More fool me. They say pride comes before a fall and my first batch of cupcakes did exactly that. They fell hard. I mean we are talking on a scale of sinking larger than the Titanic here. There were many reasons for this sinking feeling. I surmised afterwards that my measurements were all out. I had added a little milk to thin the mixture down a little, it's my tried and tested trick for making cupcakes light and fluffy: replace one egg for a little milk. I forgot the bit about replacing the egg though. Consequentially my cupcakes were too light, the chcocolate chips didn't hold up, sunk to the bottom and burned. The cakes themselves tasted eggy and my addition of a little baking soda alongside the baking powder mixed with that extra egg meant they were anything but enjoyable. I also didn't cook them for long enough, (my oven is partly to blame for this, it's old and it's decided it doesn't want to heat evenly throughout anymore) so the cakes in the middle of the tray were raw in the middle. In short anything that could go wrong with these cupcakes did go wrong. However, I was down but not out. And with steely determination I soldiered on, adjusted my recipe (basically a little less of everything) and evetually managed to bake these chocolate-chip cupcakes with chocolate butter cream icing.
Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Chocolate Butter Cream Icing - makes 9 - 12 cupcakes
Ingredients - for the cake batter
4oz. Flour
4oz. sugar
4oz. butter, at room temperature
1 egg
2 tsp baking powder
150g chocolate chips
a little milk
- for the butter cream icing
6oz. butter
10 oz. icing sugar
1-2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
a few drops of water
Method -
- Preheat the oven to 180C and line and prepare a cupcake tray.
- In a large bowl cream the sugar and butter together until well combined and light and fluffy in texture. Beat in the egg and set aside.
- In a separate bowl sift together the flour and baking powder then gradually add to the butter mixture being careful not to overwork the batter then add in the chocolate chips. If, after the flour and chocolate are all combined, the mixture is too dry add a little milk until the cake batter is still firm but looks glossy and drops easily off a wooden spoon.
- Spoon a tablespoon of the mixture into each cup and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean, with just a fe crumbs when the cakes are tested.
- Allow cupcakes to cool for 5 minutes in the time before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- While the cupcakes are cooling make the butter cream icing. Cream the butter in a small bowl until soft and fluffy. Add the sieved icing sugar by degrees and beat until smooth and creamy then add in 1-2 tbsp cocoa powder, depending on how chocolatey you want your icing. Add a few drops of water if your icing is too dry to spread (mine was!)
- Spread the icing over the cooled cupcakes with a palette knife and top with decorations of your choosing.
And there you have it, successfully made and, if I do say so myself, rather pretty and very chocolatey cupcakes theat were recieved with much delight by my friend. If only she knew the heart ache and tears that went into these (not literaly tears, that wouild make them taste salty). I am assured by her that they were very tasty and loved by her and her whole family, so that, in itself makes them a success in my book!
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