Ingredients:
175g butter
175g caster sugar
175g self raising flour
3 eggs
Vanilla essence
Chocolate chips
Cocoa Powder
1. Preheat oven to 180C - Beat sugar and butter in a bowl until creamy and soft.
2. Add eggs one at a time and beat until soft
3. Add vanilla if using.
4. Sift in flour, then fold in with a wooden spoon - then add the cocoa powder (I usually use 3 tablespoons)
5. Add chocolate chips
6. Pour mixture into muffin cases
7. Bake for about 15 / 20 minutes.
Buttercream:
140g/5oz butter, softened
280g/10oz icing sugar
1-2 tbsp milk
2 tbsp cocoa powder
Just mix together in a bowl until smooth. You may need to make up some more buttercream depending on how much you decide to use on each cupcake.
To get the swirled icing effect, I use the following equipment:
For the sugar star on top, I used ready to roll icing sugar (or you can use sugarpaste) with the following cutter:
(or just search for a PME large star cutter)
**For icing techniques, check out this video:**
