Owl Cupcakes...

Cupcakes have to be one of life's simple pleasures a mini cake in an assortment of flavours topped off with a sticky sweet swirl of deliciousness.  However disappointingly I have had a few experiences where cupcakes look so delicious and tasty with all there toppings and sprinkles but once bitten into are dry and lack flavour. Thankfully these cute little owl cupcakes are moist chocolatey and an absolute delight to look at.

I could spend hours decorating cupcakes and I probably did making these too. These cupcakes are a rich moist chocolate sponge recipe adopted from the hummingbird bakeries book, one of my favourites for any cupcake orientated recipe. I chose to make both vanilla and chocolate frosting as some people find chocolate cake with chocolate frosting a little too rich, particularly my mum.

The owl decorations involved halving an Oreo for both eyes, making sure there was white filling on both sides of the biscuit (trust me this is harder than it looks) and smarties for the eyes and nose.

For the two tone cupcakes a star tip was used vanilla icing was filled into one piping bag, and chocolate in the other both piping bags were then placed into a piping back with a star icing nozzle at the end. Once swirled onto the cakes this creates an effective and simple two tone effect.

Chocolate Cupcakes:

• 100g self-raising flour
• 20g cocoa powder
• 140g caster sugar
• 1 1/2tsp baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 40g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 120ml whole milk
• 1 egg
• ¼tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1. Put the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment and beat on slow speed until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined.
2. Whisk the milk, egg and vanilla extract together in a jug, then slowly pour about half into the flour mixture, beat to combine and turn the mixer up to high speed to get rid of any lumps.
3. Turn the mixer down to a slower speed and slowly pour in the remaining milk mixture, mix until the batter is smooth
4. Using an ice cream scoop pour the mixture into the paper cases until 2/3 full bake for 20-25 minutes, a cocktail stick inserted should come out clean
5. Leave the cupcakes until cold

Chocolate Frosting 

• 300g icing sugar, sifted
• 100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 40g cocoa powder, sifted
• 40ml whole milk

Method:

1. Beat the icing sugar, butter and cocoa powder together in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) on medium-slow speed until the mixture comes together and is well mixed.
2. Turn the mixer down to slow speed. Add the milk to the butter mixture a couple of tablespoons at a time. Once all the milk has been incorporated, turn the mixer up to high speed.
3. Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Its important that the cupcakes are completely cool before you start to pipe otherwise you will end up with a melting sticky mess.

Happy Baking 

x