Rocky Road Cupcakes

I have a long and abiding interest in cupcakes. I love their versatility and convenience – they’re relatively easy to transport and good for giving as gifts or packing as a treat for work. I also love to experiment with them….whether it’s to try out a new kind of icing, or going all out with the topping and having a candy sampler.

I recently experimented with this rocky road cupcake recipe and it definitely satisfied my sweet (sweeeeet) tooth. Actually the sweetness was a little too much for me….after one or two of the cupcakes, I felt like I was drifting in a haze of sugar induced semi-consciousness. I think next time I would consider using a cream cheese instead of buttercream icing which will hopefully offset the sweetness of the chocolate topping. At any rate, I thought the end result looked quite nice and it tasted delicious, although it was (did I mention?) very sweet.

Ingredients

1 cup water
1 cup brown sugar
100g milk chocolate
125g softened butter
3 eggs
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup plain flour

185g softened butter
2 cups icing sugar
Vanilla essence
About 1 cup mini marshmallows
2 bars Cherry ripe chocolate
chocolate sauce

Instructions

Preheat oven to 160 degrees celscius and lightly oil or line muffin pans.
Combine the milk chocolate and water over low heat. Set aside and cool to room temperature.
Beat the sugar and butter until pale and creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Sift the self raising flour, cocoa and plain flour together. Add gradually into the mixture and stir until just combined.
Stir in the melted chocolate and spoon into the prepared muffin pans.
Bake for about 20 minutes or until the center bounces back when lightly tapped. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
To make the icing, beat 185g butter until light and creamy. Gradually sift in the icing sugar and add vanilla essence. Refridgerate until needed.
Chop the Cherry Ripe into small cubes.
Pipe the buttercream onto the cooled cupcakes and top with the chopped Cherry Ripe and mini marshmallows. Sprinkle chocolate sauce on top of the cupcakes.