CHOCOLATE EASTER NEST CUPCAKES
April 16, 2017
Happy Sunday everyone!
We hope you are having a great Easter so far, and have eaten as much chocolate as your heart desires!
A few years ago we made some incredibly delicious chocolate, Easter nest cupcakes and they went down an absolute storm! We've been waiting and waiting for Easter to come around so we could share these with you! Turning a classic Easter treat into a cupcake; this is one of our favourite Easter recipes and we're sure you will love them too!
Ingredients:
(to make 10 cupcakes)
4oz butter
4oz caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
3.5oz self-raising flour
0.5oz cocoa powder
For the Chocolate Fudge Buttercream...
110g butter
90g dark chocolate
425g icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
175ml milk (or as needed)
For the Chocolate Nests...
approx. 120g cornflakes (or rice crispies)
150g chocolate
Mini Eggs
Preheat your oven to 200°C/180°C Fan/Gas mark 6 and line a muffin tray with 10 cupcake cases.
First, beat together the butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla extract, eggs and baking powder and combine. Then add in the self-raising flour and cocoa powder and combine until you have a smooth mixture.
Spoon your mixture into the cupcake cases and then put into the oven to bake for 20 minutes.
Transfer the cupcakes onto a wire rack to cool while you begin to make your chocolate fudge buttercream.
The recipe we used for the chocolate fudge buttercream is here. To make the buttercream, start by melting the chocolate and butter in the microwave, or in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. In a large bowl, mix together your icing sugar, vanilla and 125ml of the milk. Then, stir in the chocolate mixture. The recipe we used tells you to add the rest of the milk, a little at a time, until you reach the desired consistency. But in all honesty we have no idea what the desired consistency is at this stage, and we decided to just leave the rest of the milk out.
Leave the buttercream to stand (place in the fridge to speed up the process) until it reaches a spreadable consistency. We just couldn't wait and used it as soon as it was thick enough to not run off the cake. But we had some left over which we kept in the fridge and we can tell you that it definitely reaches a thick, spreadable consistency so just trust in the recipe.
Now onto making the cornflake cake mixture! You really don't need to be accurate with the measurements for this at all, if there's too much chocolate then add more cornflakes, or if your cornflakes aren't fully covered then add more chocolate. Start by melting your chocolate in a large bowl. Once fully melted pour in the cornflakes and stir until all of the cornflakes are fully covered in chocolate.
Spread your buttercream generously onto your cupcakes using a spoon or a knife. Then, place a big spoonful of cornflake cakes on top of the buttercream, and top with Mini Eggs. Set your cupcakes aside to set, or if you just can't wait then dig in now, we did!
We are absolutely in love with these cupcakes! Easter time is perfect for eating all things chocolate, and not feeling guilty about it! or at least not until it's just too late, and you have eaten your weight in Mini Eggs, so you may aswell make these super indulgent cupcakes while you are at it!
These cupcakes are absolutely divine and so so perfect for Easter! The chocolate nests make such a perfect topping for a super yummy chocolate cupcake. And it seems just a bit more 'grown up' that making chocolate nests, don't you think? Even though, we could quite happily make and eat those every single day!
Thanks so much for reading this post!
What delicious chocolates and treats have you been eating this weekend?
Has anyone taken part in an Easter Egg Hunt? That's something that we really miss about being children at Easter, along with having towers of Easter eggs that took you at least a week to eat! Next year, we might have an Easter Egg Hunt of our own, let us know if you would like to join, or if you know of an adult-friendly egg hunt around London!
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Lots of love, Antonia and Imogen x
