ABC Chocolate Cupcakes (buttercream failure)

Thought I’d practise my crazy (shit) icing writing skills, as you can see this was a terrible first attempt - but I thought it’d still be worth sharing the pictures to the blogosphere just so you can see how NOT to ice your cupcakes. Also I ran out of unsalted butter so used margarine in the buttercream. A little tip is to NOT use margarine as butter substitute for frosting, its brilliant in the sponge itself but goes grainy and soft too easily in buttercream!

The Recipe:

60g green & blacks cocoa

60g cake flour

110g margarine 

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

110g caster sugar 

2 eggs 

1 batch of Vanilla Buttercream (see vanilla cupcake post)

The Method:

• Preheat oven to 150 degrees and line a muffin tin with cupcake cases. 
• Cream the marg and sugar for 1 minute with an electric whisk.
• Add the eggs one at a time and continue to whisk until very light and pale in colour. 
• Pour in vanilla extract, sieve in cocoa powder and plop in flour. 
• Fold the mixture till just incorporate using a metal spoon. 
• Using an ice cream scoop, plop the batter into the cases at two thirds full.
• Bake for 20 minutes straight.
• Ice when cooled!