Super-Cute Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes for Easter

These cute mint chocolate Easter cupcakes are a variation on my easy vegan fairy cake recipe and are topped with chocolate-coated cereal nests! 

I couldn't find any vegan mini-eggs, so I painted some mint imperials with dots of brown food colouring. Just be sure to warn guests that the eggs are hard sweets, in case they try and bite into them or give them to young children!

Makes 12

• 150g/6oz dairy free spread/margarine
• 150g/6oz sugar
• 150g/5oz SR flour
• 25g/1oz sifted unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3 heaped tsp Orgran No Egg mixed with 7 tbsp water (or use a similar egg-substitute)
• ½ tsp xanthan gum

Cream the spread and sugar together until light and fluffy.

Add the remaining ingredients and mix gently until combined.
Spoon the mixture between 12 paper cake cakes in a muffin tin, filling quite generously.

Bake at 180C/170C Fan/350F/Gas Mark 4 for around 20 minutes, or until firm to the touch.
Cool on a wire rack.

When cold, top with mint butter cream/frosting...

Vegan butter icing

• 50g/2oz dairy free spread/margarine
• 125g/5oz icing sugar
• ½-1 tsp peppermint extract 
• green food colouring
• 1-2 tsp boiled water

Soften the spread.
Mix in the mint extract and colouring.
Beat in the icing sugar gradually, adding a little boiled water as needed to make a soft, spreadable mixture.
Pipe onto the top of each cupcake, once cold.

For the nests
100g/4oz dairy-free chocolate, melted
40g/1½oz rice crispies
12 vegan mint imperials (check ingredients for gelatine) or dairy-free chocolate mini eggs.
12 mini Easter chicks

Mix the cereal into the melted chocolate until coated. Spoon into a well greased mini muffin pan.
Press the crispies down with the back of a teaspoon and make a slight indent for the egg and chick to sit in. Chill until needed. 
Carefully remove the nests from the tin, using a palette knife, and place one on top of each iced cake.
Fill with a chick and an egg.

Top tip: Warning - do not open the oven to check until at least 15 minutes have passed (unless you can smell them burning!), as the egg-replacer takes longer to set than eggs would. I found this out whilst cooking my first batch and they sunk in the middle!

Alternatives: Make a large chocolate sandwich cake by dividing the mixture between two greased and lined sandwich cake tins and baking for 25-30 minutes. 

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Black Forest Muffins (with a vegan option)

Baking Mad asked if I would like to test out another one of their recipes, this time using Silver Spoon Homegrown sugar, which is the ONLY sugar grown in Britain. As I already buy Silver Spoon products, I was happy to oblige.

"Silver Spoon sugars are made from sugar beet . The sugar beet that goes into Silver Spoon sugars travels a short distance to the factory (an average of only 28 miles) direct from the fields around Bury St Edmunds in East Anglia. Silver Spoon work with 1,200 local farmers to grown the beet, which is then made into their range of homegrown sugars for families all over the country."   The first 10,000 people to register with Baking Mad before 30th September 2012 will receive a free Silver Spoon mystery gift (UK only).  

I decided to go for the rather indulgent looking Black Forest Muffins, as cherries are cheap and plentiful in the UK at the moment. These are quite time consuming to make (compared to simple muffins), with the cherry pitting and soaking, but worth the effort for a special dessert. I cooked two batches - one non-vegan and one vegan - as I didn't want my lovely vegan readers to miss out on these (the vegan variations are in italics). Of course, that meant a lot of muffins to eat, but my family bravely stepped up to the mark and helped out!

