Quick Chocolate Muffins

Lancaster baking (quick chocolate muffins)

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first proper post, aha!
This Tuesday I have my last exams, so I’ll cook up *ahem* something lovely to post about when they’re over and done with ^^.

For now, I’ve dug out a few photos from February half term, when I was staying with my mister (aka Matthew), who’s studying at Lancaster university. I’m slowly building up a collection of baking equipment and ingredients, the most recent being a muffin tray, which leads me nicely on…

Basic chocolate cake (with a few embellishments!)

… and the embellishments? Here, I used some mini kinder bueno eggs (it was just before Easter), and a handful or so of some chocolate sprinkles for the top.

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You Will Need (5 things)

  • 4 oz Butter Or Margarine
  • 4 oz Sugar
  • 2 Medium Egg(s)
  • 3 oz Self-Raising Flour
  • 1 oz Cocoa

Steps (9 steps, 40 minutes)

  1. 1

    The cake mix

    I found this recipe in the battered old coverless recipe book that my Nana gave to my mum, who’ll have it stolen from her as soon as I leave home.. ahem. It’s actually a victoria sponge recipe, but at the bottom it said something like “for a chocolate cake, replace 1oz. flour with cocoa“. Being a nine year old girl, I naturally did, and I haven’t looked back since
    This is my go-to recipe. It works as a big-fatty triple-layer birthday cake, or as tiny little mini muffins, and everything inbetween. This recipe makes enough mix for: 1 two-layer cake, 6 muffins, 12 fairy cakes, a helluva lot of mini muffins.

  2. 2

    Blend the butter and sugar. It s, of course, much quicker with an electric mixer (I favour a hand whisky thing), but you can do it by hand, or bribe someone with promises of the finished product to do it for you.

  3. 3

    Add the eggs, one at a time, and again, blend them in well.

  4. 4

    Sieve in the flour and cocoa. It’s pretty important to sieve, as it gets rid of any lumps, but also gives the raising agents in the flour air to work with… meaning nice fluffy cakes.

  5. 5

    Mix it all up goood. This is the tricky part if you don’t have an electric mixer, pass it around volunteers to get it smooth.

  6. 6

    At this point, you can just load it up into cases, and bake (gas mark 4, about half an hour). But why not put a little extra in there? These muffins were for us to scoff alongside a Kill Bill fest, so maximum yum was required. They are, however, perfect on they’re own ^^;

    If you liked my kinder-bueno-center idea, then fill the cases to about a third of the way, and plop an egg in each one. I’ve also used Reese’s Pieces, and I’ve heard people use creme eggs, too (not sure about that last one :/)
    You don’t want the chocolate to hit the bottom, ’cause it’ll burn and be rubbish.

  7. 7

    Cover the eggs with the rest of the mixture, again, making sure that none of the choccie is poking out. I was going a bit bonkers with the chocolate theme, so added sprinkles on top.

  8. 8

    Ah, it was a while ago that I made these, but looking at that picture makes me want to stick my finger right in. Ooh, cake mix!

    Bake those on gas mark 4 (180 degrees) for about half an hour, but check them from about 20/25 minutes, your oven is probably much better than mine.

  9. 9

    Ah, a sneak peak of Matthew’s five-star facilities :’)
    I love that shape, like a yummy atom bomb.

    I found this picture, too.

    That pretty much sums us up: me faffing about, him with the sport pages, and there’s always some green tea somewhere

    Er, so that’s the end
    See you Wednesday! x