Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

If you are a lover of mint chocolate then you are absolutely going to love these.  They have the perfect balance between dark chocolate and mint and the best thing is the hidden mint areo balls in the middle. They taste absolutely amazing and are worth every minute of effort in the kitchen. Enjoy....



Ingredients:

For the cupcakes
175g soft butter
175g caster sugar
3 medium free range eggs, beaten
125g self-raising flour
50g cocoa powder

For the buttercream
250g unsalted butter, softened
500g icing sugar
1 packet of mint areo bubbles
30g cocoa powder

Another packet of mint areo bubbles
24 go in the middle of the cupcakes (2 in the each one)
12 for the decoration

One 12 hole muffin tin 

Method:

1. The night before you want to make these tip 1 packet of the areo balls out onto a baking tray or plate and put in the freezer over night.  You want the areo balls to be completely frozen so they don't melt too much when in the oven or they will become a gooey mess.

2.  Pre heat the oven to 160 degrees C and line a muffin tin with 12 muffin sized cupcakes cases.

3. Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and creamy.

4. Slowly add the beaten eggs.

5. Then add the flour and cocoa and mix thoroughly until smooth.

6. Spoon a small amount of batter into each of the cases.



7. Remove the areo balls from the freezer (leave them in there right until the last minute) and place 2, side by side, into each of the cases on top of the batter. (Leave the remaining areo balls out of the freezer as 12 of them will be the decoration and if there are any left over you can add them to the buttercream or give yourself a treat whilst baking)

8. Lastly, cover the balls with the remaining batter and bake for 30 mins.

9. Remove from the tin and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

10. For the buttercream beat the butter for a good 5 mins until it is pale and creamy.  Then add the icing sugar and mix together until creamy and lump free.

11. Take about a third of the buttercream and place it in a separate bowl and put to one side.

12. Crush the bag of areo balls to a powdery texture with a few bigger bits if you want a little crunch throughout the buttercream and add this to the larger bowl of buttercream and mix thoroughly.

13. Add the cocoa powder the the smaller bowl of buttercream and mix thoroughly.

14. Once the cakes are cool, using a piping bag or a knife (which is what I used as I didn't have a piping bag to hand) put a layer of the mint buttercream onto each cupcake.

15. Then place a little splodge of the chocolate buttercream on top in the middle and flatten the edges down to blend it into the mint buttercream. Or if using a piping bag you could swirl the mint buttercream and swirl a bit of chocolate on top. It's entirely up to how you want them to look.

16. Finally place a mint areo ball on top of the chocolate buttercream and you are finished and ready to eat one!!

Enjoy

Rusty
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Yummy Chocolate Chunk Shortbread

Chocolate Chunk Shortbread

These shortbread are the perfect crumbly texture and literally melt in your mouth.  They taste absolutely amazing and the chocolate chunks make the perfect addition. So if you fancy making a really tasty chocolate chunk shortbread then here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

~300g Plain flour
~100g Caster Sugar
~Pinch of salt
~250g Cold butter
~1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

 ~100g chocolate chunks
~ Cutter in any shape you want
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Makes 15

Method:

1.  Pre heat oven to 150 degrees C.  Line 2 trays with baking parchment.

2. Place all the ingredients into a bowl and mix together until it becomes breadcrumbs and then just start to clump it together.

3.  Next add the chocolate chunks and mix in.
4.  Then bring the dough together into a ball.

5.  Knead briefly in the bowl, literally 30 seconds just to bring it together, the less the better in order to keep the shortbread short and crumbly.
6.  Dust a surface with plain flour, then using a rolling pin roll the dough out to roughly 1 cm thick.

7.  Then using any cutter of you choice cut out the shapes. Re roll out the dough until it is all used, but don't roll it out too many times because as before you want to keep the dough short.  Place the shortbread onto the prepared trays and then prick just the surface with a fork.  Then sprinkle a little bit of caster sugar onto each one.



8.  Place the shortbread in the oven for 25/30 mins, until just golden.

Enjoy

Rusty
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Mini Lemon Drizzle Loaves

Mini Lemon Drizzle Loaves

This is the perfect recipe for when you fancy a sweet treat but you don't want to spend hours in the kitchen.  They are the perfect balance between lemon and sweet and the sponge itself is very light, making these the perfect change from rich chocolate treats.  It's an all in one method so they are quick and easy to make and they taste amazing!!!

Makes 8-9

Ingredients: 

250g butter, softened
400g caster sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
250g self-raising flour
Zest and juice of 3 lemons
Mini loaf cases

Method:

1. Heat oven to 160C fan.

2.  Lay out 9 (or as many as you get), mini loaf cases on a baking tray.

3.  Whisk the butter, 250g of the sugar, eggs, flour, zest of 2 lemons and juice from 1 lemon until just combined. Don't over whisk.

4.  Fill the cases two thirds full, then bake for 30-35 mins, until a skewer inserted comes out clean and they start to colour and look golden brown.

5.  Transfer the mini loaves to a cooling rack and leave them to cool for 10 mins.

6.  Next, with a skewer poke each mini loaf a few times, not all the way to the bottom but about 3/4 of the way.

7.  Then in a bowl pour the remaining lemon juice over the remaining 150g of sugar and zest of 1 lemon and stir to form a syrup, immediately spoon over the mini loaves.  Then leave to cool completely.

Happy Baking

Rusty

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The Ultimate Chocolate Brownie

The Ultimate Chocolate Brownie
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If you love the squidgy, fudgy really chocolatey type of brownie then this is the perfect recipe for you.  If you love coffee then there is an option to add coffee to these making them mocha brownies.  I added 1/2 a tsp of coffee and I didn't really taste coffee at all but you can add as much or as little coffee as you like, depending on how strong a coffee flavour you want.  However, with or without the coffee, these are absolutely amazing chocolate brownies especially with the addition of the white chocolate chunks which melt throughout them making them extra chocolatey!!! 
 

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Ingredients:

~100g butter

~200g plain chocolate broken into pieces

~4 eggs

~250g caster sugar

~2 tbsp powdered coffee (optional)

~30g cocoa powder

~100g plain flour

~1tsp baking powder

~100g white chocolate chunks (optional)
~ 20cm square Tin (I used a 20/26cm tin)
 

Method:

1.  Heat oven to 180 degrees C.  Line a 20cm square tin with baking parchment.

2.  Place the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl and melt together in the microwave or a bowl set over a pan of simmering water.  Once melted and combined leave to cool a little. 

3.  Whisk together the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Then beat the cooled chocolate mixture into the whisked eggs and sugar. 

4.  Mix the cocoa, flour and baking powder together.

5.  Use just enough boiling water to melt the coffee (if using), leave to cool slightly. 

6.  Pour the dry ingredients into the chocolate mixture and gently stir together.  Then pour in the dissolved coffee and gently stir in.

7.  Next stir in the white chocolate chunks (if using).

8.  Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 25-30 mins until just set but still a little squidgy in the centre. 

9.  Leave to cool in the tin, then lift out and cut into squares and ENJOY!!!!

Happy Baking

Rusty

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