Chocolate cupcakes recipe

I set to frantically baking last week as we invited friends for afternoon tea

at our then campsite, The Homestead in Hailsham. At the time I promised to post this recipe for fudgy chocolate cupcakes. The recipe made a baker's dozen and they were delicious both warm from the oven and cold the next day. As a preference for next time, I think served warm and with vanilla ice cream would be perfect although, for the two of us, all thirteen would definitely be overkill! I used silicon cupcake cases so if you use paper ones, you might need to reduce the baking time a tad. The original recipe I found on House And Garden suggested a rich ganache icing, but I think the cupcakes were fine without it and might even have been too sickly sweet with the addition of icing.

Ingredients:
175g softened butter
150g demerera sugar and 1 tbsp vanilla sugar
3 large eggs
150g self-raising flour
50g of cocoa
1 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 180c.

Mix ingredients together in a large bowl until completely combined. If you are using unsalted butter, also add a pinch of salt. I used 2 tbsp of our Spanish Valor Cao drinking chocolate which is quite sweet. A pure cocoa like Bournville would produce a more bitter chocolate taste.

When thoroughly mixed, spoon mixture into individual cake cases, leaving room for the cakes to rise.

Bake at 180c for about 20 minutes.

The cakes would probably last 3-4 days in an airtight container. Of course all mine were gone within 24 hours!