S'MOREANNE CUPCAKES

Very delicious and s'moreish.  I found this recipe in my new favourite cookbook. The Hummingbird bakery cake days.  They actually bake and sell recipes from their book through their website. 18 of this S'more cupcakes would cost you £53.10 and I can promise you the ingredients aren't anywhere near that expensive.

It says the recipe makes around 12-16 cupcakes. My batch made 18 and they were a good size

For the Sponge

30g (1oz) Dark chocolate  - finely grated

5 digestive biscuits (graham crackers) - crushed to fine crumbs

80g (3oz) softened unsalted butter

280g (10oz) caster sugar

200g (7oz) plain flour

40g (1 1/2 oz) cocoa powder

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 large eggs

240ml (8 1/2 fl oz) whole milk

For the topping

200g (7oz) caster sugar

4 egg whites

100g (31/2oz) dark chocolate broken into squares to decorate

Okay here goes.

1 - Heat the oven to 170 C (325 F or gas mark 3)

2 - Beat together butter, sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt until it resembles breadcrumbs.  Using an electric whisk is the easiest way to do this.

3 - Mix the eggs and milk together and add 3 quarters of the wet mix into the dry breadcrumb mix. Mix until smooth, making sure you scrap the sides of the bowl. then add the remaining mix and keep mixing until the mixture is smooth.

4 - Line a muffin tray with cases and fill each case 2 thirds full with batter.  Use the remaining batter for more muffins in another tin.  As I mentioned my mix made 18!!  Sprinkle the chocolate shavings and 3 quarters of the biscuit crumbs over the cupcakes. Keep a little of the crumbs for topping.

5 - Bake in the oven for 18-20 mins or until risen and springy to the touch.  leave to cool slightly and then place on a wire rack to cool completely before adding the topping.

Topping

6 - Put sugar into a small pan with 150ml (5 1/2 floz) of water and bring to the boil. Meanwhile whisk the egg whites until foamy.

7 - When the sugar has boiled for 5-10 min and reach the soft ball stage**  pour on to the beaten eggs while mixing on a medium speed.  (Take care the sugar mixture is VERY HOT)   once its all added whisk on high speed until the egg whites have doubled in size and become meringue - white, smooth and shiny.

**If you drop a little of the mix into a bowl of cold water it should form a small ball which is soft to the touch - like play dough. It took me a while to get my sugar syrup to that stage but i could tell as soon as it was ready.

8 - Smooth Meringue on to the cupcakes and peak into decorative spikes. Lightly brown the Meringue with a cooks blow torch ( I don't own one but want one now just for these cupcakes!!!) or like us normal people brown under a hot grill for a few seconds. 

9 - Decorate with the remaining biscuit crumbs and a chunk of chocolate.

10 - Try to not eat them all before your husband/loved one comes home!! 

I thought these were the best slightly warm so once they had completely cooled down I put one (or two) into the microwave for 15secs before eating with a glass of pink milk!  Let me know how they turn out if you make them.  The next challenge from Hummingbird is the Raspberry trifle cupcakes. I'll let you know how they turn out.