a m y m c c r a c k e n

Miss Emma left the Shock crew at the start of the month so for her last day I made her some cupcakes & decided to make my first attempt at tweaking the Nigella Red Velvet Cupcake recipe where i swapped the red food colouring for some dark chocolate chips. I also made more mixture than I did the first time so there would be more to go around (below recipe is 1 ½ times my previous post).

ingredients

• 375g plain flour
• ¾ cup dark chocolate chips
• 3 x 15ml T cocoa powder, sifted
• 3 tsp baking powder
• ¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 150g soft unsalted butter
• 300g castor sugar
• 3 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 260ml buttermilk
• 1 ½ tsp cider vinegar or other vinegar

method

1. Preheat oven to 170°C and line two muffin trays with paper cases
2. Combine the flour, chocolate chips, cocoa, baking powder and bicarb in a bowl
3. In another bowl, cream the butter, and sugar until light and fluffy
4. Beat in the vanilla extract
5. While still beating, add one spoonful of dried ingredients, then one egg, followed by some more dried ingredients, then the other egg, followed by the rest of the dried ingredients
6. Beat together the buttermilk and vinegar
7. Fold into creamed mixture
8. Spoon the batter evenly into the cases
9. Bake for 20 mins or until cupcakes spring back when lightly touched
10. Transfer to a wire tack to cool down completely before decorating

* because I had extra mixture, I made one tray of standard muffin sized cupcakes, then one tray of mini cupcakes. To bake the mini cupcakes, I reduced the temperature down to 160°C and baked them for about 10-15 mins.

buttery cream cheese icing

ingredients

• 400g icing sugar, sifted
• 125g cream cheese
• 125g soft unsalted butter
• 1 tsp cider vinegar or lemon juice

 Beat all of the above ingredients together until smooth then pipe onto the cupcakes.