food hits and misses

I've just finished auditing the pantry and discovered that we had way too many bags of chocolate melts. Clearly the solution to that problem is chocolate cake, and so I had a look around the internets and found Nigella's cupcake recipe. I figured they would be as good a base as any for some silky smooth chocolate buttercream frosting.



The original cake recipe calls for everything to get chucked in the food processor. Getting that out seemed like too much of a challenge, especially given there's a Kitchenaid permanently on my kitchen table. So here's how to make them with a stand mixer, or if you're feeling energetic, a wooden spoon.

Chocolate cupcakes

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tspn vanilla
1 cup flour
1 tspn baking powder
1/2 tspn bicarbonate of soda
2 tbspn cocoa powder
1/4 cup milk

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Line a 12 hole muffin pan with paper cases. Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs and vanilla, beating well. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa. Add to the butter mixture and stir thoroughly. Add the milk and beat well until smooth. Add a tablespoon of mixture to each paper case. Bake 15 - 20 minutes until done.

Chocolate buttercream

3 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter, cubed
200g dark chocolate, melted and cooled
2 tbspn cocoa
1 tspn ground cinnamon

Method

Combine the eggs and sugar in a heat-proof bowl. Place over a pan of simmering water and whisk until the sugar dissolves - around 5 to 10 minutes. Beat on high speed with a whisk attachment until the outside of the bowl is cool to touch. Slowly add the butter, beating with the paddle attachment on medium speed until all butter is incorporated. Mix together the chocolate, cocoa and cinnamon. Add to the meringue mix and beat well to combine.