Truffle Kisses!

Hey all, hope that you doing good today!  Thank you to everyone for all their lovely comments yesterday and happy wishes for my anniversary…..so kind of you all.  Glad that you all seemed to like my CAS card too…:o)

Anyway today I want to share with you something other than a card LOL…..yes you guessed my other love CUPCAKES……..and a recipe too.  Now I am always being asked about my cupcakes and many of you ask about the recipes that I use etc etc……so today I thought that I would share a recipe with you :o)…….

As a treat for Leigh, I made him some Chocolate Truffle Kisses for our anniversary and boy this recipe is super duper delish………now I just want to clarify that I am no expert when it comes to cakes.  I followed this recipe and I got fab results….now I know that everyone’s ovens cook things differently so please don’t be emailing me with complaints if they don’t turn out or you burn your house down LOL, I am merely passing on a recipe that I found worked good for me :o)….LOL……

I have pictures too of the end results………….

Truffle Kisses Cupcakes

Makes 18

You will need for the cakes :-
150g unsalted butter/margarine, softened
200g caster sugar
3 medium eggs
75g self-raising flour, sifted
200g plain flour, sifted
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
75g chopped hazelnuts
200ml buttermilk
15g dark chocolate, finely grated

You will need for the frosting :-
2 heaped tbsp nutella or any other chocolate spread
110g unsalted butter/margarine, softened
30ml milk
500g icing sugar
18 Truffles or chocolates of your choice
Chocolate Sprinkles

Cupcakes
1. Preheat oven to 180c {160c if fan oven}, mark 4.  Line 12-hole and a 6-hole muffin tin with paper muffin cases.
2 Using a hand held or freestanding mixer, whisk  the butter and sugar in a bowl, or beat with a wooden spoon, until pale and creamy.  Gradually whisk in the eggs until just combined.  Using a metal spoon, fold in both the flours, the bicarbonate of soda, hazelnuts, buttermilk and grated chocolate until combined.  Divide the mixture equally between the muffin cases.
3. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and risen. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Frosting
1. For the frosting, beat the butter and nutella {chocolate spread} together until soft and creamy. 
2. Add in half of the icing sugar and combine
3. Add the milk and the rest of the icing sugar.
4. Either spread onto the cupcakes with a knife or pipe it onto the cupcake with a piping bag and nozzle.
5. Sprinkle of some chocolate sprinkles and finish off with a truffle or chocolate of your choice.

Here are some pictures to show you what they look like.

Here they have just come out of the oven and boy oh boy do they smell goooooooood……instead of cupcake cases I used these tulip cases.  You can buy them like this or you can make them using greaseproof paper……..cut a 6 inch square and push it into the tin and then add the mixture.  The weight of the mixture will push the greaseproof paper into the tin…..takes a bit of practise.  I think there is a Martha Stewart clip on You Tube showing you how to do it, if my memory services me correct.

 

As you can see the grated chocolate and chopped hazelnuts gives it a lovely speckled look……one thing I will mention is when making cupcakes that have a lot of milk/buttermilk in them they don’t go a brown as cakes without, so don’t be surprised if after the allotted time they look a bit pale still.  I always just poke them with my cake tester to make sure they are cooked through…….you could use a cocktail stick if you have not got a cake tester.

Here they are iced and ready to eat…….mmmmmm yum-o…….I decided to use a Toffifee chocolate instead of a truffle….. Toffifee if you have never had one are gorge and they are a caramel base with a hazelnut centre topped with a chocolate button.  Next time I am going to use a Ferro Roche chocolate………oooh yummy of what!

……….and just in case you are not drooling enough, here are a couple of close up, ……hee hee….ooooh I am so mean…….

Hope that some of you have a go, would love to see some pictures  if you do :o)…..

Well that’s all from me today, enjoy your evening and don’t forget your pancakes tonight peeps {Shrove Tuesday = pancakes for tea in the UK}

Catch up with you soon and thanks for dropping by!

Hugs Tab xxx