Easter Basket cupcakes
For the cupcake
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60g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
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1/2 cup water
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90g butter at room temperature
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1 cup caster sugar
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2 eggs at room temperature
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3/4 cup self raising flour
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1/4 cup cornflour
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2 tablespoons cocoa powder sifted
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100g frozen raspberries
Royal icing
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2 egg whites (60g)
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1 teaspoon lemon juice
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300g sifted icing sugar
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Brown food colouring gel
Decorations
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sugared almonds
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Easter chicks
Step 1 - Preheat oven to 150c fan forced or 170c non fan forced. Assemble cupcake liners on tray and double case them (to ensure that they hold their shape, place one liner within another). Use liners like the ones pictured above.
Step 2 - Melt chocolate in a microwave on medium power (check every 30-60 seconds), add water and mix to combine. Cool slightly
Step 3 - Beat the butter, sugar and eggs in small bowl with electric mixer. Stir in flour and cocoa and then chocolate mixture and lastly, the raspberries.
Step 4 - Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool in tin.
Step 5 - Once cakes are cooled pipe royal icing around cakes in two lots using a basket tip (I used a small star tip as my store had sold out of basket weave tips). Pipe one vertical line from the top to the bottom. Then pipe shorter ribbed horizontal stripes over the vertical line. Then pipe another long vertical line, next to the other vertical line but leave it one basket weave tip width apart. Keep repeating these steps and you will get a basket weave pattern. It will take a long time and I let one half set overnight before doing the other half so that it could lie flat to dry.
Step 6 - Fill baskets with sugared almonds or chocolate eggs.
Royal Icing
Step 1 - Beat egg whites with lemon juice until foamy on low speed increasing to medium speed.
Step 2 - Add sifted sugar by the spoonful while beating until desired consistency is reached. If too stiff, add a little warm water.
Step 3 - Tint with brown food colouring and use immediately and cover any royal icing not being used with clingfilm.
These are my entry for the Master Baker challenge for March!
And also for the Easter Cake Bake!