Marbled Cupcakes

October 1, 2015

Good afternoon! Sorry for the lack of posting yesterday. I was at a BEAUTIFUL wedding on Tuesday and didn’t make it back until late last night. So to make up for it, here is a lovely recipe for marbled cupcakes. Such an easy recipe, great to do with kids and they produce a moist, crumby cupcake, not too rich thanks to the mix of chocolate and vanilla.

I made these for some neighbours to say thank you for helping out after a bit of a family health breakdown, and they went down a storm. So don’t expect them to hang around long!

Ingredients

For the sponges

80g unsalted butter, softened
280g caster sugar
240g plain flour, sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder, sifted
1/2 teaspoon salt
20g cocoa powder, sifted
2 large eggs
240ml whole milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the chocolate icing

200g icing sugar, sifted
50g cocoa powder, sifted
80g unsalted butter, softened
25ml whole milk

For the vanilla icing

250g icing sugar, sifted
80g unsalted butter, softened
25ml whole milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190C / 375F / Gas mark 5 and line your muffin tins with cases. Make sure you are using muffin cases as this recipe makes far more if you use normal cupcake cases which are smaller.
2. Make your chocolate sponge first. Mix together half of the stated butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt with all of the coca powder stated on a low speed until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Whisk the eggs with the milk by hand in a jug and pour half into another jug. Set aside this other half for the vanilla sponge. Pour three quarters of one jug into the chocolate mixture and mix on a medium speed until smooth and thick, add the remaining quarter until all the ingredients are incorporated and the batter is smooth. Make sure you remember to scrape down the sides of the bowl for any ingredients that might have been missed.
4. Repeat the above for the vanilla sponge with the remaining ingredients, but without the cocoa powder. Whisk the vanilla extract into the egg and milk mixture in your second jug and repeat the same process- three quarters of the mixture, followed by the last quarter.
5. Fill your muffin cases with the chocolate mixture until 1/3 full. Top this with the same amount of vanilla mixture and then use a thin implement such as a teaspoon handle to swirl the mixtures together. Be careful not to “over swirl” otherwise you will just end up with no marbling!
6. Bake for 18-20 minutes until well risen and springy to the touch. Let them cool in the tins for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool.
7. Meanwhile, make the two icings. To make the chocolate icing, whisk the icing sugar with the cocoa powder and butter on a low speed until sandy in consistency. Then pour in the milk whilst mixing on a slow speed then increase the speed until it is soft and fluffy.
8. Repeat this step for the vanilla icing but use no cocoa powder and mix the vanilla essence with the milk before pouring into the icing.
9. When your cakes have cooled and are ready to be iced, you can either spread one tablespoon of each frosting on each cake and swirl the two for a marbled effect or you can pipe them like I did. To do this, fill your icing bag so that one side is chocolate and the other is vanilla and start piping!

Enjoy! I’ll have another post for you all tomorrow.

Harriet x

Written by wabley Posted in baking, cake, chocolate, cupcakes Tagged with baking, cake, children, chocolate, cupcakes, icing, marble, vanilla