A productive day spent making cupcakes and listening to metal

I made cupcakes today from a recipe that was in The Sunday Times Style magazine a couple of weeks ago. I've been meaning to do so for a while. The end result is a little piece of chocolate heaven! Recipe is below.


Hazelnut Chocolate Orange Cupcakes
Makes 12 standard cupcakes

- 110g unsalted butter - 125g dark chocolate (at least 60% cocoa solids), broken into small squares - 135g caster sugar - 2 medium eggs, lightly beaten - ¼ tsp vanilla extract - 1 heaped tbsp sour cream

- 25g chopped roasted hazelnuts - Finely grated zest of 1 orange - 110g self-raising flour, sifted - 1 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted - Chocolate butter icing or dark-chocolate glaze (ingredients and instructions below)

- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. Line a muffin tin with foil paper cases.
- Put the butter in a small saucepan and heat gently until just melted. Remove from the hob and stand for 2 minutes, then throw in the chocolate and leave to stand for a further 2 minutes. Stir until smooth, then add the sugar and mix in well.
- Beat in the eggs a quarter at a time, making sure each lot is well mixed in before adding the next.
- Beat in the vanilla and sour cream, nuts and orange zest, then fold in the flour and cocoa, before beating for a couple of seconds to combine.
- Divide between the cases and bake for 15-20 minutes — you want them to be only just set on top. Remove and leave to cool.
- Pile with chocolate butter icing, or glaze with a flat pool of chocolate icing: slice the top from the cake so it is below the level of the case, then pour the icing on top.
- Decorate the centre with a whole roasted hazelnut, a gold star, an M&M or Minstrel, or a piece of candied orange, or sprinkle over chopped hazelnuts. Covering M&Ms with edible gold leaf will also look pretty.

For the chocolate butter icing (which I used):
Melt 75g dark chocolate and leave to cool to room temperature.
Beat 150g unsalted butter until creamy, then beat in 300g sifted icing sugar sugar.
Vigorously mix in the chocolate, then add 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1 tbsp milk and beat until smooth. Spread onto cakes with a knife or pipe with a star nozzle.

For the chocolate glaze:
Melt 100g unsalted butter over a low heat until just melted. Remove from the heat and leave to cool for 2 minutes. Add 150g dark chocolate, broken into small squares or pieces. Leave to stand for another 2 minutes, then stir until smooth. Beat in 1 tbsp golden syrup, then either pour while still molten or leave to cool and spread over the top.

My notes:
You could replace the hazelnuts for another of your choice (I imagine almonds would be nice) or you can take them out completely. I didn't use a muffin tin, I used a standard cupcake tray with standard baking cases. (I wanted to make CUPCAKES not muffins.) I also found the cooking time to be a bit too long.

These cupcakes don't rise much so don't be afraid to fill the cases. For reference, the chocolate I used for both the cupcakes and the icing was Green & Black's 72% cook's chocolate. I found 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract in the icing to be a bit overpowering, but that's definately subjective.