Chocolate Fondant Cupcakes

A couple of months ago I was invited to a leaving party for a member of staff from the York Plasma Institute.  I knew that I had to bring something delicious with me, so yet again there was another attempt at a Hummingbird Bakery recipe from the Cake Days book.

This time I thought I'd try individual cupcakes, and luckily for me I had all the ingredients in for the Chocolate Fondant Cupcakes.

Lovely, chocolatey ingredients.

For what can seem like a daunting recipe, this was actually relatively simple.  The trickiest bit for me was not the bake itself (although I did yet again overfill a couple of the cake cases a little, which meant one or two cupcakes overflowed during the baking process; these ones I just ate there and then), but the fear over cutting out the sections of cake to fill with the fondant.

Ready for the fondant filling.

However, this seemed to go off without a hitch, and I was then onto making the fondant whilst the cakes cooled further.  This wonderful combination of double cream and chocolate tasted absolutely divine, and you have no idea how happy I was when there was some fondant left over after filling all the cakes.  I grabbed a spoon and happily dug in.

 

Mmmmmm, fondant.

Once the fondant was in the little scooped-out holes, it was time to replace the cake that had been cut out.  This was like fitting the cupcakes with little cakey hats.

Cake hats!

After putting the 'cake hats' on, it was time to smother the tops of the cupcakes with yet more fondant, which made them look absolutely mouth-watering.  The beautiful, shiny tops were very enticing indeed.

 

Finished!

Just a few hours later, it was time to take the cupcakes to the party.  They were all set out on a table, and soon enough several physicists (including one slightly shifty Professor) were circling around.  The cupcakes disappeared fairly quickly, which was very gratifying for me, and I did get many compliments on them, even from the shifty Professor.  The main point made was that they were very rich and choclately, but without being overly sweet, which meant that they were pretty much the perfect chocolate cupcake recipe.

I would definitely recommend making these, as it really is yet another lovely recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery. 

Beckie.