L&P Cupcakes

 

Whittaker's brought out a new chocolate, which was white chocolate with L&P! I absolutely love L&P. Last night I was making some cupcakes, and I still had some of the new chocolate left, and a bottle of L&P in the fridge. So I decided to experiment. The end result? An L&P cupcake with chocolate L&P in the centre, topped with an L&P buttercream. I was quite happy with the end result! Unfortunately I ran out of butter last night, so I could only make half the icing. And as I didn't ice these at home, I ended up with crappy photos! I didn't have much chocolate left, so I could only put one piece in each cupcake. If I had more I would have also done something different with the icing.

 

L&P Cupcakes, with L&P chocolate centre:

 

125g unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup & 2 tablespoons of caster sugar

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 tablespoons of L&P

 Half a block of L&P chocolate

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a 12 hole muffin pan with cupcake cases.
2. Cream the butter and sugar, then beat in the vanilla extract. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Sift in the flour and baking powder and beat. Pour L&P and beat well.
3. Fill cupcake holders up to half way with the mixture, then place in two pieces of chocolate. Fill the rest of the holder.
4. Bake for 20 minutes.

Buttercream Icing:

• 150g unsalted butter
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 2-3 tablespoons L&P
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1. Beat the butter until smooth and pale. Add the icing sugar half a cup at a time. Beat in the essence. Add L&P until it is to your desired consistency, and flavour. Don't put too much or it will break up the icing.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

 

 

I was not having a good day when I made these. I made the icing that was in the recipe, and it came out awful. It was way too thick (and I didn't even add all the flour, but seriously, flour in icing?!), and so I tried to loosen it up a bit, and it just totally failed. So I started over and just made a plain vanilla buttercream. But I couldn't even ice them properly! They looked god damn awful. So yes, above you can see my ugly cupcakes! These were very yummy though! Basically it's a chocolate cupcake, with a chocolate chip cookie dough in the middle! Tasted really nice, and the plain icing was fine, as these were super rich anyway. I got the recipe here for the cookie dough. I used the chocolate cupcake recipe from Divine Cupcakes by Tamara Jane, and just divided the recipe by three to only make twelve.

Chocolate Cupcakes:

• 430g plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 250ml hot water
• 100g cocoa
• 250ml cold water
• 200g unsalted butter, softened
• 560g caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 4 teaspoons vanilla essence
• Makes 36

Cookie Dough:

• 3/4 cup plain flour
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoon sugar
• 2 tablespoon milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup miniature chocolate drops
• Makes 12

Buttercream Icing:

• 150g unsalted butter
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 2-3 tablespoons hot water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Cookie Dough:

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.
2.  In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer to mix the butter, both sugars, milk and vanilla extract. Stir in the dry ingredients and chocolate chips.
3. Refrigerate for 15-30 minutes, or until the dough is firm.
4. Scoop out dough into two tablespoon sizes, and place on a cookie tray. Freeze for atleast 30 minutes.

Chocolate Cupcakes:

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line three 12-hole muffin trays with cupcake papers.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl whisk together the hot water and cocoa until you have a smooth paste. Add the cold water and whisk until evenly combined.
3. In a separate bowl, cream the butter for 1-2 minutes. Add the caster sugar and two of the eggs. Beat until light. Add the last two eggs one at a time, beating until well combined, then stir in the vanilla essence. Add half of the flour to the creamed mixture and beat on low speed until combined. Add half of the cocoa mixture and beat until combined. Repeat this process but do not over-beat as this will toughen the mixture.
4. Divide the mixture between the cupcake papers.
5. Put the cookie dough into each cupcake, you can either push it right in, or leave part of it on top so that it part cooks like a cookie.
6. Bake for 25 minutes or until springy when pressed in the centre.
7. Cool cupcakes in the muffin trays for 5 minutes before removing the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.

Buttercream Icing:

1. Beat the butter until smooth and pale. Add the icing sugar half a cup at a time. Add hot water until icing is at your desired consistency. Beat in essence.