Chocolate Cupcake Collection

Before having to make that, for some, very difficult decision of which flavour to have for their wedding cake, i give my brides (and grooms!) a tasting of their top three flavours.  It's also an opportunity for me to show off a little bit with my tasty produce ;)  Today's bride and groom 'really like chocolate'. Their three choices:

*  Double Chocolate

*  Nuts about Chocolate

*  White Chocolate

For the recipes to make these yummy chocolatey creations, carry on reading...

I find that cupcakes are the easiest form to make tasting samples as, so i made all of the below recipes as cupcakes for today, but they are perfect for cake too!  Each of the recipes below will make 12 cupcakes.  For a 20 cm cake, double up!

Double Chocolate

125 g butter, softened

125 ml castor sugar

3 eggs

3/4 cup cake flour

1/4 t baking powder

Preheat the oven to 180 ºC.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar.  I find that with these smaller quantities, it is actually just more effective to use a hand-held beater.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  

Sift together the remaining dry ingredients and fold into the creamed butter and egg mixture. Spoon into the cupcake papers and bake for 20 - 25 minutes.  

I find that the best 'frosting for these cupcakes is a ganache: Heat 200 ml fresh cream in the microwave for 2 minutes.  Add 200 g of chopped dark chocolate and stir (with a whisk, is the easiest) until smooth.  Leave to set overnight.  

The next two recipes are from a fantastic cupcake recipe book: 

Divine Cupcakes, Tamara Jane, New Holland, 2009.  Check out her website here. 

Nuts about Chocolate 

115 g butter, softened

110 g brown sugar

115 g milk chocolate, melted and cooled

1 t vanilla essence

2 eggs

125 g ground hazelnuts

Preheat the oven to 180 ºC.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar.  Add the chocolate and vanilla essence.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Fold in the ground hazelnuts.

Divide the mixture evenly between 12 cupcake papers and bake for approximately 30 minutes.

For the frosting, i use milk chocolate ganache and a sprinkling of chopped hazelnuts or a shard of hazelnut praline.

PS - This recipe is gluten-free!!

White Chocolate

150 g cake flour

1/2 t baking powder

225 g castor sugar

125 g butter

75 g white chocolate, chopped

125 ml milk

1 egg

Preheat the oven to 160 ºC.  Sift the flour and baking powder together.  Place the remaining ingredients in a microwaveable dish and microwave for 3 minutes or until all the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is homogenous.  You are looking for a caramelly flavour in the end product, so make sure that you heat this mixture sufficiently.  Pour over the flour, mix. Add the egg and stir to combine.  Pour into the cupcake papers using a jug.  Bake for approximately 30 min.

Even though i am not a fan of white chocolate, i absolutely LOVE these cupcakes.  They have a fantastic flavour and texture and they keep (stay fresh) for an amazingly long time.  The perfect topping: white chocolate ganache with a couple of berries. The tartness of the berries is just the little bit that these cupcakes need to be perfectly balanced!