Celebration Cupcakes

A beautiful modern Wedgwood 'Polka Dot' teacup and saucer

Notes

I made these for the lovely Caroline when she decided to pack up her Sydney life and head to Europe. Farewelled in Cupcake style! A rich chocolate brownie style cupcake with a vanilla bean buttercream icing.

Ingredients – makes 12

1 cup self-raising flour
2/3 cup caster sugar
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
50g softened butter
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
100g dark chocolate
1 tsp vanilla extract

Ingredients – icing

2 cups icing sugar
120g butter at room temperature
2 tbsp milk
1 vanilla bean
maltesers

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a muffin tray with patty papers. Melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water then set aside to cool. In a large bowl beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the egg and beat to combine. Stir in the chocolate. Sift in the flour and bi-carb then stir together thoroughly with the milk and vanilla. Spoon into the patty papers filling to 3/4 full and cook for 20-25min. The cupcakes will rise then fall and create a crust on the top, this is due to the weight of the real chocolate used in the batter giving the cupcakes a lovely fudgy texture. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack, allowing to cool completely before icing.

In a large bowl place 1/4 of the icing sugar and beat with the butter until combine. Gradually add the rest of the sugar beating continuously. Split the vanilla bean and scrape out all the seeds. Add to the mixture along with the milk and beat for 10min until icing is thick and creamy.

Dollop a spoonful of the icing onto the cupcake and spread clockwise with the flat of a knife gradually working the icing to the edge of the cupcake. Add one more dollop in the centre to create some height. Insert the tip of the knife into the centre of the dollop and swirl outwards to the edge of the cupcake. Top with a malteser.

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