Hot-Chocolate Cupcakes

I have a few cakes that I want to bake at the moment and these are one of the recipes I really wanted to try.  I ran the idea by the fiancé as a possibility for cakes to take to Dundee for him and his friends tonight and he was all for them.

So these are hot chocolate cupcakes, containing about half a pint of milk and drinking chocolate.  The recipe for the cakes themselves is from the Hummingbird Bakery although I decided to go a different route for the topping.  Rather than using drinking chocolate and making a buttercream I thought I would top it with cream instead, like people do with hot chocolate, and then decorate with marshmallows and chocolate sprinkles to finish the look.

I was really happy with how they turned out, except for the fact that they sank a bit after they had came out of the oven.  I wasn't sure why but then I looked over the recipe and realised I had misread the amount of baking powder!  I only used a teaspoon, rather than a tablespoon, which was a bit silly of me.

Despite my mistake though, the fiancé says they taste delicious and are very creamy.  For an idea of what they taste like, I was told it's like when the cream on top of your hot chocolate has taken on some of the chocolate flavour.

Recipe - adapted from Cake Days

Makes about 12

• 240ml/8.5fl.oz full fat milk
• 25g/1oz hot chocolate powder
• 80g/3oz unsalted butter
• 280g/10oz caster sugar
• 240g/8.5oz plain flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 large eggs
• 200ml/7fl.oz double cream 
• 36 mini marshmallows
• Chocolate sprinkles

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5 and line a 12 hole muffin tray with muffin cases.
2. Warm the milk over a gentle heat but don't boil it.
3. Add the hot chocolate powder and mix in until dissolved, then set aside to cool. 
4. Put the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl and use an electric mixer to slowly whisk them together until you get something resembling fine breadcrumbs.  You can probably get this result with a spoon but it will take a long time.
5. Put the cooled chocolate milk into a jug, add the eggs and beat together.
6. Add three quarters of the mixture to the dry ingredients and mix together until well incorporated and smooth.
7. Add the rest of the chocolate milk, beating until smooth.
8. Divide the mixture across the muffin cases, filling each about two thirds of the way up.  You may have excess mixture, so just put it into spare muffin cases and bake those too.
9. Bake for about 20 minutes, until the cakes are risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
10. Leave to cool completely before decorating.
11. Whip the cream until it holds stiff peaks and then put into an icing bag fitted with a large star nozzle.
12. Pipe swirls on top of each cake, then decorate with chocolate sprinkles and top with three marshmallows per cake.