Chocolate Cupcakes!

I had spent 6-12 months making the same kind of cupcakes which I thought actually had too much butter (250g) as the bottom of the cases were a bit oily. I went on a hunt and found this recipe which is just delicious and chocolatey!

Also, if you do not have an oven thermometer go and pick one up – they are less than $10.00 from cooking stores (I got mine from the General Trader) and will help with the right temp for cooking your cupcakes if your oven is anything like mine is. Also, don’t open the oven until you’re ready to use the skewer to see if they’re ready EVEN if you want to look at them because the temperature can drop significantly any time you open the door.

Ingredients:

• 100g butter (room temp or softened)
• 2/3 cup caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup self raising flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• ½ cup milk

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC or 160ºC fan forced. This is where the oven thermometer comes in handy!
2. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla until all combined. Add eggs one by one and mix until just mixed through.
3. In a seperate bowl, sift the Self Raising flour and cocoa. Add to the mixture with milk. Stir until just combined.
4. Spoon into cupcake cases and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

They will be *just* ready if the top springs back a lot and the skewer comes out completely clean. You don’t want to make them crunchy (like I did the other day) or they are too much like an actual chocolate cake and not fluffy and light enough to qualify as cupcakes.

I would recommend you use Cadbury’s cocoa for this recipe, though some home brand cocoa is just fine but can differ in intensity, so you’ll just have to try it out.

Oh! And I almost forgot: This makes 12 cupcakes, but for SOME reason I always end up with 13.