Memoirs of an Amateur Cook

Quite some time ago, my boyfriend and I were both sitting around the house without much to do.  I fancied doing some baking and Mr MAC decided to give me a hand.  This soon developed into cupcake wars, Mr MAC vs Ms MAC!

My boyfriend decided to make mint choc chip cupcakes whereas I opted for a combination of rocky road cupcakes and vanilla and strawberry cupcakes.

Mr MAC made a basic vanilla sponge mix and added peppermint essence and chocolate chips.  He topped the finished cupcakes with chocolate buttercream.  Unfortunately, I do not have any photos of my other half’s efforts however, he has said that he thinks this is for the best!!

Unfortunately, the chocolate chips Mr MAC added to his cupcake batter sunk during baking and stuck to the wrapper.  After doing a bit of research, I have found that simply rolling heavier items (like chocolate chips or pieces of chocolate bars) in flour prior to adding them to cupcake batter will prevent them from sinking! The cupcakes did have a nice flavour although in future I think I would be inclined to add a little more peppermint essence and maybe some green food colouring to the cake batter.

For my strawberry and vanilla cupcakes, I started off by making a basic vanilla sponge mix and added some bashed up pieces of white chocolate.  Whilst the cupcakes were baking, I finely chopped some strawberries and covered them in sugar.  Once the cooked cupcakes had cooled, I hollowed out the middle of each one and filled it with the macerated strawberries.  I topped the cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and a few more strawberries.

Unfortunately, like with Mr MAC’s cupcakes, my chocolate chips sank to the bottom!  I do however think the flavours in this cake were really nice and it is definitely something I can improve on in the future.

Even if I do say so myself, my rocky road cupcakes were the clear winner of our cupcake wars competition!  They were divine!  The sponge was so soft and the addition of marshmallows, nuts and glace cherries made it even better.  The cupcakes were so nice in fact, that I have gone on to play around with the recipe I devised on the day of our ‘cupcake wars’ and it is now a little different, it even has a rocky road filling!

Memoir of an Amateur Cook’s Rocky Road Cupcakes

For the sponge:

280g caster sugar

80g margarine

200g plain flour

40g cocoa powder

1 tbsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

3 eggs

For the filling:

50g margarine

150g dark chocolate, chopped

1.5 tbsp golden syrup

Handful mini marshmallows

40g raisins

4 digestive biscuits, broken into small pieces

12 glace cherries

For the icing:

125g margarine

400g icing sugar

3-4tbsp skimmed milk

3 heaped tbsp cocoa powder

To decorate:

36 mini marshmallows

Chocolate curls/silver balls

For the cupcakes:

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees.  Line a muffin tin with cupcake papers.
2. Mix together the sugar, margarine, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt until it resembles fine breadcrumbs and all the ingredients have come together.  Add in the eggs and milk and mix until you have a smooth batter and all the ingredients are combined.
3. Spoon the batter evenly into the cases so that each one is three-quarters full.  Bake for 20 minutes and leave to cool on a wire rack.

For the filling:

1. Melt the margarine, chocolate and syrup together over a low heat, stirring often.
2. Allow the mixture to cool for 10 minutes before stirring in the mini marshmallows, cherries, biscuit and raisins.
3. Once the cupcakes have cooled, hollow out the middle of each cake with a small knife remembering to keep a circle of sponge for the ‘lid’.
4. Spoon a small amount of rocky road filling into each cupcake and top with the sponge lid.

For the icing:

1. Put the margarine in a large bowl and sift in the icing sugar.
2. Add the milk and cocoa powder and beat until smooth and thick.

To assemble: 

1. Ice the cupcakes using either a pallet knife or pipping bag.
2. Place three mini marshmallows on top of each iced cupcake
3. Top with other decorations such as silver balls or chocolate curls.

These cupcakes are so delicious, I made a batch for my boyfriend’s sister’s birthday recently.  They seemed to go down pretty well so fingers crossed, my recipe was a success!  Better luck to Neil for next time!!