A Sunday Sundae

Hey everyone!

Sorry I haven’t posted in quite a while. It’s been a few months consisting of work, moving house and simply a lack of motivation. However, I woke up this morning with a spark of motivation to create something delicious. The result turned out to be better than I expected. I’ve been scouring the Internet for months looking for a cupcake recipe that is similar an old favourite that I had used a million time a few years ago but subsequently lost. I had made it that many times that I knew the ingredients and method off by heart but couldn’t quite remember the amount of each ingredient. Tell me about annoying! Today, I think I found the recipe that is as close as I’m going to get until I magically find my original recipe. Who do I thank? Donna Hay, of course!

Her recipe if for a cake so I had to sit in front of the oven and watch the little creations rise and fill with air pockets of deliciousness. It got hot but still totally worth it. So I had these cupcakes but why stop there? I decided to pair it with Cupcake Jemma’s Oreo speckled buttercream. I am no plain Jane (no offense Jane) and I’ve got the whole afternoon! I’ve never been the greatest at making buttercream but practice makes perfect, right?

I’d like to give a little amateur shout out to both DonnaHay and Jemma. Donna is my Queen of Cooking no questions asked. Jemma is the owner of London’s Crumbs & Doilies and the creator of the cutest cupcake Youtube channel ever. She can make ANYTHING into a cupcake! #cakegoals

I altered the recipes a little so I shall leave you with the original recipes and my annotations below. I will warn you, if you’ve managed to keep your New Year’s resolution of a diet going until now; firstly, congratulations you determined human and, secondly, stop reading right now. You’ve been warned.  

Donna Hay’s Easy Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

Cupcake Jemma’s Oreo Buttercream

Ingredients:

Method:

Start by preheating your oven to 180°C. I always, without fail, forget to do this until I go to put the prepped cupcakes into the oven and quietly curse myself. So don’t forget to preheat. Line two 12- hole cupcake trays with 16 cute cupcake cases. I always forget to do this first too. Talk about amateur hour!

Cream the brown sugar and butter in an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs and beat again. At this point the mix looked a bit split and gross but keep going, it’s fine. Sift in the flours, baking soda and cocoa. Don’t stir yet. Add the sour cream and melted deliciousness humans call chocolate. Now you can stir, nice and gently until just combined.

Divide the mix into the prepped cases. Honestly, I probably filled them a little too high. Aim for half to two- thirds full and you could probably get 20 cupcakes. Place them in the oven and watch them do their thing for about 20- 23 minutes depending on your oven. They’ll be ready once they’re springy and a knife comes out clean. Let them cool a little in the tins and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Try to resist eating them yet, they’re about to get even better.

For the buttercream I would seriously recommend an electric mixer (whether it be a stand mixer or handheld) unless you have guns of steel, even then, it’ll probably take you forever. Cream the butter until it goes really pale. Add the sifted icing sugar in two batches. Make sure to start on a low setting each time unless you like a cloud of icing sugar in your face, but each to their own! Whip this real good until it’s fluffy and creamy. Add the milk and vanilla while it’s still mixing to loosen it up and make it nice and smooth. Now you have some Plain Jane Buttercream, let’s make it exciting.

I don’t own a food processor, so in order to make my Oreo crumbs I used my NutriBullet and prayed to God that I didn’t make an Oreo Smoothie. Three whizzes later and I have beautiful Oreo sand. Hallelujah! Pop that into your buttercream and GENTLY fold it in. Don’t knock out all that air you just got into that butter! I only gave it a few stirs so I still got that lovely crumbly swirl in the cream.

Whip the cream into a pipping bag with a wide star nozzle and get pipping. Please, please ensure the cupcakes have cooled down before decorating otherwise your buttercream will melt everywhere! I topped mine with a drizzle of dark chocolate, some silver cachaous I had left over from Christmas and a whole Oreo because, why not!?

Now that you’re done you can sit down and either eat all of them by yourself (and get diabetes) or show them off a little and share them with friends (recommended). All in all, enjoy them!

I hope that this has inspired someone to get a little creative with a simple chocolate cake recipe. I know I have been and I’ll probably be back to find the recipe sometime in the near future.

Much love, 

Michelle xo