Chocolate cupcakes with a heart
Ingredients
- 140 g unsalted butter
- 100 g caster sugar
- 50 g light brown sugar
- 2 medium eggs
- 150 g self-raising flour
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder mixed with 2 tbsp boiling water
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 50 g white chocolate chips
For the icing
- 100 g unsalted butter
- 200 g icing sugar, plus 1 tbsp for serving
- 50 g white chocolate, chopped and melted
- 1 tsp pink food colouring
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 160°C (fan). Place 12 paper muffin cups in the holes of a muffin tray.
2. Whisk the butter and sugars in a bowl with an electric beater, until softened. Add the eggs with 3 tbsp of the flour and whisk, until smooth. Add the cocoa powder mixture, the vanilla essence, remaining flour and the baking powder and whisk, until smooth. Fold through the white chocolate chips.
3. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cups – they should be about ¾ full. Bake for 20-25 mins, until firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
4. For the icing, whisk the butter until softened, then add the icing sugar with half the white chocolate. Whisk until smooth, then beat in the remaining white chocolate and the pink colouring.
5. Using a serrated knife, cut the tops off the cupcakes just above the paper muffin cups. Either using a very small heart shaped cutter or by hand, cut hearts out of the tops of the cupcakes.
6. Spoon the buttercream onto the cupcakes and top with the cut-out tops. Dust with the icing sugar to serve.