Whether you’re planning a Cup Day picnic at Flemington or partying on your own turf, trust us when we say there is only one thing that might possibly steal the attention away from your killer accessories…a sweet treat (or two!). And it may as well be a MIMCO treat, right?!

To celebrate #mimcospringracing, Bakedown Cakery have created a custom recipe for you to whip up and impress your fellow race-day goers.

MIMCO Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Bean Raspberry Buttercream Swirl

For the cake (makes 24 regular cupcakes):
350g plain flour
360g caster sugar
70g good quality cocoa
1/4 cup roughly crushed freeze dried raspberries
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
200g dark chocolate (chopped finely)
3 eggs
240ml buttermilk
1/2 tsp of instant coffee
240ml warm water
210ml oil (we recommend rice bran)

For the buttercream:
150g unsalted butter (room temperature)
340g icing sugar (sifted)
1 organic vanilla bean pod, seeds scraped
1 tsp raspberry extract
1 drop of pink food colouring
1 tsp freeze dried raspberry powder
50g dark chocolate

Cake Method
1. Preheat the oven to 160C, and prepare your 12-hole cupcake pan with patty pans.
2. Whizz 200g of dark chocolate with a stick blender until chocolate is chopped finely.
3. Whisk chocolate and remaining dry ingredients together in a large bowl, making sure that everything is well incorporated.
4. In a separate bowl, dissolve instant coffee with warm water and whisk together with eggs, buttermilk and oil.
5. Make a well in the bowl containing dry ingredients and pour in the wet mixture. Whisk until well incorporated and the batter is smooth—at this point the mix will be quite runny.
6. Very carefully pour your batter into patty pans, filling them till about 1/2 - 2/3 full.
7. Bake in the middle rack of your pre-heated oven for 20 minutes.
8. Remove and leave aside to cool.

Buttercream Method
1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter for 2 minutes until pale and fluffy.
2. Sift in half of the sugar and beat for another 2 minutes. Repeat with the remaining half.
3. Split the vanilla bean, scrape out the seeds and add to mixture and beat for an additional
20 seconds.
4. Take half of the mixture out of the bowl and set aside.
5. Add drop of pink colour, a teaspoon of raspberry extract and a teaspoon of freeze dried raspberry powder to the remaining half and beat for an additional 20 seconds.
6. With a spoon, gently fold the two buttercream mixtures together till they look swirled
in appearance.
7. Transfer your buttercream into a piping bag, ready to assemble.
8. Pipe buttercream onto cooled cupcakes with piping nozzle of your choice.
9. Last, but most certainty not least, Enjoy!

And now that you’ve got the treats, you can settle on the perfect race-day look.