Try some of my favourite recipes and share in my travel adventures when I am lucky enough to enjoy these.
This year I decided to try making cupcakes. I have baked since the age of 12. I think I loved the creativity involved in mixing ingredients just right and decorating the final products. And then there is the tasting of course! So decorating a cupcake seemed like fun. I tried baking many varieties and flavours. The chocolate ones always came out tops for moistness and flavour. Here's one of my favourites courtesy of the famous Nigella!
Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes
Ingredients:
125g soft, unsalted butter
100g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
300g morello cherry jam (or any other variety - I used raspberry)
150g caster sugar
pinch of salt
2 large eggs, beaten
150g self-raising flour
Icing:
100g dark chocolate
100ml double cream
12 glace' cherries
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.
2. Put butter in a heavy-bottomed pan on heat to melt. When nearly completely melted, stir in chocolate. Take off the heat and stir with a wooden spoon until completely smooth and melted. Now add cherry jam, sugar, salt, and eggs. Stir until all ingredients are completely mixed. Then stir in the flour.
3. Pour into prepared muffin liners in their tin and bake for 25 minutes. Cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes before turning out.
4. When cupcakes are cool, break chocolate for icing into little pieces and add to the cream in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, remove from heat and then whisk until smooth and thick. Ice the cupcakes, smoothing the tops with the back of a spoon. Add a cherry on top of each cupcake.
Enjoy!
