Chocolate Cupcakes

Chocolate Cake, every good baker really needs a good decent chocolate cake recipe and what do you know i think Ive just found mine. These cakes were moist and tasty and easy to make, the frosting i wasn't completely sold on as it seemed a bit wet but it did happen to be extremely muggy the night i iced the cakes and the next day the icing had "firmed up" a bit so maybe ill have to give it another go in the future.

Anyway I was asked by a friend if i could make some cupcakes  for her work mates birthday and she had asked if i could put some writing on the cakes this was the first time i had used tappets ( cut outs) and i think i did pretty well considering how hot it was that day and how much time i didn't have!


Chocolate Cupcakes:

Makes 24
Source : Tamara Jane - Good Morning ( TV 1 )

185g Butter
2 teaspoons of vanilla
380g Castor sugar
3 eggs - free range
300g self raising flour
100g cocoa powder
1 cup water

preheat oven to 175 degrees C
line two muffin trays with standard cupcake papers
place all dry ingredients into a bowl and slowly add wet ingredients until just combined, then beat on a medium speed until smooth and lighter in colour
devide mixture evenly between cupcake papers - i found i had a little extra left over
bake for 20 minutes or until skewer comes out clear
allow to cool

Chocolate Frosting :

250g butter - at room temp
500g icing sugar
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons of vanilla

beat butter until well softened
sift in half the icing sugar, cocoa powder and half the milk
beat until light and fluffy
then add the remaining ingredients including vanilla
beat again until mixture is light and smooth if the frosting seems a bit stiff just add a bit more milk

M&M Cupcakes

So I'm not making cupcakes as much as id like to at the moment mainly because i have two kids under the age of five so i don't have much time anymore and the other reason is I'm trying to loose a few kgs of baby weight so that means a NO cupcake diet!
But yesterday i did have a wee bit of time so i asked my hubby what kind of cupcakes he would like and he came up with M&M cupcakes . so i searched good ol Google and discovered this recipe, i got 10x texas sized cupcakes out of this mix but i would recommend using standard cupcake papers as these cakes were very sweet and hubby said it was a wee bit too much in the larger texas size

M&M Cupcakes: - Source Jennifer from the Yahoo contributor network

2 cups of flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 brown sugar
a pinch of salt
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 cup melted butter - its about 90g
2/3 cup milk
2 free range eggs slightly beaten
1 teaspoon of vanilla
3/4 bag of baking M&Ms - you can buy them from Countdown

Sift all dry ingredients into a bowl ( flour, sugar, salt, baking powder) stir to combine then create a well in the middle of the dry mixture
in a separate bowl combine melted butter, milk, eggs and vanilla pour into the well of dry mix and stir till combined then add your m&ms
spoon mix into cupcake cases and bake at 180 degrees for 17 minutes or until skewer is clean

- note if you use standard cupcake papers you may need to adjust the cooking time to a bit less

Butter Cream Frosting :

200 grams of butter at room temp
3 cups of icing sugar
2-3 tablespoons of milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

beat the butter until its pale and fluffy, sift in the icing sugar then give it a good mix then add in your essence then just enough milk to get the right consistency

top with regular M&M candies