One of my long standing desires has been to bake a simple cake perfectly. You know, it should look perfectly symmetric, be spongy and soft and taste heavenly. But my baking experiments so far have been pathetic to say the least. My most successful endeavor has been a batch of brownies that were cooked at the top and a mushy brown mess at the bottom. Sigh!!
But, all that changed last Sunday, when I cooked these chocolate cupcakes!! I finally did it!! I actually baked something that looked (somewhat) like a (cup)cake, was completely cooked and tasted pretty good!! Yippee!!!! Though the tops of my cupcakes were cracked, this still is my first ever successful baking attempt!!! I wasn't even sure if I should put this up on the blog (hence, the paucity of step by step photos), but I just couldn't resist!!
Recipe Courtesy: This recipe has been slightly modified from the book “The Big Book of Baking” by Parragon Publications
What you’ll need: (8 cupcakes)
- 85 g plain white flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 60 g castor sugar
- 55 g unsalted butter
- 1 large egg
- 50 g plain chocolate – broken into 8 pieces
Note: The egg should be at room temperature (not directly from the fridge) and the butter should have been outside the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Equipment – A large mixing bowl, electric egg beater, cupcake tin
What you’re going to do:
1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees and place cupcake liners into the cupcake tin. (I didn’t use liners, just a nonstick tin)
2. Sift the flour and baking powder together so that they are uniformly mixed.
3. Put all the ingredients except the chocolate pieces into a large bowl.
4. Use an egg beater to whisk it all together till the mixture is just smooth. Don’t overdo the mixing; I think that’s why my cupcakes got cracked on top.
5. At this point, the batter will be a little thick and not exactly of pouring consistency.
6. Divide half the batter into 8 of the prepared cupcake liners.
7. Insert a piece of chocolate into the center of the batter in each cupcake liner.
8. Spoon the remaining batter on the top of all the cupcakes. (Don’t completely fill each cupcake liner, you need space for it to rise)
9. Place the tin into the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes or till springy to the touch. You can also insert a skewer and see if it comes out clean.
10. Leave to cool for 2-3 minutes and then take them out of the tin. Enjoy!!
You’ll find that the chocolate pieces inside the cupcakes have melted giving them a molten centre. Yum!!
Of course, I know that these are far from perfect, and I’ve got tons of room for improvement, but I’m still very proud of myself!! A special thanks to Parita at Parita’s World for inspiring this baking attempt!! You have got to check out her cakes!!
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