I found these cupcakes in one of my current favourite cook books – The Great British Bake off: How to Bake. I have, as usual, tweaked the recipe a little.
Ingredients
175 mls semi-skimmed or full cream milk
100 gms of dark chocolate
60 gms unsalted butter, at room temperature
125 gms caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg, beaten, at room temperature
150 gms sifted self raising flour
Method
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Put paper cupcake cases onto a baking tray.
Pour the milk into a medium sized saucepan.
Chop the chocolate and add it to the pan with 1/3 of the caster sugar. Leave it until the chocolate is melted on a low heat. Stir frequently. Once the chocolate is melted remove from the heat.
In a bowl beat the butter, sugar and food vanilla in a food processor until light and and creamy (at least 3 minutes).
Gradually add the beaten egg to the mixture, beating well after addition.
Add the flour and the chocolate/milk liquid alternately in 3 batches to the mixture in the food processor, pulsing briefly after each addition.
When the mixture is amalgamated spoon into cupcake cases.
Bake for around 15-20 minutes until cupcakes are risen and a skewer in inserted in centre of cupcake comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the baking tray for 2 minutes. Transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool.
Vanilla Icing
Ingredients
75 gms butter
Enough icing sugar to make a stiff butter cream
1 tbl milk
1/2 tsp vanilla paste
Method
Cream the butter, icing sugar, milk and vanilla paste in the food processor until light and fluffy. Add more icing sugar to ensure the icing is firm enough to ice cakes. Add a drop or two more milk if icing is too stiff.
Ice the cupcakes in a decorative or rustic way, according to taste or skill!
The Quirk and the Cool 