Triple Chocolate Cupcakes

Milk chocolate cupcakes filled with a devastatingly-good hot fudge sauce and swirled with a rich chocolate frosting – oh my gosh these cupcakes are amazing!

I haven’t made any cupcakes in a while and came across the perfect excuse to last week. It was a friend’s birthday and I searched the shops for a birthday card – they were all terrible. I did toy with the idea of getting him a My Little Pony ‘You’re 2!!!’ birthday card but got talked out of it. Apparently those sort of cards aren't suitable for men in their 50s. Hmph.

If I wasn’t going to get him a card, I had to get him a present. But what? Men are impossible to buy for, so that led me to a dead end. Then the wonderful idea of cupcakes came to me. Everyone loves cupcakes! Or so the internet says. Cupcakes and cats. And I wasn't allowed to couldn’t buy him a cat.

This recipe makes 12 cupcakes, but he only got 6 of them for his birthday. The other 6 had to go through a rigorous test tasting just in case someone sneaked into the kitchen and added something poisonous like vegetables or a sugar substitute.

Triple Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup cocoa

3/4 cup white sugar

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla essence

3/4 cup cream

1/2 cup melted butter

1/4 cup grated chocolate

Frosting:

3/4 cup softened butter

2 teaspoons vanilla essence

3 tablespoons cream

1/3 cup cocoa

2 cups powdered sugar

Hot Fudge Sauce Filling:

You can find the recipe for my Hot Fudge Sauce here.

You only need about ½ a cup.

Recipe

1. Preheat the oven to 350°C. Whisk together the egg and sugar until it thickens and takes on a lighter color.

2. Pour in the milk, butter and vanilla and mix well.

3. Stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, cocoa and grated chocolate and fold into the wet ingredients.

4. Divide evenly into 12 cupcake liners and bake for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

5. Whilst the cupcakes are baking, prepare the frosting. Beat together the butter, vanilla and milk until well mixed. Add the cocoa and powdered sugar and beat until thick and fluffy.

6. To assemble, cut the centre out of each cupcake and fill with hot fudge sauce. Cut the top section off the piece of cupcake you removed and replace it like a lid. Top with the chocolate frosting.

These cupcakes are best stored in the fridge and served at room temperature.

I hope these cupcakes have made your Monday and little brighter. Unfortunately they’ve made mine a little more sad because I know they’re all gone!

Here are the link parties I take part in.

Come and join the fun! 

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Whipped Cream Frosting

Is there really a better cupcake flavour than Red Velvet? When making cupcakes, there’s usually not much you can do if you want to really wow people with your treats. Vanilla sponges are easy but boring, just like chocolate ones. You could add nuts – but not everyone likes nuts. How about swirling in some seasonal berries? Same problem as nuts - not everyone likes berries. Usually you can’t go wrong with chocolate chips, but deep down, it’s still the same old vanilla cupcake.

Then there’s Red Velvet – a light, yet somewhat dense velvety texture with just a hint of chocolate and a fantastic vibrant colour that will always grab people’s attention. Red Velvet Cupcakes are usually coupled with a rich cream cheese frosting, but if you’re not so keen on this type of frosting you can try a whipped cream frosting to achieve the same look.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Whipped Cream Frosting

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

125g flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

10g cocoa powder

57g unsalted butter

150g sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

120ml buttermilk

1 tablespoon red food colouring

1/2 teaspoon white vinegar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Whipped Cream frosting from Joy of Baking

120ml double cream

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon sugar

Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 175C/350F and line a muffin tin with 12 paper liners. In a bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder.

2. In another bowl, beat the butter until soft then add the sugar and carry on beating until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until combined.

3. Separately, whisk the buttermilk with the red food colouring.

4. Add half of the flour mix to the butter and sugar, followed by all of the buttermilk then the rest of the flour mix and fold together until just incorporated – do not over-mix!

5. In a small bowl combine the vinegar and baking soda. Allow the mixture to fizz before quickly folding into the cake batter.

6. Pour the batter into the prepared cupcake cases and bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of the cupcakes comes out clean. When ready, remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

7. Whilst the cupcakes are baking, make the whipped cream frosting. Pour the milk, vanilla extract and sugar into a bowl and place in the freezer along with the whisk you’re planning on using to whip. This may sound strange, but the cooler your ingredients and equipment are, the more voluminous your frosting will be.

8. After about 10 minutes, remove from the freezer and whip whip whip! until you have a suitably thick frosting for coating your cake. Make sure your cupcakes are completely cooled before you frost them. You can pipe your frosting on, or just spread it with a blunt knife like I did.



Here are the link parties I take part in.
Come and join the fun!

Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes

Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes are a great treat for St Patrick’s Day – or any other day for that matter! Usually frosted with gloriously thick and rich cream cheese frosting, my cupcakes are lacking somewhat in the white frothy head department. Want to know why?

