This lady can handle herself anywhere. She has a sharp witty tongue and speaks at the speed of the trains that pulse through the East End. She never sleeps alone, and always keeps a bottle of sherry in the flat should anyone come to call.

Makes 12 boozy cups of cake

2 medium sized eggs
180g demerara sugar
200g peeled and grated butternut squash
100ml cherry brandy
50g white rice flour
100g ground almonds
50g good quality cocoa powder
1/4 salt
12 tsp cherry jam

For the Icing

150g icing sugar sieved
2 tbsp cherry brandy
1 ttbsp boiling water
30g good quality cocoa powder 
small pinch of salt

For the Top

12 whole cherries with stems

YOU WILL NEED

a 12 hole muffin tray
1 cupcakes cases

Preheat the oven to 180oC/350F/Gas Mark 4 and line the muffin tray
Whisk the eggs and the sugar in a large mixing bowl for 5 minutes until pale and quadrupled in volume. Add the grated butternut squash and cherry brandy, then whisk again. Mix in the flour, ground almonds, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt until well combined
Spoon 1 heaped tbsp of the mixture into the bottom of each paper case, followed by 1 tsp of the jam. Fill the rest of the case up with the mixtureso that it comes nearly to the top of each case.

Place in the middle of the oven for 30minutes until the cakes are risen and cooked

Whilst the cupcakes are cooking, make the icing. Combine the icing sugar with the cherry brandy, boiling water and cocoa powder until you have a smooth paste. The back of the spoonworks wonders for flattening out lumps. Dependingon how absorbentyour cocoa powder is you may need a dash morebrandy to loosen the paste evenly enough for spreading evenly. If you are not going to use it immediately, place a sheet of cling film directly on the surface of the icing to prevent it drying out

Remove the darling cupcakes from the oven and cool them in the tin for ten minutes, so that they are cool enough to ice. Spread a teaspoon of icing evenly over the top of each one and place a cherry with its stem still on on the topof each cupcake before serving 

Happy Baking xxx