Easter Time

Finally what you have all been waiting for, Lush’s first recipe blog post.

Easter is one of my favourite times of the year – the joy of the Easter Egg Hunt, eating chocolate (especially if you gave it up for lent), and the public holidays in which to spend some much needed time in the kitchen cooking for friends and loved ones.

This year I decided to venture away from the traditional Easter delights, and incorporate the Easter Egg in a more inventive dessert – and voilà – the Easter Egg Cupcake is born.

To start – use your favorite chocolate cupcake recipe and icing recipe, I recommend using:

CUPCAKES:

Raspberri Cupcakes adaptation of Nigella Lawson's Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake (since they already converted a great cake recipe into cupcakes).

Ingredients:

• 100g plain flour
• 100g caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp bicarb soda
• 20g Dutch process cocoa powder
• 85g unsalted butter, softened
• 75g sour cream
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 

 

Method:  

Sourced from Raspberri Cupcakes website

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Place flour, caster sugar, baking powder, bicarb soda, cocoa, butter, sour cream, egg and vanilla (aka all ingredients) into a food processor .
3. Pulse until all the ingredients come together and you have a smooth, thick batter
4. (If you are using a hand mixer instead: just mix the flour, sugar and leavening agents in a large bowl and beat in the soft butter until you have a combined and creamy mixture. Now whisk together the cocoa, sour cream, vanilla and eggs and beat this into your bowl of mixture)
5. Spoon the batter into a lined mini muffin tray (about 3/4 full) and bake for about 10 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean and the cake springs back slightly under your finger when you press it gently.
6. Remove from the tray and cool completely on a wire rack.

Alternatively Raspberri Cupcakes devils foodcake cupcakes – adapted from David Lebovitz's Devil's Food Cake recipe also works a treat.

ICING:

I used Nigella Lawson's recommended icing recipe from her Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake recipe, I mean why reinvent the wheel when someone has already perfected it.

Ingredients:

• 75g unsalted butter
• 175g best quality dark chocolate, broken into small pieces
• 300g icing sugar
• 1 tablespoon golden syrup
• 125ml sour cream
• 1 teaspoon real vanilla extract

Method:   

Sourced from:Nigella Lawson's website

1. Take everything out of the fridge so that all the ingredients can come to room temperature.
2. To make this icing, melt the butter and chocolate in a good-sized bowl either in the microwave or suspended over a pan of simmering water. Go slowly either way: you don't want any burning or seizing.
3. While the chocolate and butter are cooling a little, sieve the icing sugar into another bowl. Or, easier still, put the icing sugar into the food processor and blitz. (to remove the lumps)
4. Add the golden syrup to the cooled chocolate mixture, followed by the sour cream and vanilla until all combined
5. Then whisk in the sieved icing sugar. Or just pour this mixture down the funnel of the food processor on to the icing sugar, with the motor running.
6. You may need to add a little boiling water - say a teaspoon or so - or indeed some more icing sugar: it depends on whether you need the icing to be runnier or thicker; or indeed it may be right as it is. It should be liquid enough to coat easily, but thick enough not to drip off.

Decorating:

Ingredients:

• 4 x Cadbury Flakes
• 1.5 dozen Mini Easter Eggs – various colour wrapping

 

Method: 

• Once the cupcakes have cooled, use a pipping bag (alternatively a ziplock with the corner cut off works a treat) to apply the icing (room temp) on top – about one cm thick evenly across the top (don’t worry if it is messy).
• Next – break up the flakes into 3-4 cm pieces, and half the thickness, and building in a donut pattern around the top of the cupcake a bird nest (pushing them into the icing to hold in place)
• Last – place three Easter Eggs in the center of the “flake nest” to create the final Easter touch (alternatively you can use Cadbury mini eggs for a softer pastel colour look).

Serve with Coffee and forks.

Lush