Monday 8 April 2013

Hot Chocolate Tea-Cup Cakes






Well hello there,

I have returned to the land of blogs! After a week or so away I have so much catching up to do and feel very out of the loop. It seemed like I chose the busiest week (in blogland) to go to a little forest with no wi-fi! It was this week that my first button swaps went, mostly, up and running(!). 

I must thank and apologise to the lovely bloggers who've swapped. Thank you for helping me sprinkle my love for baking, a little wider, around the blog-O-sphere and sorry for being a tad scatty! 

Now would seem a good time to point out the new buttons in the side bar: Me + The Moon, Amour la fille, as well as Light and Sweet. I seriously encourage you all to go check out these wonderful blogs, these lovely spaces of web are such good reads and some of my many favourites!

Anyway, on to the bake, the idea for this was inspired by my holiday in general as I drank bucket loads of hot chocolate over the last week. I literally live on a diet of marshmallows, cream and hot chocolate when the weather gets colder so when I was given these adorable "cup"cake cases (for my birthday, thank you very much lovely older sister) I knew I wanted to bake hot chocolate themed cakes!

The cases themselves were from Lakeland and can be found here. Although, I'm sure you could find others from different shops, as they are such a cute idea! You bake the cake inside the tea cup so it holds the shape and they come with adorable matching saucers; what's not to love?

I've topped my chocolate cakes with plain butter icing, mini marshmallows and a sprinkling of cocoa powder. They are designed to look like hot chocolate but if that's not your style I'm sure you could remodel it to fit other hot drinks!

I'm thinking up an earl grey cupcake recipe for one of my sisters birthdays, and will be using these cases for definite!

Anyone ever used other shaped silicone cases before?

Much love Alex-Rose xxx


Hot chocolate Tea-Cup Cakes- Recipe from The Primrose Bakery
Ingredients:
  • 115g Plain or Dark chocolate
  • 85g Unsalted Butter, softened
  • 175g Soft Brown sugar
  • 2 Large eggs, separated
  • 185g Plain flour
  • 3/4 tsp Baking powder
  • 3/4 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
  • 250ml Milk
  • 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Method:
Start by measuring out all your ingredients and separating your eggs. Pre-heat the oven to 190c/180c fan/gas 5, and line 24 cupcake holes with cases.

Melt the chocolate and set aside to cool slightly.

In the bowl of a free standing mixer or with a hand held electric mixer, cream the butter until pale and smooth.  add the egg yolks gradually beating well. Then add the melted  chocolate and beat again.

In a different bowl sieve the flour, bicarbonate of sugar and baking powder then mix. 

Alternate between adding flour and then milk to the main chocolate batter, once all your flour and milk are gone give the batter a good beating.

In another bowl whisk your egg whites until stiff peaks have formed then gently fold into the main batter until fully combined and smooth.

Spoon into your cake cases and place into the oven for 20-25 minutes. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

To ice:

Ingredients:
  • 250g Icing Sugar
  • 80g Softened Butter
  • 2 Tablespoons of Milk
  • 1/4 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
  • Mini marshmallows
  • Cocoa powder

Method:

Put the butter and icing sugar into the bowl of a free-standing mixer and beat on a slow/medium speed until it comes together,  then turn up the speed. Continue to beat. In a separate bowl whisk the vanilla and the milk before adding gradually to the butter and icing sugar. Beat on a high speed for a further five minutes and then spoon into a piping bag and swirl onto the cooled cakes. Scatter on some marshmallows and sprinkle with cocoa powder!


DONE!






7 comments:

  1. These cupcake cases are SO cute, perfect for a tea party!

    I love lakeland, I could spend an absolute fortune in there, although their duo icing bags are an absolute PAIN.

    xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agreed, they are such a faff for an effect that you can acheive with a regular bag anyway!? xx

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  2. These look so good...yummmmm!!! Your blog posts make me so hungry!

    www.spinningspaceships.blogspot.co.uk

    ReplyDelete
  3. this is so cute! aw, I want one of those cases.

    Quirk and Swirl

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know right, they're really easy to use and I would definitely recommend them! xx

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  4. Haha it's so tempting and I must confess that I did have to "test" one of the cupcakes... I can confirm that when warm and just out the oven thy taste, like heaven! xx

    ReplyDelete