Chocolate Cupcakes with Gingerbread Gravestones Recipe
| Prep Time | Cook Time | Total Time |
|---|---|---|
| 2h | 30m | 2h 30m Plus additional time |
Two treats in one, a delicious gingerbread biscuit and a moist chocolatey espresso cupcake… all delicately sweetened with our dark robust maple syrup! These chocolate cupcakes with gingerbread gravestones make the perfect little treats for Halloween!
Ingredients
- For Chocolate Espresso Cupcakes
- 210g plain flour
- 45g cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 shot of espresso, cooled
- 100ml sunflower oil
- 2 eggs
- 200g Pure Maple Syrup, Dark Robust
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 75g sour cream
- For Chocolate Icing
- 200g unsalted butter, room temperature
- 385g icing sugar, sifted
- 45g cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 3 tablespoons sour cream
- For the Gingerbread Gravestones
- 350g plain flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 heaped teaspoons ginger
- 100g unsalted butter, room temperature
- 150g muscovado sugar
- 125g Pure Maple Syrup, Dark Robust
- 1 egg, beaten
- For Royal icing
- 240g icing sugar, sifted
- 1 1/2 tablespoons meringue powder
- Gel food colouring, grey
Instructions
- Begin with mixing the gingerbread biscuit ingredients. Sift the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Rub in the butter with your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs then stir in the sugar. In another bowl whisk together the wet ingredients and add to the dry mixture. Gently knead with your hands until a smooth dough has formed. Divide the dough into 2 disc shapes. Wrap with clingfilm and store in the fridge for about 40 minutes. (This recipe will make more than the required amount needed. The surplus dough can be frozen up to 3 months, in a freezer bag and used for another time. Defrost in the fridge overnight.) Make a template for the gravestone. Cut out a rectangle shape, on a piece of card, with rounded edges that measures 6.5cm x 4.0cm.
- Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas Mark 4 and line a 12 hole muffin tin (with preferably black muffin cases).
- Sift together the dry ingredients and whisk the wet ingredients in another bowl. Then pour in the wet ingredients into the flour mixture, mixing with an electric mixer at slow speed to start and then medium until combined. Do not over mix. Finally, gently fold in the sour cream.
- Fill each cupcake case 2/3 full and bake on the middle shelf in the oven for 20 minutes until fully baked and a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to sit for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
- Next make the chocolate icing. Cream the butter in mixer at medium speed until light and creamy. Add the sifted icing sugar and cocoa a little at a time with the mixer running on slow. Once all the dry ingredients have been added increase the speed to medium and mix until well incorporated. Add the sour cream and vanilla and mix for a couple minutes. Decorate the cupcakes with icing when they have completely cooled and set aside. (If you choose to, you can stop at this step and continue the following day.)
- Turn up the oven to 190C/170C Fan/Gas Mark 5 and line a baking tray. Roll out 1 of the flat disc shapes on a slightly floured surface to a thickness of about 4mm and with a sharp knife trace around the gravestone template. Cut out 18 gravestones and space them on a baking tray. The extra biscuits will be used to crumble over the chocolate cupcake as part of the final decoration. Bake for 10 minutes on the middle shelf and cool on a wire rack.
- Now prepare the royal icing by sifting the icing sugar and meringue powder in a large mixing bowl. Add 3 tablespoons of warm water and mix with an electric mixer starting on the slowest speed until all the ingredients have come together and then increase the speed to medium, mixing for 5 minutes. When the mixing is complete, do not leave the icing uncovered as it will dry out. Place a damp tea towel over the icing to keep it from drying out.
- Next make some of the icing a little thinner in consistency for the lettering on the gravestones and bones. Take 1/2 cup of the royal icing made in the previous step and mix gently, with 1/4 tsp of water. (Test and add a little more water if needed.) Fill a small piping bag with a small round tip nozzle and keep the tip covered with clingfilm to avoid drying out. With the remaining icing, using a toothpick, add a little food colour at a time and mix to achieve the desired colour. Fill a small piping bag with a small round tip and fill it with some of the grey icing to outline each biscuit. Cover the remaining grey icing with a damp cloth. Pipe a thin grey outline on 12 of the gravestones. This will help give a neat finish on the biscuit. Allow them to dry for a few minutes. Then mix 1/4 tsp of water to the remaining grey icing in the bowl to make it slightly thinner. With a small rounded knife spread the remaining grey icing from the bowl within the outline of each biscuit. Finally after about 15 minutes or when the icing feels hard, apply the lettering on the gravestones to finish them off. Leave the biscuits to dry for a couple hours before assembling. (Wrap the leftover icing in clingfilm and store in a freezer bag in the freezer for other projects.)
- Meanwhile start making the bone decorations with the remaining white icing. (A clean toothpick may need to be inserted in the hole of the tip to unblock it.) On a piece of greaseproof paper pipe several white bone shapes. Allow the icing to set before removing with a knife.
- To assemble the cakes, cut halfway through the middle of each cake with a knife and insert the gingerbread biscuit into the cake.
- Place the extra biscuits in a freezer bag and with a rolling pin smash them to make crumbs. Sprinkle the biscuit crumbs on the chocolate icing around, the gravestone. Then arrange some bones on the top of the biscuit crumbs. If you like, add an extra touch with a little bat or ghost decorations.
