Chocolate cupcakes to match

I made these cupcakes to match the birthday cake that I made for my sister. I adore the little red cupcake papers - they look so effective against the chocolate colours and I know they would be brilliant for Christmas and winter cupcakes!
I hand grated all the chcolate shavings using a cheese grater, it was messy but lots of fun! The cakes are chocolate with chocolate buttercream and then chocolate shavings quickly sprinkled on!
My camera has been broken for some time now but i'm pleased to report that I have just purchased a new one so worry not, I can keep baking and taking photos! I took part in the London Triathlon at the weekend - i entered as a team with work and did the running part dressed as a toilet! It was so much fun! That's it now though for my sporting achievements for this year! I've done the Crisis 6k, Race for Life 5k and LT 5k - what with all this running, I deserve a cake or two! I'm looking forward to spending long Sunday afternoons baking in the kitchen again rather than out running or worrying about my lack of training! Give me baking cakes anyday! x

Chocolate Birthday Cake

This is my sister's birthday cake. It's a 6inch chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream and then I bought some lovely dark and white chocolate bars and grated them to create chocolate shreads with I covered the cake in. I think it's looks really effective but to add a touch of love I swirled white melted choolate into heart shapes and stuck them on the top.

It's a small cake but it was the perfect size for my family to have a slice each with two slices for my sis to enjoy the next day!
I entered Race for Life today. It was in Hyde park and even though I've done quite a few charity runs I found this one particulary hard and it was only 5k but boy was it a long way! I was tired after 1k! I've spent all afternoon sat on the sofa drinking tea trying to recover from the pain! I can't work out why I was so exhausted! So I thought I'd post my chocolate cake to cheer myself up, cake always puts a smile on my face! Enjoy! x

Chocolate Madeira Cake

For my husband's birthday I made a chocolate madeira cake. It was delicious. I used chocolate buttercream for the filling and then covered the outside with chocolate icing! It was gone in no time!

To make the chocolate icing you will need: 30g/1oz of melted butter, 2 tablespoons of hot water, 2 tablesponns of sifted cocoa powder and 125g/4oz of sifted icing sugar.

Combine the melted butter with the 2 tablespoons of hot water and 2 tablespoons of sifted cocoa powder and stir it until it forms a smooth paste. Add the icing sugar and stir until well combined and smooth! I then used a palette knife and dolloped the icing on the top and sides and then swirled it around. It tastes divine and I really recommend this icing as a quick and easy way to cover a chocolate cake. My husband loved it!




Anyone for a slice?!

Chocolate fairy cakes with buttercream swirls

I made these little chocolate gems last weekend. I keep seeing fairy cakes and cupcakes in the shops in London with lots of swirly buttercream swirled around on top of the cakes in an array of colours! Peyton and Byrne cakes in St. Pancras station have them! So I thought I would try doing the same on my cupcakes.

I used chocolate buttercream and sprinkled in some bits of dark and milk chocolate flakes I had left over. I then used my piping bag with a giant star shaped nozzle and piped lucious swirls around and around! The only thing I would say is that the little chcolate flakes sometimes got stuck in the tube and caused air bubbles so I think it is better to have a smooth buttercream.

My husband asked me what the difference between a cupcake and a fairy cake was? I said fairy cakes were english and cupcakes were american and slightly bigger! Is that correct? If anyone has any thoughts on this please do let me know as I'm never quite sure! :)

Chocolate Cake

This mixture is enough for one cake tin only. Double the quantity for a double chocolate cake like the one I made.

125g soft margarine

125g caster sugar

2 eggs

1 tbsp golden syrup

125g self-raising flour (sieved)

2 tbsp cocoa powder (sieved)

Heat the oven to 190C (325f/Gas Mark 5) and line a 7inch/18cm cake tin with grease proof paper. Lightly grease the edges of the tin.

Cream together the margarine and the sugar and then add the eggs one at a time to the mixture. If the eggs start to curdle add one tablespoon of sieved self-raising flour. Add the rest of the flour and the cocoa powder and fold into the mixture. Stir in the the syrup and one tablespoon of hot water and mix together. Pour into the cake tin.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until the cake is nice and springy. Cool for a few minutes in the tin before transferring to a wire rack. Remember to peel away the grease proof paper from the bottom of the cake!

To make the filling or to ice the top of one cake you will need:

30g butter

2 tbsp of hot water

2tbsp of sifted cocoa powder

125g of sifted icing sugar

Melt the butter in a pan or in the microwave if you like and pour into a bowl. Add the hot water and the cocoa powder and stir until the ingrediants form a paste. Add the icing sugar until all the mixture is combined. I used this chocolate icing to sandwich the cakes together and then sprinkled on some more icing sugar. If you really want death by chocolate then you could make a large quantity of the chocoalte icing and cover the whole cake!