconut and chocolate flavoured cake in piped roses. I opted for white chocolate piped roses to cover my cake and although it looked ok I had a few problems getting the roses to stick on the side of the cake! I’d like to make it again but with a nice smooth buttercream finish all over and the piped roses on the top only.

I made a celebration fruit cake and covered it with sugarpaste then decorated it with piped royal icing and sugarpaste roses. I then made elderflower cupcakes and decorated them to match the main cake. I also made some coconut cupcakes topped with a piped white chocolate buttercream rose and served them in tea cups.

Recipe for Elderflower Cupcakes

Ingredients

100g unsalted butter

150g caster sugar

3 tablespoons elderflower cordial

2 large eggs, beaten

120g self raising flour

2 tablespoons cornflour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Method

Mix all the ingredients together, beating for no more than a minute. Bakein cupcake cases in a preheated oven at 160c for about 20 minutes.

For Elderflower buttercream:

130g softened butter

300g icing sugar

6 teaspoons elderflower cordial

Mix the ingredients together well for about 5 minutes then pipe onto the top of the cupcakes.