Rose-water Ladies

These mouth-watering cupcakes are straight outta England - prim and proper and oh-so la-de-da. They're perfect for that brunch with hard-to-impress friends or for your doting mother who deserves a treat. Time-consuming? Yes. Completely effing worth it? You bet. This is partly based on Isa Chandra Moskowitz's vanilla cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Thanks for the inspiration, Isa!

Rose-water Ladies

Ingredients (for the cakes)

1 cup of soymilk

1 tablespoon of white vinegar

1/2 cup of olive oil/vegetable oil

3/4 cup of raw sugar

1 tablespoon of cornflour

2 cups of self-raising flour, sifted

1 teaspoon of rose-pink food colouring

2 tablespoons of rose-water essence

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

(for the icing)

2.5 cups of soft, twice-sifted icing mixture

3 tablespoons of softened non-dairy margarine

1 tablespoon of softened copha (about 20 grams)

1/4 cup of soy milk

2 tablespoons of rose-water essence

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Marzipan

Green and rose-pink colouring

Method

• Preheat oven 180 degrees celcius. Line a 12 cake pan with muffin cases, or grease.
• With a spoon, measure the vinegar into the soy-milk and stir. Sit for five minutes so it thickens.
• Now, add oil, colouring, essences and sugar and beat until frothy.
• Add dry ingredients and beat through until no clumps remain.
• Pour evenly into muffin cases and bake for 18-20 minutes until a skewer comes out mostly clean.
• DO NOT ICE UNTIL COMPLETELY COOL. Trust us on this one!

(for the icing)

• Sift, sift, sift. You want your icing sugar to be as soft and light as possible.
• Now, add copha and margarine and beat until it turns from a powder into a clotty paste. Stay with it. Sometimes it looks like it isn't going to happen but the longer you beat it, the better it will be.
• Add soymilk and essences and beat until thick and creamy. It should hold shape well - if too solid, add a bit more soymilk.
• Pipe onto cupcakes in swirls using a star nozzle.
• For the roses and leaves - knead a couple of drops of colouring through a small, 2 cm knob of marzipan. Make a ball of pink and a ball of green. Make sure your hands are clean and damp before the next stage.
• To make roses, flatten out a thin rectangle of marzipan, about 1 cm high and 2 cm wide. Curl up the marzipan, and pinch off the excess at the bottom. Make a couple of other "petals" and layer them around, flaring them slightly before pinching them off to give a blooming effect. When they are dry, use a pin to drop pink colouring inside the heart of each rose.
• To make leaves, make a small oval of green marzipan and lightly pinch the top and bottom to create the shape. Then use a sharp knife dipped in water to score the middle and sides to create veins. When dry, use a clean paintbrush and paint over them with green colour - it will flow into the veins and make them appear more marked.

Enjoy with tea and lots of cheerful company!