I couldn't resist!!!

So I lied...Byron has decided to play call of duty which leaves me free to blog about my cupcake ventures! You don't have to wait in suspense after all. This is what you get when you mix all those yummy treats from the picture in my last post:

I used Martha Stewart's Brownie cupcake as the base for all the cupcakes, as I have been so impressed with it recently and one of my friends commented it was the best cupcake she'd ever had so I think they went down well!

I did five different frostings (from left to right: Chocolate Oreo, Vanilla with sugar hearts, White choc & raspberry)

Mint chocolate, Rocky road and Vanilla again - this time with sprinkles

I made the vanilla ones first (started with the easiest and worked my way up to the ones that took more time!). I dyed half the icing pink and half purple and layered it in the piping bag so it came out two tone, and then decorated each side of the icing with the opposite colour heart decoration. I also did some with sprinkles because the cases I used for these ones my sister got me in Brighton last week and they were covered in hundreds and thousands which I thought was fun, unfortunately case patterns don't always show up so well with chocolate cupcakes.

The second batch were white chocolate with raspberry. Pretty standard really, I just whipped some white chocolate into vanilla buttercream and finished off with a fresh raspberry. I melted down some milky way buttons for the white choc because last week whilst trying to make easter egg cake pops I tried to melt some green and black's organic white chocolate and that stuff did not melt at all so I've come to the conclusion the cheaper the choc the easier it melts!

The third were rocky road. I started off with a vanilla buttercream and whipped some melted dairy milk in. I then decorated them with chopped up dairy milk buttons, white buttons, maltesers and mini marshmallows. I finished off by drizzling some white choc over the top.

The fourth creation was mint chocolate. I started with green tinted vanilla frosting as a base. I rolled the sides of the cupcake in green sanding sugar. I then melted some mint aero down and whipped that into vanilla frosting. I did a mint choc swirl on top of the green frosted base and then finished off with a chunk of peppermint crisp dairy milk (which is no longer available in this country, I bought this from the South African shop!).

Finally no cupcake fest is complete without the beloved oreo! I did my usual trick of putting half a mini oreo in the cupcake liners and then baked the brownie cupcake on top. I then whipped up some chocolate cream cheese frosting with crushed oreos in. By this stage I was beyond washing the bowl in between each new creation because I was running slightly late so the icing also had a hint of mint due to some leftover melted mint aero from before! I topped off with a mini oreo and the baking sesh was complete!

They were for a 'Mad Hatters' themed tea party. I had googled Alice in Wonderland cupcakes and come up with a vast array of options. However, most of them involved fondant and I was considering making some with card suit decorations on top and character decorations but at the end of the day who actually likes to eat fondant icing? not me! So I figured there wasn't much point in spending hours making decorations that would just be taken off to leave some boring icing behind...and that is why I came up with a crazy amount of frostings to make the tea party a bit 'mad' but in a good and tasty way!!

Brownie Cupcakes a la Martha Stewart

(Makes 12)

225g milk chocolate

1/2 cup unsalted butter (at room temperature)

1 cup caster sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs

1/2 cup plain flour

1/4 cup sifted cocoa powder

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.  Place chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water.  Stir occasionally until just melted, about 4-5 mins.

2. Remove bowl from heat.  Whisk in sugar and salt until mixture is smooth, whisk in eggs to combine.  Gently whisk in flour and cocoa just until smooth (do not overmix).

3. Fill cupcake cases until 3/4 full.  Bake, rotating tin halfway through, until a cake tester inserted halfway in centres, comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, about 25-30 minutes.