Before you ask, yes! Those are alligators sitting on top of all that glittery chocolate mud! When I did the maths, realising I needed to bake cupcakes for school, as well as cake for us and the family, I decided why not just make a ridiculous amount of cupcakes? So I did. 72 of them! I started baking 3 days before Matthew's birthday, so that all three batches of cupcakes would be cool and ready to ice by Tuesday evening and then ready to zoot off to school with Matthew on his birthday this past Wednesday.
This recipe is very similar to my chocolate cake recipe Claire's Crazy Cakes, Bakes and Kitchen Hacks: Chapter 3 - Ultimate Chocolate Cake, but baking times vary, and I added quite a bit more icing sugar as my usual recipe is truly a dark chocolate one. I had to make this one a bit more kid friendly!
This is not the 1st time I've picked cupcakes over a whole traditional cake, and once again, I have no regrets. Here are some variations from previous birthdays.
@ZakLudick @AimeLudick @MerenLudick @Matthew-Williams are always more than happy to help ice and lick all the utensils and bowls!
The Cupcakes:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Tools:
You'll need sealable plastic transport containers, which you can buy from most baking supply shops. Make sure your kids bring them home though! It's a waste of money to buy new ones for every birthday.
- Cupcake holders - suitable for baking
- 2 x non stick cupcake/ muffin tins (12's which makes 24 cupcakes in total, per batch)
- Spray and Cook
- A Cake Mixer (doesn't have to be fancy. Even a simple hand
held one is fine - Several wooden spoons (especially if you have children that
keep stealing them to lick). - 3 large mixing bowls: two for the cake another one for the icing
Cooling racks x 2
Ingredients
*hints
Prep your cupcake tins by generously spraying them with the spray and cook AND lining them with baking paper cups.
Use two separate bowls, one for dry and one for wet. This way you'll prevent yourself from forgetting to cream the butter and sugar and eggs before adding the dry stuff, which leads to this:*
SAD CAKE
Wet ingredients:
- 125g Soft Butter
- 1/2 Cup Castor Sugar
- 1/3 Cup Icing Sugar
- 2 Eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Essence
- 1/4 Cup Sunflower Oil
- 80g Jam (I like to use strawberry, but any jam is fine. For
- American readers, this is preserve or jelly)
- 250ml milk
Dry Ingredients
- 1 and a 1/4 cup Self Raising Flour
- 1/2 cup of cocoa
- 1 Teaspoon Bicarbonate of soda
- 1 Teaspoon baking powder
Method:
Cream Butter and sugar until light and fluffy
Mix egg, oil and vanilla and add in small amounts to the bowl
Add jam
In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients
Mix wet and dry ingredients together now and lastly add in milk.
Once evenly mixed (not lumpy but be careful not to overmix otherwise your cake won't rise) pour the mixture into your prepared cupcake tins and place as centred as possible in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes. You can take them out at the 30-minute mark and switch them around and bake for another 10 minutes if necessary to ensure they bake evenly. It depends on your oven. I don't usually recommend removing any cake from the oven while baking, as it can cause your cake to flop, but this recipe is practically flop-proof and as long as you work quickly, the time it takes to switch the trays around is worth it. When the time is up, you can use a skewer or toothpick to make sure they're cooked through by inserting it into the centre of a few cupcakes. It should come out clean, with no batter sticking to it.
Remove your cupcake tins from the oven (please use oven mittens lest your hands become like mine). Let them cool in the tin for a bit (like an hour) before turning out onto the cooling racks. You cannot ice warm cake.
The Icing:
*When you are ready to ice, get your plastic cupcake trays ready and assemble the cupcakes so they're ready to be iced, decorated and transported. *
Ingredients:
- 100g soft Butter
- 1 tub Cream Cheese
- 2 cups of Icing Sugar
150g Cocoa Powder - Dash of Milk
Method:
There isn't really one. Just stick it all in a bowl and mix till its all smooth and moussey looking. Spoon a good layer of icing on top of each cupcake. You can really go wild and top with whatever tickles your fancy! Don't eat all the cupcakes in the fridge light at midnight. Despite what I may tell you, those calories do count 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