For the muffins:

• 450 g fresh cherries pitted and halved
• 2-4 tbsp kirsch, white rum or cherry brandy
• 150 ml water
• 110 g dark chocolate chips (Silver Spoon Create) - v.o dairy free chocolate
• 225 g unsalted butter, softened v.o dairy free spread
• 175 g caster sugar (Silver Spoon Homegrown)
• 3 free range eggs - v.o option Orgran No Egg or similar egg replacer
• 400 g plain flour 
• 50 g cocoa powder
• 1½ tsp baking powder
• 1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 140 ml sour cream - v.o dairy free vanilla or plain yogurt

For the topping:

• 400 ml double cream
• 3 tbsp caster sugar (Silver Spoon Homegrown)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Vegan topping:

• 200g icing sugar (Silver Spoon Homegrown)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Boiled water to mix

Plus:

• 12 cherries to decorate
• Chocolate shavings or chocolate chips, to decorate - v.o dairy free chocolate

Method
Combine cherry halves with the kirsch, cover and set aside over night or for at least 2 hours. 

Heat the oven to 180°C/170 °C Fan Oven/350°F/gas 4.

Place paper cases in a 16 hole muffin tin.

In a small pan, over a low heat combine the water and chocolate chips. Heat, stirring frequently until the chocolate has melted. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

(For the vegan option, at this stage cream the sugar and dairy free spread, then add the remaining muffin ingredients including egg-replacer and mix until just combined. Then continue as for regular muffins.)

In a mixing bowl, using an electric mixer set on medium speed, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, followed by the cooled chocolate, scraping the sides of the pan and mix thoroughly.

Mix together the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Add the flour mixture to the chocolate mixture in batches, alternating with the soured cream, mixing on low speed to incorporate.

Spoon half of the mixture into the paper cases, add a spoonful of cherries - about 6 halves - (reserving the liquid) and top with the remaining cake mixture, so that the paper cases are filled to the top. 

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until firm to the touch. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes; turn out and cool completely on a wire rack.

Using a skewer or cocktail stick, poke several holes in the top of the muffins. Drizzle or brush the reserved cherry liquid over the top of the muffins and allow to soak in.

Toppings
For the whipped cream: whisk the cream until soft peaks form. Add the sugar and vanilla and whisk until incorporated. Place a spoonful of whipped cream on top of each cupcake. 
For the vegan topping: Mix the icing sugar with the vanilla and just enough water to make a thick, but spreadable icing.
Decorate with fresh cherries and shaved chocolate. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

The Verdict
Not bad at all! The vegan muffins were a pretty good match for the non-vegan ones both in appearance and taste. In my photos above, you can see the slightly more bumpy-looking vegan muffins in the plain cake cakes and the non-vegan ones in the patterned cases.I found that both batches were a little drier than expected though, so I've reduced the amount of flour in the recipe above (compared to the original recipe from Baking Mad). I also felt that the original mixture didn't look dark/chocolaty enough, so I also added some cocoa powder. When I bake these again, I'll  mix the cherries and kirsch into the batter so they're distributed through the cakes rather than in one layer in the middle, as I think this will improve the taste and moistness of the cakes.

Integrity Statement
This is a sponsored post. I received free cooking ingredients (sugar, flour, chocolate chips and vanilla extract) in return for mentioning Silver Spoon Homegrown Sugar and Baking Mad. Original recipe courtesy of Baking Mad.

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Vanilla Giant Cupcake

© A cake fit for the Queen (well almost!)

We recently had a Jubilee celebration at work and my contribution was a giant cupcake.. they loved it! This recipe was adapted from my giant chocolate cupcake recipe using the Wilton/Lakeland giant cupcake tin. As I made a Jubilee cake, I decided to colour a third of the mixture blue and a third red (although it turned out pink!) using a little food colouring. 

Serves 20

• 250g/10oz butter/dairy-free spread
• 250g/10oz sugar
• 5 medium eggs
• 250g/12oz SR flour
• 5 tbsp milk/water
• 1 level tsp baking powder

©

Pre heat the oven to 160C/150C Fan/Gas 3.Grease the cupcake tin and sprinkle with a little sieved flour.
Cream the butter and sugar and beat in 3 of the eggs.
Add the flour, baking powder, milk, and remaining eggs and mix until just combined.
Spoon half of the mixture into each side of the cupcake pan.
Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until the cake has risen and is firm to the touch (in the centre).  If the cake is browning too quickly, turn the oven down by 10C.
Once cooked, leave to cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool fully. Trim a little of the top of the cakes with a sharp knife (once cold) if needed.

