Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

This was the September Nigella Cookalong. I like taking part in the Nigella Cookalong because it pushes me to try some of her recipes that I wouldn't otherwise. And these were exactly one of those recipes. Cupcakes can be much-a-do about nothing and while I love decorating them actually eating them doesn't excite me all that much. But these were such a surprise. They're lovely and moist - almost fudgey. And since I used a red and black cherry conserve instead of the specified morello cherry jam (simply because I couldn't get it) ther're wasn't an overpowering sour cherry taste. To top it off they're so simple. This is a one-pan recipe. Everything gets melted in one saucepan then poured into paper cases. Such a simple but delicious crowd pleaser to have up your sleeve.

Ingredients:
(For The Cupcakes)

125g soft unsalted butter
100g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
300g cherry conserve
150g caster sugar
pinch of salt
2 large eggs, beaten
150g self-raising flour
12-bun muffin tin and papers

For The Icing
100g dark chocolate
100ml double cream
12 natural-coloured glacé cherriesServing Size : Makes 12

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/gas mark 4.

2. Put the butter in a heavy-bottomed pan on the heat to melt. When nearly completely melted, stir in the chocolate. Leave for a moment to begin softening, then take the pan off the heat and stir with a wooden spoon until the butter and chocolate are smooth and melted. Now add the cherry jam, sugar, salt and eggs. Stir with a wooden spoon and when all is pretty well amalgamated stir in the flour.

3. Scrape and pour into the muffin papers in their tin and bake for 25 minutes. Cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes before turning out.

4. When the cupcakes are cool, break the chocolate for the icing into little pieces and add them to the cream in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, remove from the heat and then whisk – by hand or electrically – till thick and smooth. Ice the cupcakes, smoothing the tops with the back of a spoon, and stand a cherry in the centre of each.

Think Pink!

Last week I promised my neice, Cousin Soph to JT, that she could come up a day to bake. Today, when I was out shopping, I noticed a jar of pink edible sprinkles and I immediately thought of Soph. Soph LOVES pink. Everything has to be pink. I threw them in the trolley and made a mental note to keep that promise a day soon. Later on when I was at home unpacking the groceries I lifted out the sprinkles and thought, "Why not now?" So I texted her mum and she arrived within the hour. We discussed the design brief, pink, and settled on watermelon lemonade and cupcakes with pink icing with pink sprinkles and she got to work with uncontained excitement.



And I mean she got to work. I am a firm believer in letting children have a go in the kitchen. So what if she weighs out a bit too little flour or a bit extra butter, what's the worst that can go wrong? I guarantee that no matter what's missing or what extras are in the mix it'll taste a million times better than anything else because she made them. I help and advise, of course. It's amazing the teaching opportunities that an hour of baking holds.



She weighed and beat and spooned and piped. You want to have seen the delight on that little girls face when I filled a piping bag up with pink icing and told her, "Here you do it yourself!" And she added the red food colouring to create the perfect shade of icing, which I think deserves the description 'shocking pink'.



The watermelon lemonade was less exciting - just watermelon, sparkling water and a squeeze of lemon and sugar to taste but it was the fact that she was making a pink drink that pleased her.

No recipes today because everyone has a cupcake recipe somewhere and doesn't need another one.