I’ll tell you, but you have to promise not to laugh, okay? Promise? I can’t make frosting. At all. Does this look like a beautiful, thick and creamy frosting to you?

No. 

I’ve tried using full-fat and light cream cheese, cheap margarine and expensive butter, full-fat cream and skimmed milk. I've tried chilling everything and having everything at room temperature, whisking by hand and with an electric whisk. I've tried so many recipes for the "perfect cream cheese frosting" that I've lost count. None of it works – none of it. It just doesn’t get thick! The more I whisk, the thinner it gets. For as long as I can remember, I've blamed it on the warm Canarian temperatures, but I don't think that excuse is going to stick any longer.

It’s not just cream cheese frosting I can’t make – I can’t do buttercream either! So I’ve decided – I’m not going to bother with frostings anymore. Drizzles, toppings, fillings, coatings and icings are all you are going to see decorating the cupcakes on Pink Recipe Box from now on.

Well, at least for a few weeks until I need to fulfil my nagging desire to make sweet, fluffy frosting like the pros and this whole disaster rises it's ugly head once again.

Anyway! This recipe makes 12 dense, incredibly chocolatey Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes.

Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

½ cup Guinness

½ cup butter

45g cocoa

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1/4tbsp baking soda

Pinch salt

1 egg

75ml natural yoghurt

Recipe

1. Preheat the oven 170C/350f and line 2 cupcake moulds with cupcake liners. Simmer Guinness and butter together in a saucepan over a medium heat for about 5 minutes.

2. Add cocoa and stir. Leave to one side to cool.

3. Separately, whisk flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.

4. In another bowl, beat the egg and yoghurt together for about 1 minute.

5. Add the Guinness and butter mix to the egg and yoghurt mix and stir well.

Add the flour mix and beat until just combined.

6. Divide equally into the cupcake cases and bake for around 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. 


Here are the link parties I take part in.
Come and join the fun!

Death by Oreo Cupcakes

This has to be one of my all-time favourite cupcake flavours. I love Oreos and anything that incorporates them cannot be anything less than fantastic!

I always seem to struggle when piping the icing - even when I refrigerate it before piping onto the fully-cooled cupcakes, it always seems to melt. I assume this is because I live in a warm climate. If you have any tips, please let me know in the comments section!

This recipe yields 12 cupcakes.

Ingredients

Cupcakes

12 Oreo cookies

115g self-raising flour

115g sugar

11g cocoa powder

½ teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt

60ml milk

1 egg

30g chocolate

55ml boiling water

45ml oil

Tsp of vanilla essence

Frosting

70g unsalted butter

100g cream cheese

125g icing sugar

1tbp milk

½ tsp vanilla extract

Oreo halves (crushed)

Recipe

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line a muffin pan with large paper cases.

2. Take an Oreo and carefully twist it open. Place the cookies with the icing to one side and keep the other half of the Oreos for the frosting. 

3. Melt the chocolate and leave to cool. In a  bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients.

4. In another bowl, whisk the egg until it thickens slightly and turns pale in colour. To the egg mix, add in the milk, vanilla and oil and whisk well. Add in the cooled chocolate and whisk again.

5. Add the wet mix to the dry mix and combine. Stir in the hot water.

6. Scoop a small amount of the cake mixture into each case and place the iced Oreo half on top. Fill the cupcake liners about 3/4 full.

7. Bake in the oven for around 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

8. Take the Oreo halves reserved for the frosting and crush them until they resemble coarse crumbs.

9. Whisk together the butter and icing sugar, adding the milk and vanilla extract until the mixture is light and fluffy. 

10. Separately, whisk the cream cheese until it is smooth, then fold into the icing with the Oreo crumbs.

11. Once the cupcakes are cooled, pipe on the frosting.

Chocolate Christmas Cupcakes

These cupcakes are so easy to make and are bursting with a deep chocolate flavour. 

I turned my cupcakes into reindeer and Christmas puddings, but because cupcakes are so versatile when it comes to decorating, you can turn them into anything. Have fun with it!

Personally, I really don't like pretzels at all, but they made the perfect antlers and I'm sure the sharp saltiness of the pretzels works perfectly with the sweet chocolatey-goodness of the cupcakes. I think I'll stick to the Christmas pudding ones though.

This recipe yields around 15 cupcakes and originally came from JoyofBaking.com.

Ingredients

50g cocoa powder

240ml boiling water

175g flour

2 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

113g butter

200g sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

Recipe

1. Preheat the oven to 190C and line 15 muffin cups with red and green paper lines.

2. In a bowl, add the boiling water to the cocoa powder and stir until smooth. Leave to cool to room temperature.

3. In another bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together.

4. Whisk the butter and sugar together in another bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs – one at a time – and carry on beating. Add the vanilla extract and mix well. Gently fold in the flour mixture, before pouring in the cooled cocoa mix and stir until smooth.

