Happy Baking- Chocolate Marshmallow Cupcakes

It's cupcake time! I haven't baked cupcakes in ages, I've been decorating them at work but haven't got around to baking any so I thought it was about time to change that! These little beauties are a chocolate sponge with a swirl of marshmallow fluff running through them...just lovely!

The chocolate sponge is loosely based on the chocolate cupcake recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook, but it needed to be a firmer mixture so the marshmallow wouldn't sink!

Marshmallow fluff is a soft spreadable marshmallow that originates from America and has luckily made its way over here too. I buy mine fromWaitrose however per supermarkets also sell it and you can buy it online too.

If you can open a jar without mixing it with Nutella and slathering the whole lot on toast then I strongly recommend you give these a go :)

I like to use these cases from lakeland which are slightly bigger than most cupcake cases so I would recommend that this recipe will make about 9 cupcakes using these cases or 9-12 using your normal cupcake cases.

Makes approximately 9 large cupcakes

Ingredients-

Cupcakes-

150g Soft Brown Sugar
100g Unsalted Butter
2 Eggs
110g Plain Flour
30g Cocoa Powder
1.5 Teaspoons Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt
50ml Milk
Marshmallow Fluff

Icing-
200g Icing Sugar
80g Marshmallow Fluff
50g Unsalted Butter
1 Tablespoon Milk

Method-
1) Preheat your oven to 180C and line a muffin tin with 9 paper cases.
2) Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy- this can take a few minutes.
3) Add the eggs one at a time- beating the mixture well after each one.
4) Sieve the dry ingredients over the creamed mixture and mix through.
5) Add the milk to the mixture and mix carefully in- This will loosen the mixture.
6) Put a tablespoon of the cake mixture into each paper case.
7) On top of the cake mixture put a heaped teaspoon of the marshmallow fluff, then top with more cake mixture (your case should be about 3/4 full now- if not add a little more of the cake mixture)
8) Take a skewer or something thin and swirl the cake mixture and marshmallow fluff together.
9) Bake in the oven for approximately 20-25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean of cake crumbs, and any marshmallow exposed on the top is turning golden. Remove from the tin and let cool on a wire rack.
10) While the cupcakes are cooling you can prepare the icing- place all of the ingredients into a bowl and start mixing together slowly and carefully. When all of the icing sugar is incorporated beat for a few minutes until it looks nice and fluffy- using an electric hand mixer if you have one as it will save your arm!
11) When the cupcakes are fully cooled transfer the icing to a piping bag with a nozzle and pipe a swirl onto the top of the cupcake. Alternatively you can spoon the icing on and smooth it down.