Chocolate Cinder Toffee Cupcakes

These cupcakes are using my ‘go- to’ chocolate cupcake recipe.

The cake is light, fluffy and super tasty. They are topped with a light whipped vanilla butter cream, with a massive chunk of cinder toffee on the top, and a sneaky crumble inside.

Step one – make your cupcakes

You will need (makes about 12/15):

100g butter
260g sugar
45g cocoa powder
170g plain flour
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp bicarbinate of soda
170ml milk
2 Eggs
Pinch of salt

Start by creaming your butter and sugar together, due to the volume of sugar this may not appear too creamy but mix it up for a good 2 minutes.

Add the eggs one at a time. Making sure that you scrap the edges of the bowl after each one.

Add the cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and the pinch of salt. Give this all a good mix.

Add all the flour at once, the mixture will go quite thick but don’t worry just yet. Make sure there are no big lumps of flour in your mixture.

Slowly add the milk this will cause the mixture to become very fluid which makes for a lovely light cake!

Using and ice-cream scoop put your batter into a lined cupcake tray.

Bake at 170°c for around 20-25 minutes. Or until a skewer comes out clean.

Whilst they are cooling make your butter cream.

Vanilla Butter cream – Tops around 24 cupcakes

You will need:

500g Icing sugar
250g butter (at room temperature)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp water

Using the whisk attachment to your mixer, whisk the butter until it is light and fluffy. I find it best to whisk for around 3-5 minutes.

Sieve your icing sugar into the bowl. Put your mixer on the slowest setting until it is all combined. Then turn up the speed and whisk for around 5 minutes until it is it smooth, pale and fluffy.

Decorating your cakes

Choose your best pieces of Cinder Toffee for the tops of the cakes. The rest of the toffee chop into small chunks to go into the centre of the cupcakes. With a small amount of cinder toffee crush using the end of a rolling pin – this will go on the top of the cupcakes.