5. Fill each muffin cup about 2/3 full for cupcakes with a ‘hill’ on top, or about ½ full for a flat top. Bake for around 16-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in a cupcake comes out clean. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack before decorating.

I turned my cupcakes into reindeer faces and Christmas puddings by covering the tops in chocolate ganache and decorating with sweets and icing pens.

Cottage Pie Cupcakes

I absolutely adore making and decorating cupcakes, but having them all the time can be too much of a sugar-overload. The aspect I find most appealing about cupcakes is how they are tiny individual cupcakes, all on their own. From their cupcake liner to the icing on top, they look so delicate and perfect. Why should such yummy beauty be confined to cupcakes?

These cottage pies look and taste fantastic. They can also be picked up and eaten by hand, making them the perfect finger-food for parties or buffets. They are really easy to make and don’t take much extra effort than normal cottage pies. I think the visual appeal of these pies makes the additional effort more than worth it. 

This recipe makes around ten cottage pie cupcakes

Ingredients

Pastry

100g flour

Pinch of salt

25g lard

25g butter

2 tbsp butter

Filling

250g mince

½ onion

1 clove of garlic

Pinch salt

Pinch pepper

1 tsp rosemary

1 tsp parsley

2 tbsp tomato puree

200ml beef stock

2 tbsp Worcester sauce

Topping

2 medium potatoes

Milk and butter to taste

Recipe

For the pastry

1. Preheat the oven to 180C, grease a muffin pan with 10 molds and mix together the flour and salt. Chop the lard and butter into small cubes and rub into the flour mixture until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Slowly add small amounts of water until you have a solid dough.

2. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out until it is really thin – about 1cm thick. Cut out circles large enough to fill the muffin tin and line the molds. Place in the oven until fully cooked and golden brown – around 20 minutes. 

For the filling

1. Finely chop the onion and garlic and brown in a pan over a medium heat. Add the mince and cook for around 10 minutes. 

2. At the salt, pepper, stock, tomato puree and stir well. Leave cooking on a low-medium heat for around 10 minutes, before adding the herbs and Worcester sauce. Cook until the sauce has thickened. 

For the topping

1. Wash and peel the potatoes before chopping into quarters and boiling in a pan of boiling water until a knife can easily be inserted in the centre – around 20 minutes. 

2. Drain and mash the potatoes, adding butter and milk to taste. Make sure the potato has absolutely no lumps, but still remains thick so it can be piped.

To assemble

1. Warm the pastry cups in a hot oven for a few minutes then remove from the molds and place on serving plates. 

2. Fill each cup with the mince filling – feel free to pile it above the cup, I did. 

3. Spoon the potato topping into a large piping bag and pipe the potato as you would icing on a cupcake. 

Mummy Cupcakes

Halloween provides the perfect time to take some favourite recipes and really have fun with them. By just piping icing in straight lines and adding a couple of eyes, these ordinary chocolate cupcakes become something much more exciting. 

I used the recipe from JoyofBaking with a few personal alterations to make these cupcakes. I am still learning when it comes to icing, which is why my mummy bandages are a little messy - but this just adds to the spooky, decaying effect...Right?

This recipe makes eight moist chocolate muffins with a chocolate ganache centre, marshmallow icing and Smarties for eyes.

Ingredients

Cupcakes

25g cocoa powder

120ml boiling water

70g flour

1tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

55g butter

100g sugar

1 egg

1tsp vanilla extract

Ganache filling

100g chocolate

80ml double cream

15g butter

Marshmallow icing

1tsp vanilla extract

200g icing sugar

50ml milk

7 medium white marshmallows

16 Smarties for the eyes

Recipe

1. Preheat the oven to 190C and line eight muffin cups with cupcake cases.

2. Place the cocoa powder in a bowl and add the boiling water. Stir until it's smooth, then leave to one side to cool.

3. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

4. Beat the butter and sugar together in another bowl until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat well before pouring in the vanilla extract. Add the cooled cocoa mix into the bowl and gently stir until smooth.

5. Fill each cupcake case 2/3 full and bake for around 16 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

6. To make the chocolate ganache filling, simply boil the cream and butter together in a pan over a medium heat. When it begins to bubble, place the chocolate in a bowl and pour the cream on top. Leave for around five minutes, before mixing together. Let the filling to cool before coring the cupcakes and filling them evenly. Don't forget to replace the lids.

7. To make the icing, warm the marshmallows and milk in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. When the marshmallows have soaked up the milk, remove from the heat and add the vanilla extract. Add around 100g of icing sugar and continue to add more until you have a suitable piping consistency. 

8. Pipe lines of bandages on your mummy cupcakes, making sure you leave a small gap for the eyes. Place a small amount of icing on the back of each Smartie and stick it on the cupcake.