Chocolate Cupcakes

By: Pete on 19:01:00

Sometimes you just want something simple. I think pretty much everyone starts with cupcakes, and if all else fails you probably have everything you need to make some right now!

What I'm pretty bad at is decorating the blighters...I prefer contrast colour, and for these I didn't have anything light to hand. I ended up using horrible, horrible silver balls, and then I had a brainwave, and remembered some fudge sweets we had, sliced them up and used them...much better!

My key suggestions for good cupcakes;
1) Bake 'em at a low'ish temperature, it stops them "peaking"
2) Use a muffin tin and muffin cases. The shallower bun tins are too miserly
3) Weigh the cake mixture into the cases...it's a bit of a faff, but you end up with everything perfectly sized
4) Really, really let the cakes cool before icing them
5) Make sure your butter and eggs are at room temperature...if nothing else it makes mixing a lot easier

Chocolate Cupcakes - Recipe

• Pre-heat oven to 150'C
• Check you have a 12-hole muffin tin, and 12 muffin cases

Sponge Ingredients

• 3 large eggs
• 175g butter (room temperature)
• 175g caster sugar
• 150g self-raising flour
• 25g cocoa powder

1) Place the butter, eggs and sugar in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment

2) Mix hard until as smooth as possible

3) Add the flour and cocoa powder and mix until smooth and combined

4) Spoon 45g of the mixture into each muffin case. You may have some left, however  Ifind this amount is just right for a good sized cupcake in a muffin wrapper

5) Bake for 20 minutes. This should be just right to bake the cake, have a decent dome without "peaking", and to fill the muffin case fully

6) Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely on a wire rack. While they are cooling, make the buttercream

Chocolate Buttercream Ingredients

• 150g butter (room temperature)
• 270g icing sugar
• 30g cocoa powder
• Milk

1) Place the butter in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment

2) Sieve in the icing sugar and cocoa powder into the bowl

3) Mix (starting slowly, unless you like cleaning) until smooth

4) Add a splash or two of milk, to soften and smooth the mixture more. You can keep mixing it to make it lighter and lighter.

5) Transfer the icing to a piping bag with a large, semi-closed star nozzle attached

6) Pipe a generous swirl onto each cupcake (you can practice onto a plate, an then scrape it back into the bag). You know you have the texture right when it finishes into a smooth point, rather than tearing.

7) Decorate with something in a constrast colour