Cooking with Children : Christmas Pudding Chocolate Cupcake Recipe

Lara wasn't feeling well this weekend so I decided to cheer her up with a bit of baking! We have been getting into practice for Christmas and testing out some of the cake decorations that I bought at the weekend at Masterchef Live!

Mini Christmas Pudding Chocolate Cupcakes (makes 6 large cupcakes or 12 small cupcakes)

INGREDIENTS
For the cakes:
100g self-raising flour
30g cocoa powder
145g caster sugar
40g butter
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
120ml milk

For the decoration:
1 pack white Dr. Oetker fairy cake icing or white icing sugar made up to a thick paste
1 glace cherry per cake (cut in half)
Green edible holly leaves
Red edible glitter


METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade and grease a 6-muffin tin or prepare 12 fairy cake cases
2. Seive the flour, cocoa and sugar into a large bowl (and then, if you're Lara, smear it all over your hands, arms and face) and stir together
3. Soften the butter and then cream it into the dry ingredients until it looks a bit like wet sand.

4. Beat in half of the milk
5. Beat the egg together with the rest of the milk and the vanilla extract before blending into the rest of the cake mixture to make a smooth batter
6. Split the cake mixture evenly between the cases. I used a 6-muffin tin to make really nice large round cakes but these cakes also work well in fairy cake cases
7. Cook for about 20 minutes until risen, firm and just beginning to take on a dark colour
8. Allow to fully cool on a wire rack before decorating

9. Drizzle the icing over each of the cakes, letting it just run down the sides a little
10. Top each cake with the two cherry halves and two holly leaves
11. For a final flourish, paint a little red edible glitter onto each of the cherries to give them a festive sparkle