Creme Egg Cupcakes

Following on with the Easter theme, here is a really fun little bake to use some of those delicious Creme Eggs I'm sure you've now got lying around (if not you'd best dash off to get some before they disappear until next year)! If you don't like mini Creme Eggs, or can't manage to get your hands on any, you could always use a different chocolate of your choice; something with a soft centre definitely works best. 

 I'm sorry I haven't been able to get more posts up in time for Easter, but I've got lots more recipes planned so I'll definitely be sharing them with you very soon!

Ingredients

(Makes 12 large cupcakes)

8 tbsp freshly brewed coffee*

160g self raising flour

160g caster sugar

175g unsalted butter (at room temperature)

3 eggs

50g cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

12 mini Creme Eggs** frozen

For the buttercream

100g unsalted butter (at room temperature)

1 tsp vanilla extract

240g icing sugar

2 tablespoons milk

Yellow food colouring

Mini eggs to decorate

*coffee is optional, you could use 8 tbsp boiling water instead. But I think the coffee really compliments the chocolate without being overpowering.

**by freezing the Creme Eggs, it means that they don't just melt into nothing when they're in the oven!

Method

- Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/Gas 6 and line a cupcake tin with 12 paper cases.

- Sift the cocoa powder into the coffee and mix until you get a thick, smooth paste.

- In a separate bowl cream together the butter and sugar, then sift in the flour and add the eggs, salt, vanilla and baking powder. Combine all of this together, I used an electric whisk as I find this much easier, but doing it by hand is just fine too.

- Add the coffee and chocolate mix and beat everything together to make a smooth cake batter.

- Divide half of the mix equally between the 12 cupcake cases, and place a mini creme egg in the middle of each one.

- Top with the remaining mixture so that each creme egg is covered.

- Bake in the centre of the preheated oven for 12/15 minutes (I actually put mine in for a little bit longer and felt they were slightly over baked so I think 12/15 minutes will be perfect).

- Remove the cupcakes from the tin and leave them to cool completely, preferably on a wire rack. As hard as it is, don't be tempted to eat them before they cool as the Creme Egg filling gets VERY hot!

- To make the buttercream, cream together the butter and vanilla. Gradually mix in the icing sugar, a little at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the milk, and continue to mx until you have a smooth, fluffy butter cream. 

- You can just add the buttercream straight onto the cupcakes at this point if you like, but I decided to run some yellow food colouring in thin streaks down the inside of my piping bag first, this meant that when I piped the icing onto the cakes it gave a slight marble effect.

- I then topped them with a small chocolate egg and tried not to devour them all in one go...

I loved the texture of these cupcakes, they were almost like brownies. Let me know if you try them out, I'd especially like to see if you use any different chocolates instead of Creme Eggs.

Happy Easter!

🐰