'Welcome back'! Marbled fun size cupcakes - what a joy it is to be whole again!!

 

Aye, nonstick's back home after his assignment and we are thrilled to bits. It has indeed been a blessed half a year in more ways than one. As is customary, we got by with oodles of love from family (particularly those weeks when the neelathumuckil mafiosi were over), friends (oh, the numerous food nights and sleepovers!) and food. Chances are, you will fall under one of those categories, so from our heart to yours, a thank you and a wet nosed lick from sous chef. :)

To celebrate the comeback, we baked a batch of fun sized marbled cupcakes. You know, those bite sized ones. Like those overpriced kinds that you get from the popular Ann's, Kottayam. But marbled. and yum.

Apart from having the secret ingredient of love as one of my friends rightly pointed out when asked if they could guess the secret ingredient in this cupcake, this cupckake does have a secret oomph factor. These cupcakes are moist by not being dense and textural by not being dry or coarse. What can i say, i may have hit the pot of gold here. :D

This recipe makes twenty 1.5" mini cupcakes

- Preheat oven to 180 C.

You will need:

145 g flour

1/2 heaped teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

1/4 cup finely ground almond

1/2 cup milk

1/4 coffee

2 eggs

105 butter

50 g chopped dark chocolate

150 g finely powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

-Whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and ground almond.

-Melt one tablespoon of the butter and chocolate in a bain marie. Pour in the coffee. Whisk to a smooth paste and take off the flame and set aside to cool. Add a quarter of the portion of the sugar and make sure it dissolves by stirring.

-Cream remaining sugar and remaining butter until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat till fluffy.

-Alternate and add the flour mix and milk to the egg-butter mix and mix. Start and end with the flour.

-Keep aside 2/3 cup of the batter in a separate bowl. This will make the white coloured bit of your marbled cakes.

-Add the melted chocolate to the remaining mix and fold in.

-Blend for the tiniest bit to get rid of any lumps.

-Pour two tablespoons of the white coloured mix into cup cake liners. Alternate with the chocolate coloured mix. Top with the white coloured mix. Take a skewer and swirl it through the batter to ensure you get a marbled look. If you like to innovate, go ahead and make pretty patterns. BUT make sure you do them quickly 'cos you will have to pop the mix into the oven as soon as you can or else the cupcakes wont rise as much as you would want them to.

Bake for 20 to 25 min at 170 C till cupcakes are done.

Once the cakes are done (do the skewer test), remove the cupcakes from the cupcake mould and leave on a rack to cool.

Once they have thoroughly cooled, put a dollop of nutella (a teaspoon maybe, but do not overdo it! the cake is yum as is, i just happen to be a nutella freak) on top of the cupcake and garnish with chocolate jimmies/sprinkles/non pareils and you are good to go!