Raspberry Glory

Raspberry Chocolate Cupcakes.

Now, I don't profess to be a master of the baking world. Infact, my cakes have been known to go hideously wrong. But when I get it right, my goodness do I get it right. Cue image of head expanding. I adore Raspberries, I mean they're wonderfully refreshing & beautiful fruits. Berries always envoke a major summer feeling with me & to combine this with the cosy taste sensation of cake & dark chocolate is quite frankly mind-blowing! Honest.

So just to wet your appetite, to give you a taste of what you can expect from here I am giving you a recipe & a YOU-HAD-TO-BE-THERE story of the shopping trip that proceeded these cakes. Lucky things.

*Skip now if you hate funny stories that are only funny if you were there*

THE SHOPPING TRIP.

So myself & a wonderful pal took a trip to Southampton Asda. It was , needless to say, thrilling. Upon arrival we were confronted with a rather inconspicuous thief of a man, walking out of the premises with a full trolley of clearly unpaid for goods (he was leaving from the entrance - cunning) ... brazenly he left the building with not so much as a second look for security or many other customers. We did start to worry we may not have witnessed anything at all, that maybe it was just a strange coincidental hallucination. It shall always remain a mystery!

After the shock had worn off, we began to mull over the various beautiful baking goods. Again I was forced to question my own sanity when I began to feel dripping water upon my forehead. Never has a more puzzled look been seen upon a woman's face than the look upon mine at that very moment. Luckily, sanity prevailed and it was infact a leak in the roof, and typical of my life I managed to pick the exact position of this leak to stand under to browse the decadent aisles. I did complain about the leak, health and safety & all that ya know!

Finally, after much deliberation we has purchased our baking goods. It was exciting. We decided, very wisely, to use the self service checkouts, causing us to witness the greatest queue moments ever. The most determined & 'bare-faced cheek of it all' queue jumper of all time approached a young woman in the line at the till. I kid you not, these very words fell from his mouth "Sorry. Can I go before you? I don't want to line. I only have this. I just want to go in front. Let me go in front of you!" She refused, and rightly so, but the complete look of shock on everyone's faces were brilliant, I mean... WHO DOES THAT!?

Supermarkets are fun. I enjoy human watching.

THE RECIPE!
PREHEAT OVEN: 180*c/350*F/Gas Mark 4

50g (2oz) Dark Chocolate
120ml (4fl.oz) Water
2 eggs
225g (8oz) Brown Sugar
100g (4oz) Softened Butter
100g Self Raising Flour
2 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder
100g Frozen Raspberries
Tub of Butter Icing & Pink Food colouring
OR
150g (5oz) Butter Softened
250g (9oz) Icing Sugar
2 drops Vanilla Essence
Hot water (roughly 2 tablespoons)

(Don't splash out on fancy ingredients. These cupcakes are divine with Tesco Value, Sainsbury's Basics etc products!)

STEP ONE
Stir the Chocolate & Water over low heat until smooth in texture, then let it cool.

STEP TWO
Mix the eggs, brown sugar & butter. Beat until the mixture is just combined. Here is where you should put on your Workout Playlist... serious effort require next. Unless you have special gadgets in your kitchen, in which case stick to Enya.

STEP THREE
Next you want to sift in the flour & cocoa powder, this is where you need to get those muscles working and stir until well combined. Otherwise you'll find it will be lumpy & bumpy in consistency!

STEP FOUR
Now, hopefully you haven't lost that chocolate and water mixture during this process. If you you haven't WELL DONE, mix in to you cake mix until just combined. If you did lose it then I'd suggest taking up another hobby!

STEP FIVE
Right, I like this part! Using a teeny tiny teaspoon, transfer your Cake Mix into 12 bun cases up to half full. Then fish out your frozen raspberries & put 2 to 3 of these yummy creatures into each bun case. Then using the remaining mixture, cover the raspberries. (I'll admit, that last bit cause me great distress as I was so excited thinking the remaining mixture was for eating!) They're now ready for the oven, give them 20 - 25 minutes (20 is normally plenty!) then let them cool.

STEP SIX
Decorate however you wish. Seriously, butter icing is wonderful, but I think some lovely melted chocolate or chocolate spread would taste marvelous on these cakes. Now eat & enjoy my lovelies!

Comment if you wish, tell me of any variations you tried and let me know how this recipe worked out for you!

x Danika x

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