A Spot of Baking - Chocolate Cupcakes

I went for a picnic yesterday with my girlfriends and decided to bake some cupcakes for the occasion. I love these chocolate cupcakes - so rich and indulgent. I added some honeycomb into the mixture but it all melted so i'm not sure that's really worth doing, although my friend did say she could taste it. If you want to leave out the ground almonds just replace it with the same amount of flour - equally, you can add more ground almonds and just put in less flour. I'd always go with a blend of flour and almonds for cupcakes though. Decorate it them how you like - the butter icing was melting in the heat so I poured the sprinkles on liberally to hide all manner of sins. 

Makes 10 large cupcakes 

Ingredients

175ml milk
100g dark chocolate (the more cocoa the better!)
125g caster sugar
60g unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
125g self-raising flour
25g ground almonds
milk/dark chocolate chips (optional)
Honeycomb pieces (optional)

Icing:

300g icing sugar
100g unsalted butter
milk
40g cocoa powder

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Pour the milk, chocolate and third of the sugar into a bowl. Put the bowl on top of a saucepan with a small amount of boiling water in it. Put it over the lowest heat and allow to melt. Stir regularly. It may be necessary to take the bowl off the saucepan every now and then so as not to overheat. Once melted, set aside.

2. Put the butter in a bowl and beat until creamy with an electric whisk. Add the remaining sugar and vanilla and whisk until mixture is light and fluffy. Slowly add the egg, beating after each addition. You can add in a small amount of the flour at this point to avoid the mixture curdling. 

3. Using a metal spoon, add the flour and fold in three batches alternately with the chocolate liquid.  Add a handful of chocolate chips and a handful of honeycomb. 

4. Spoon the mixture into the cases and bake for 15 minutes or until the cakes spring back to the touch. 

5. Leave to cool before icing.

6. Add the butter and icing sugar and mix together. Add small amounts of milk at a time and whisk together until you get the desired consistency. Nothing worse than runny butter icing!! Once you reach the right consistency keep whisking until the icing is light.

7. Put into a piping bag and pipe in a circular, spiral motion.

8. Decorate!

If you've tried any of the recipes on this site I'd love to hear your feedback. I'm experimenting as much as you are!

Dish of the Week: Jamie Oliver's Baileys and Banana Bread and Butter Pudding

Jamieoliver.com

Mother’s day calls for ultimate relaxation and indulgence….for mothers (ie. not me). It also calls for a super fabulous dessert, so this year I donned my pinny in the name of motherkind and made Jamie Oliver’s Baileys and Banana Bread and Butter Pudding.

I adapted it a little - instead of bread I used chocolate chip brioche and I didn’t use pecans but only because I couldn’t get any last minute at the shops. I’ve made this before with bread and pecans and I think I preferred it with brioche (soz Jamie) but I did miss the pecans this time round, so if you like a pecan definitely throw a few in. I find this recipe also has quite a lot of liquid and both times I’ve used it I end up with about 100mls left over so maybe cut out 50ml of cream and 50ml of milk and see how you get on. Finally, a little bit more Baileys than the suggested amount never hurt anyone, go for it, it’s delicious!

(Sorry, no photos! I forgot to take any!)

Recipe and photo from Jamieoliver.com:

·       75 g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing, softened

·       7 to 8 slices good-quality white bread

·       100 g golden caster sugar , plus 1 heaped tablespoon for sprinkling

·       1 vanilla pod, halved lengthways and seeds scraped out

·       4 large free-range eggs

·       600 ml double cream

·       600 ml semi-skimmed milk

·       4 ripe bananas

·       75 g pecan nuts

·       100 ml Baileys

·       Optional

·       100 g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350F/gas 4. Lightly butter the bread on one side, then cut each piece in half diagonally.

Whisk the sugar, vanilla seeds and eggs together in a large bowl until well combined, then pour in the cream and milk and continue whisking until smooth. Peel and roughly slice the bananas, then roughly bash up the pecans and chocolate, if using. 
Rub the inside of a baking dish (roughly 25cm x 30cm) with a little butter, then layer up the bread (butter-side up), bananas, pecans and chocolate, if using, finishing with a final layer of bread (again butter-side up). Drizzle over the Baileys and custardy mixture, then leave to stand for around 20 minutes, or until the bread begins to soak up the liquid.
Bake in the hot oven for around 35 minutes, or until set around the edges but still wobbly in the middle. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly, then serve as is, or sprinkle over the caster sugar and blast with a blowtorch to caramelise the top. Delicious served with good-quality vanilla ice cream.

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