Monkey's Mummy Bakes...

Chocolate Cupcakes

I'm an OK baker. I try really hard and sometimes I have had some great successes which I have been really proud of.

But, when people are kind enough to compliment me by saying I should make cakes professionally I have the same answer each time. I'm not good enough at decorating!

And so I'm always looking for ways to hide the imperfections. I was really pleased to try out these cupcake wrappers from Paper Themes. They're personalised and so are perfect for a special occasion. I've already had my wedding but with the rise in popularity of cupcake wedding cakes I think these are going to be so popular as an added special twist.

Tonight I've baked some chocolate cupcakes and hid the imperfections in the wrappers.

The cardboard wrappers are really good quality with a glossy finish and so would work well for a special occasion. I was sent five different designs - not all wedding themed but my particular favourite was the rainbow striped one, I think it would be perfect for a summer event. As a completely uncrafty person though I did find them a bit fiddly to put together and then they did pop open when the cupcake went in - I think you'd need a bit of sellotape to ensure they stay together.

I used a bit of a different recipe for these cupcakes as below:

Ingredients
100g plain flour
20g cocoa powder
140g caster sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
40g butter
120ml milk
1 egg
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees /  Gas Mark 3 and lay out your cupcake wrappers in a tin.
2. Plonk all the ingredients into a bowl together and using an electric whisk blend it all together for a couple of minutes until smooth and creamy.
3. It's a mousse like batter so will go into the cases quite easily - fill them about half full.
4. Bake them in the oven for about 20-25 minutes. This seemed a long time to me as usually cupcakes are quicker than this but they did need all that time.

Once cooled I iced them with vanilla buttercream which I simply made by combining 75g butter, 175g icing suger, a dash of vanilla extract and a dash of milk. I then put a little melted milk choocolate over the top.

 

Disclosure: Five cupcake wrappers were provided to me by Paper Themes for the purposes of this review.