A good friend of mine has a book out today! Alasdair Stuart is a freelance journalist who, among other things, works on Pseudopod.org, the world’s leading horror fiction podcast. Alasdair has collated his outros (the opposite of intros) for 2012 into a book called The Pseudopod Tapes: Vol1. To celebrate the launch, he held a select gathering, to which I was gratefully invited.

Now, I couldn’t turn up empty handed, could I? I decided to bring along some cupcakes, but wanted to give them a winter theme, as today is the winter solstice – the shortest day of the year.

I decided to pick some traditional Christmas flavours, chocolate and peppermint. Following my basic cupcake recipe, I substituted 20g of flour for 20g cocoa powder. To make this double chocolate, I scooped a small hole in the top of the cooled cupcakes, and piped in some chocolate spread. Presented in some pretty metallic blue cases, I topped them with a pale-blue peppermint-flavoured smooth buttercream and a royal icing snowflake.

Basic Vanilla Cupcake

Print recipe

Serves

12

Ingredients

• 140g Unsalted Butter
• 140g Caster Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 140g Self-Raising Flour
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 2-3 tablespoons Milk
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

Directions

1.	Pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 4 / 180°c / 350°f. Line a muffin pan with 12 paper cases.
2.	Ensure all ingredients are room temperature before starting. Cream together the butter, sugar until light, pale and fluffy
3.	Crack the eggs in a jar, ensuring no shell, and lightly beat with the vanilla extract
4.	While the mixer is on medium speed, add the eggs a little at a time, ensuring each addition is incorporated before adding the next
5.	Once all the eggs are added, mix on full speed for a couple of minutes
6.	Turn down the speed of the mixer to low, and carefully add in the flour a spoonful at a time. Stop mixing as soon as all the flour is added
7.	Stir in the milk by hand a tablespoon at a time, just enough to ensure you have a loose and easily spoonable mixture
8.	Divide the mixture between the 12 cupcake cases, and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean
9.	Remove from muffin pan immediately, and transfer to a wire rack to fully cool before decorating

Note

These will freeze nicely once baked. Just ensure you defrost thoroughly before decorating.