I like chocolate, I like fudge.
Don't you just?
I made these mini cup cakes for a lunch I attended; personally, I found them very entertaining! And quite tasty (I enjoy rich cake).
Now, not that I'm pretentious about this kind of thing, but I did use fair trade chocolate for this recipe (Green&Black)... just for those of you out there who care.
But regardless, good quality chocolate for a dessert like this is pretty essential, seeing as it's all about the chocolate
I got the recipe from a magazine...and here it is!
Makes 24
| 100 gm | dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), finely chopped |
| 60 gm | butter, finely chopped |
| 65 gm | caster sugar |
| 60 ml | Frangelico |
| 1 | egg yolk |
| 55 gm | self-raising flour |
| 20 gm | Dutch-process cocoa, sifted |
| Chocolate-caramel ganache | |
| 65 gm | caster sugar |
| ½ tsp | lemon juice |
| 150 ml | pouring cream |
| 200 gm | milk chocolate, finely chopped |
| 1 | Preheat oven to 160C. Combine chocolate, butter, sugar and Frangelico in a small saucepan and stir continuously over low heat until smooth and combined. Remove from heat, whisk in egg yolk, then flour and cocoa until smooth and just combined. Divide mixture among 24 mini-muffin tins lined with paper patty cases and bake until cakes are just set (12-15 minutes). Stand in tins for 10 minutes, then cool completely on a wire rack. |
| 2 | For chocolate-caramel ganache, combine sugar, lemon juice and 40ml water in a saucepan and stir to combine. Stir over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves, then cook without stirring until dark caramel in colour (3-4 minutes). Remove from heat, add cream (be careful, mixture will spit), and stir to combine. Add chocolate, return to heat and stir continuously until smooth and combined. Cool completely, whisking occasionally until firm and cooled to room temperature (20-30 minutes), then transfer to a piping bag fitted with a 5mm plain nozzle. Pipe large peaks on top of each cake and serve. Cakes can be stored, iced and in an airtight container, for up to 5 days in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before eating. |
Just some tips you might like to take on board before you try to make some adorable little cakes:
- bring everything to room temp before you start mixing everything together
- make sure the butter is soft, but not melting (melting it changes the chemical properties of the butter and could prevent your cake from rising, so only do it if the recipe specifes)
- to avoid lumpy batter scrape down your mixing bowl regularly
- beat wet ingredients with an electric mixer and stir in all dry ingredients by hand, this helps with not over working the mixure (over worked batter can result ina tough cake)
- when baking, rotate the cake/s at half time to ensure even baking (the exception to this rule is sponge cake, your oven must maintain a conistant temperature)
I hope these were of help!
