Layered Chocolate Vanilla Cupcakes

Exams are over and summer is here at long last. I'm back at home after a few well needed days of rest and recuperation. Needless to say, exams at Oxford are like being put through a high speed blender on a roller coaster: not fun.

However, i'm back in the kitchen after a fair few days of slobbing around the house in my pajamas, and ready to return to Oxford on Wednesday for some much needed celebrations with my friends. And of course, I cannot return to many stressed historians without some cake to get them through long hours of revision.

I decided something simple, but undoubtedly yummy, was needed, and Hummingbird (once again) provided the perfect recipe: chocolate and vanilla cupcakes. A yummy infusion of milky chocolate and vanilla sponge, topped with decadent swirled chocolate frosting. Who could say no?

Ingredients:
For the cake:
80g unsalted butter
280g caster sugar
240g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
20g cocoa powder
2 large eggs
240ml whole milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
For the chocolate frosting:
200g icing sugar
50g cocoa powder
80g unsalted butter
25ml whole milk
For the vanilla frosting:
250g icing sugar
80g unsalted butter
25ml whole milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Method:
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celcius, and line a cupcake tin with cases.

First make the flavoured sponges. Using a handheld electric mixer, beat together half each of the butter, sugar, flour and baking powder, along with all the cocoa powder, until it resembles breadcrumbs.

Whisk the egg with the milk by hand in a jug, then pour half of this into a second mug and set aside for the vanilla sponges. (As usual, i've been a useless blogger and forgotten to take photos during the baking process!)

Take the first jug of egg/milk mixture, pour three quarters if it into the dry chocolate sponge mixture and mix on a low speed. Add the remaining quarter of the egg mixture from the first jug and continue to mix on a low speed until all the ingredients are well incorporated.

For the vanilla sponge, beat together the remaining butter, sugar, flour and baking powder until it resembles fine bread crumbs. Add three quarters of the milk/egg mixture and beat well. Add the remaining egg/milk mixture and beat on a medium speed until well incorporated.

Divide the chocolate batter between the cupcake cases, filling each by about a third. Top with the same quantity of vanilla batter.

Bake in the preheated oven for 18-20 minutes or until well risen and springy. Let the cupcakes cool in the tin for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the chocolate frosting, whisk the icing sugar with the cocoa powder and butter on a low speed. Pour in the milk, still whisking on a low speed, and beat until soft and fluffy.

Repeat for the vanilla icing, but omit the cocoa powder.

Ice the cupcakes by swirling both the chocolate and vanilla icing onto the cupcakes with a palette knife. Or alternatively, place the icings side by side in a piping bag and pipe swirls onto your cupcakes.

This Marbled Chocolate Cake is very similar and perfect for a chocoholic's birthday cake!

Sticky toffee pudding cupcakes.

Every time my Dad goes skiing (which is becoming fairly often), Mum and I treat ourselves to dinner at our favourite restaurant, a small bistro pub down the road called The Greenman; which also happens to be where I waitress.

After our main course plates have been cleared, the employees need no longer ask what we want for dessert, as the reply is always the same: sticky toffee pudding.

This restaurants STP is absolutely to die for, so I decided to transfer such an indulgent dessert into a more snacksize, but equally satisfying treat. Hence, sticky toffee cupcakes!

I faced many challenges whilst making these, the foremost of which was not eating all the Dulce de Leche straight from the jar!

(Recipe credit to Hummingbird Bakery, once again!)

180g pitted and chopped dates
180ml boiling water
80g unsalted butter
150g light brown sugar
2 eggs
180g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
160g unsalted butter (for the icing)
500g icing sugar (for the icing)
50ml whole milk (for the icing)
100g dulce de leche (for the icing)

Put the chopped dates in a bowl and cover them with the boiling water. Set them aside to soak for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the cupcake batter. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius and line two cake tins with cupcake cases.

Beat the butter and sugar together with a handheld electric mixer until soft and fluffy. Break the eggs into the mixture one at a time and beat until well incorporated. Sift the dry ingredients into the butter and sugar mixture in three additions, folding the flour in well between each addition.

Finally, add the soaked dates and the vanilla extract to the batter. If there is lots of excess liquid on the dates than drain this off before adding the dates.

Bake for 18-20 minutes before removing from the oven, transferring to a wire rack and leaving to cool.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, make the icing. Beat together the butter and icing sugar, then add the milk and beat well. Next, stir in the dulce de leche. Pipe swirls of the icing onto the cupcakes.

*The hummingbird bakery advise decorating with chopped up pieces of date, but instead I deocrated with thorntons mini fudge chunks. Also, for an extra caramel kick, scoop out a little of the inside of the cupcake and fill with a teaspoon of dulce de leche, then replace the lid, before icing. (that is, if you haven't eaten all the dulce de leche!)

Enjoy!

Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

Another Eastery treat for you.. delicious chocolate orange cupcakes.

If there is one thing I have learned from making these it is this: attempting to hide chocolate from my mother is futile. Utterly futile.

Subsequently, the making of these cupcakes was significantly delayed by the guilty party having to make an emergency supermarket run to buy me another Terry's chocolate orange!

Alas, when they were finally complete though, they were a real treat.

Quite a funny recipe, adapted from a whole cake which involved cooking and blending an ENTIRE orange. VERY satisfying.

Recipe here: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1356/dark-chocolate-and-orange-cake

Simply ignore the ganache recipe, instead make up a normal buttercream,then stir in some orange extract and cocoa powder. It can be as chocolatey or orangey as you'd like it to be. I also grated some chocolate orange on top and decorated with an entire slice of chocolate orange - indulgent in the true Nigella sense of the word!

Here's the cake when I made it as a whole and followed the chocolate ganache recipe: