Chocolate Raspberry Heart Cupcakes for Valentine’s Day Peggy Porschen 3 February, 2015 Features, Food, Recipes To get us in the mood for Valentine’s Day, why not try out this delicious cupcake recipe by Peggy Porschen, taken from Peggy Porschen’s Cupcake recipe book. Photos by Georgia Glynn Smith. Makes approximately 24 cupcakes Ingredients: For the cake mix 125g plain chocolate (minimum 53% ?cocoa solids), chopped or buttons 165ml milk 285g light brown sugar 105g unsalted butter, softened 2 large eggs 180g plain flour Pinch of salt ½ tsp baking powder ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda 8g cocoa powder 250g raspberries To make the cupcakes: Pre-heat the oven to 160°C and line the muffin tins with cupcake cases. Place the butter and half the sugar in a mixing bowl and cream together until very pale and fluffy. Beat the eggs lightly in another bowl and slowly beat into the butter mixture. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cocoa powder into the batter and mix until just combined. Place the chocolate, milk and the remaining sugar into a saucepan. Gently bring to the boil whilst stirring. Slowly pour the hot chocolate into the cake batter and mix. Scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula to make sure the batter is well combined. Transfer the batter to a measuring jug. While still warm. pour the batter into the cupcake cases until two-thirds full only. Drop 2 or 3 raspberries into each cupcake. Bake immediately for 15-20 minutes, depending on your oven. The cupcakes are cooked when the tops spring back to the touch. If you insert a clean knife or wooden skewer into the centre of the sponge, it should come out with a small amount of crumb sticking to it. Once the cupcakes are baked, let them cool a little in the tin before de-moulding onto a wire rack to cool completely. To decorate Use the chocolate cream cheese frosting and top with a fresh raspberry or a sugar heart. Frostings: for 24 cupcakes Chocolate Frosting: 200g unsalted butter 200g full-fat cream cheese 500g icing sugar, sifted 280g dark chocolate ganache Make up the basic cream cheese frosting as above, and gently mix the ganache into the frosting by hand. Chill until firm enough to pipe.
