Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Comfort food at its best: Nigella's chocolate cherry cupcakes

This is just a miniature cherry version of Nigella's chocolate & orange marmelade cake I baked for my dear friend T's birthday back in November. Seeing this particular version over at Esurientes last weekend made me reach for my beloved How To Be A Domestic Goddess once again. Nigella surely knows how to feed a girl in need of some cheering up:)

The original recipe is available here, on Nigella's website, both with UK and US measurements. I used Bonne Maman Cherry Compote (80% cherries, sugar); the chocolate was Lindt Excellence 85% cocoa dark one. The cupcakes were really delicious and moist, with a clear cherry flavour. As I run out of chocolate (disastrous!!!), I replaced the chocolate frosting with mascarpone one, topped with a small Easter chocolate.

Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes
(Kirsi-šokolaadimuffinid)
Yields 12



For the cupcakes:
125 grams butter
100 grams dark chocolate
300 grams good quality cherry jam or compote
150 grams golden caster sugar
a pinch of salt
2 large eggs, beaten
150 grams self-raising flour

For the frosting:
mascarpone cheese
icing sugar
some drained liquid from the cherry compote

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan on a low heat. When almost melted, add chocolate pieces. Leave to soften for a moment, then remove the saucepan from the hob and stir with a wooden spoon until chocolate has melted.
Now add the cherry jam, sugar, salt and beaten eggs, stirring with the wooden spoon. Sift in the flour, stir until combined.
Spoon the mixture into prepared muffin tins (either oil them or use muffin papers) and bake at 180˚C for about 25 minutes.
When cupcakes are cool, cover with frosting. For the mascarpone frosting, just cream the ingredients with a wooden spoon and smear on the cupcakes.
Decorate with small Easter chocolate eggs.

Other great recipes inspired by Nigella Lawson:
Pasta alla vodka
A cranberry upside-down cake
Upside down red onion pie
Chocolate & orange marmelade cake

7 comments:

Valentina said...

Pille, hope you had a great Easter. I really like this recipe and like Paz I thought that your substitution is great. Thanks for sharing.

Journal Actif said...

I just wished I wasn't the only one eating cupcakes when I make some. Sigh!!! It looks decadent with these fine ingredients you used.

Anonymous said...

This is such a cute funny picture!

Cerebrum said...

Love the idea with the Easter egg - I'm always at a loss as to what to decorate my cupcakes with that's affordable - this is great! Thank you for the inspiration Pille!:-)

Pille said...

Paz - thanks! Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say:)

Posie - you're welcome! Do check out the original recipe for the chocolate frosting!

Amy - it was tasty:) I had the last one for breakfast this morning, with a large dollop of mascarpone and a spoonful of cherry compote - perfect accompaniment for coffee. Yummy..

Valentina - I had a very nice weekend indeed, thank you.

Zoubida - do you mean that your hubby & kids don't like cupcakes?? How is that possible?? Me, on the other hand, thinks that living on my own and cooking for myself can have its benefits. I don't have to share my cupcakes with anyone:)

Bea - you mean that it reminds you of something? I have nooooooo idea what you're talking about. It's just a cupcake;-)

Zarah Maria - well, Easter egg topping for cupcakes is obviously especially suitable during the Easter, but I'm sure nobody would object to using them during other times either..

Anonymous said...

Hi, this is actually the first thing I made for the blog, the first photos I took for the purpose of posting them, but somehow, I still haven't posted it! This is wierd because I really enjoyed making them, and taking photos, and the muffins were soooo beautiful, that I was really happy while I was doing it!!!! :) ok, I shall post it soon! :)

yours look beautiful, btw!
mine were decorated with glaced cherries and a simple icing, think red white brown. it looked lovely!

Pille said...

Looking forward to your post, Maninas! I would have used cherries as well usually, but as I did make them during Easter time, I used chocolate easter eggs instead:)