Baking for Nightshift- One Pot Chocolate and Raspberry Cupcakes

As you probably know by now my cooking hero and the one whose books I use the most are those by Annabel Langbein. I trust her recipes and know that they will pretty much always turn out well and be delicious. When I was trying to decide what to make for night shift last night after looking through a few books I remembered this recipe in Annabel's new book called "Free Range in the City'. I already have some fantastic cupcake recipes and I have to admit it's hard to branch out from these but I put my trust in Annabel and it was not misguided. Very easy to make and only needing one pot, the batter is very thin making you wonder if they will end up tasting ok and rising properly. I used frozen raspberries as fresh ones are still ridiculously priced and they worked well. The icing is delicious too capping off a rich, yummy cupcake. They went pretty damn quickly last night so must have tasted pretty good. Apparently you can keep the mix in the fridge for up to a week as well meaning you can have fresh cupcakes every day if you want.


One Pot Chocolate and Raspberry Cupcakes (Annabel Langbein)


120g butter, cut into small dice
1/2 c neutral oil (I used grapeseed)
1 c water
100g dark chocolate, chopped
1/2 c cocoa, sifted
1 1/2c caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 c yoghurt or buttermilk (I used up some buttermilk)
2 c flour
raspberries


Preheat the oven to 180 C and line muffin tins with paper cases (I got 29 cupcakes from this recipe).


Place butter, oil, water and chocolate into a medium/large pot and melt over a medium heat. Take off the heat and whisk in the cocoa and caster sugar so there are no lumps of cocoa. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla (work fast so the eggs don't cook).


Mix the baking powder and soda into the yoghurt or buttermilk then add to the chocolate mixture with the flour, whisking evenly until there are no lumps. Stand at least 10 mins before baking (I totally forgot this step).


Spoon into the cases until they are 3/4 full. Push 3 raspberries into each and if the raspberries are frozen, let them stand about another 10 mins.


Bake until they are risen and cooked. They take about 20 mins. Remove from the tins after 5 mins and let cool on a wire rack.


Frosting


120g butter, room temperature
200g cream cheese, room temperature
2 Tbsp blackcurrant cordial (I used Barkers Blackcurrant and raspberry)
1 tsp vanilla
red food colouring
about 5 c icing sugar


Beat butter, cream cheese, cordial, vanilla and colouring until smooth. Add icing sugar and beat again until smooth. Chill about 10 mins. Add more icing sugar if it is too thin. Pipe or ice onto the cupcakes.