#25 : Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

It's another cupcake recipe that I tried and it turned out good (I think). I loved the taste of the cupcakes. My sis also loved it too. This recipe is definitely gonna be one of the best :D Well thanks to Erika for the recipe book. The best part of baking is seeing the batter being baked in the oven. There's a feeling of joy just by seeing them raising. The smell of the cupcakes baking in the oven is also GOOD. I had a great time baking the cupcakes while watching Kurt Cobain singing. It's just a perfect evening for me :D Another thing is finishing the decoration. Well decorating ain't easy. I thought that it should be the easiest and the most exciting part. Guess what, it's not. But it was still exciting though. Putting the whipped cream on top of the cupcakes took time longer that I thought. I guess next time I should just use piping bag, because I tried to use knife and I needed to use my sis' scraper to make it smooth. Now the chocolate curls : I have never made any chocolate curls before. So what I had in mind is maybe I could use the peeler to make chocolate curls from the chocolate block. But then my sister told me another way - which is to melt the chocolate blocks and then pour them on to a flat surface and let it cool. After it is cool, just scrap the chocolate. Sadly it didn't work either. I didn't know why - maybe it was the chocolate? Well then what I did was I used the peeler and it was a little hard - there were times when the chocolate block flew and it's gone (I didn't know where the hell it was until the next morning). There were also times when the chocolate curls just sprinkled on my eyes. What a mess. Then my sister suggested to use the grater. I tried that but it was too smooth. So I sticked to the peeler. Practice makes perfect. The chocolate curls that I created were getting better and better although it's not as good as what's in the picture from the recipe book.



Ingredients
- 50g plain chocolate, broken into pieces
- 60g butter
- 115g cherry jam (I substituted this with Fruit of The Forest Jam by Weight Watchers)
- 60g caster sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 100g self-raising flour

Topping:
- 4tsp kirsch liquor
- 150ml double cream (I used thickened cream - I'm not sure if they're the same but it turned out okay)
- 12 glace cherries
- chocolate curls to decorate
I added:
- 1tsp vanilla essence
- 30g icing sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line muffin pans with paper cases.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter, stirring constantly until melted. Pour into a large bowl. then stir until smooth and leave to cool slightly.
3. Add the jam, sugar and eggs to the cooled chocolate and beat together.
4. Add the flour and stir together until combined.
5. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean.
7. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
8. Sprinkle the kirsch over the tops of each and leave to soak for at least 15 minutes.
9. When ready to decorate, place the cream in a bowl and whip until soft peaks form. Spread the cream on top of the cupcakes with a knife to form the cream into peaks. Top each cupcake with a cherry and decorate with chocolate curls.