Baking Festive Cupcakes

Chocolate, Cherry, Almond and Sherry Cupcakes

I have been in the festive mood for the longest time! I just love Christmas so so much and I thought that it was now appropriate to bake some festive goodies. I love to bake on my days off work as I find it relaxing and it's just great fun. I always look through my cookbooks or on the internet to see if I can find any easy recipes that I can adapt to suit me. I found a recipe that involved chocolate, cherries and almonds... so I used that one. Not going to lie, but these are probably my favourite cupcakes that I have ever baked and they were so delicious.

INGREDIENTS:

 

For the cupcakes

 

3 tbsps cocoa powder

150g butter

150g caster sugar

3 eggs

150g self-raising flour

glace cherries, chopped (as many as you wish)

50g milk chocolate, melted

1 tbsp. sherry (or any alcohol alternative or milk)

2 tsps almond flavouring

 

For the frosting

 

Icing sugar

Butter

Almond flavouring

(as much as you need for a smooth icing)

Holly decorations

 

Start by pre-heating your oven to 180 degrees celsius and put festive cupcakes cases, if you have them, into a tin. Next mix together your butter and sugar until smooth and creamy. You can crack the eggs into a separate bowl and add them slowly with the cocoa powder and flour an mix with an electric whisk. Now you can add the remaining flour and fold it into the mixture. Add the melted chocolate, sherry, almond flavouring and chopped cherries and mix together. Now you can spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases and pop them into the oven for around 15-20 minutes. A good way to check if they are cooked is, after the 15 minutes take them out of the oven and use a knife to put in the cake. If there is any mixture on the knife, pop them back in the oven for a few minutes.

 

Now for the icing...I usually wait for an hour after the cakes are out of the oven, to make the icing, as this will allow the cakes to cool. I never use any specific measurement for my icing, I just get a scoop of butter and mix in some of the icing sugar and keep adding the sugar until it tastes sweet enough. You can then add the almond flavouring and mix it all together until you have a smooth icing. I just used a spatula to smooth on my icing to the cupcakes. I tried to make it look like snow. Then you can add the decorations to your cakes and place them on a Christmas plate. I got mine from b&m for like £3.

 

And there you have it, festive cupcakes. Give it a go and see what you think.

 

Lots more Christmas posts to come!!