©

To cover the base in fondant icing

Roll out some fondant icing on a board sprinkled with icing sugar, into an approximately 25cm/10" circle - I use a non-stick pastry mat.
Spread a little of the butter cream (recipe below) onto the base and sides of the cupcake bottom...it doesn't need to look neat!
Place the cupcake base into the centre of the fondant and gently ease the fondant up around the sides and over the top of the cake (there should be enough icing to overlap the top slightly.) Press into each groove of the base with your fingers or the back of a teaspoon.
Top the base with a good dollop of butter cream (and some jam if you want to) before placing the top section on.

Icing the top of the cake
I've found that the butter cream doesn't stick to the cake very well if you pipe it straight on, so I crumb-coat it first (roughly spread a little butter icing all over the top section using a palette knife), and chill the cake for about half an hour, before piping the remaining icing on.
Pipe around the join between the two cakes.
Once iced, decorate with sprinkles etc. while the icing is still soft.

Vanilla Butter Cream/Frosting

• 150g/6oz softened butter/dairy-free spread
• 350g/14oz icing sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1-2 tbsp boiling water, if needed

Cream the butter and icing sugar.
Add the vanilla and just enough boiling water, if needed, to make a soft, spreadable butter cream.

Alternatives: The 5 egg mixture I use doesn't quite fill the tin. You can make an even bigger cake in the same tin, by upping the ingredients to 300g/12oz butter/sugar, 350g/14oz flour and 6 eggs. Keep the amount of the remaining ingredients the same.

If fondant icing the base sounds too tricky (I'll admit it did take me two attempts), then just tie a ribbon around, or make a paper cupcake holder to cover the base.
You could also spread the butter icing onto the top of the cake if you aren't confident at piping.

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National Baking Week with Baking Mad - Doughnut Muffins & Vegan Mint Cake

Not only is it the week of my blogoversary, but it's also Mr O's birthday and National Baking Week. That makes it the ideal week to bake something special to celebrate all 3 events!

Baking Mad are also celebrating National Baking Week, and asked me to try out some of their recipes and blog about them. It took me a while to choose, but I eventually settled on 2 quite different ones: The delicious-sounding jam doughnut muffins (edit - now know as duffins!) and Eric Lanlard's indulgent-looking vegan mint chocolate cake.

I made the muffins earlier in the week. I didn't have any buttermilk, so I substituted this for half plain yogurt and half water. I also made a combination of lemon curd, strawberry jam and Nutella filled muffins to please all the family. They turned out perfectly, although they didn't rise as much as I expected. They were absolutely delicious whilst still warm - really light and fluffy - and they tasted a bit like freshly cooked American waffles. They tasted pretty good cold too, and I found they froze and defrosted well.

I decided to halve the vegan chocolate cake ingredients, as I wasn't sure how well it would keep. I was a little worried about making the cake, as I expected the recipe to contain dairy-free spread or vegetable oil, but the actual cake is fat-free. The mixture made quite a runny batter, which again was a little disconcerting! The cakes rose quite well and looked quite light, but needed a little persuasion to come out of their tins!

I couldn't find vegan cream for the ganache icing, so I had to improvise using dairy-free spread and a splash of soya milk along with the chocolate. I also added quite a bit of peppermint extract, to get a good minty flavour.

The cake had a unusual chewy texture, but tasted good with the mint-chocolate ganache smothered all over it! I think the cake would benefit from the addition of some margarine or oil, as I reckon this would make a softer textured cake (sorry Eric!)

Myself, Mr O and the children all enjoyed both the muffins and the cake. I'm not sure I'd make the cake again, but I'll definitely be making the muffins again soon. 

For more recipes and tips on baking and cupcake making, visit the Baking Mad website.

Integrity Statement
This is a sponsored post.

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