I made these delicious chocolate cupcakes for a recent fundraiser and they went down a treat! I decorated with a raspberry on the top, but you could use another fruit, sprinkles, more chocolate or just the icing if you prefer!
Makes 12 generously sized cupcakes.
Ingredients:
for the Cupcakes:
- 175 g unsalted butter or baking spread
- 175 g Fairtrade sugar (either caster or light brown or a mix!)
- 3 large eggs
- 135 g self raising flour
- 40 g Fairtrade cocoa powder (I used Equal Exchange)
- 1-3 tbsp milk
for the Chocolate Buttercream:
- 150 g unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 300 g Fairtrade icing sugar
- 30-50 g Fairtrade cocoa powder
Method:
for the cupcakes
- Pre-heat your oven to 180ºC/160ºC fan and line a muffin tray with 12 paper cases.
- Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy.
- Add the eggs, self-raising flour and cocoa powder and mix until well combined.
- If you think the mixture is too stiff you can add 1 tbsp milk at a time to get a smooth light consistency.
- Split the mixture evenly into your paper cases and bake for 20 minutes, or until a skewer poked into one of the cakes comes out clean and they are springy to touch.
- Leave to cool fully on a wire cooling rack.
to make the chocolate Buttercream
- Beat the butter with an electric mixer for a couple of minutes to soften.
- Gradually beat in the icing sugar until well combined, then add the cocoa powder and beat for 5 minutes until a silky lovely buttercream texture is produced. If the mixture is a little stiff, add one tbsp boiling water at a time until you reach the desired consistency.
- Using a piping bag and large star nozzle, pipe your buttercream frosting onto your cupcakes in a swirl.
- Top with a raspberry and dust with icing sugar, if you want.
- Or decorate however you wish!
This recipe first appeared on Jane’s Patisserie and has been given a Fair Trade twist.