Wednesday 31 October 2012

Chocolate Owl Cupcakes


These chocolate owl cupcakes were so much fun to make... I had a hoot! Tee hee! I made them using gluten free flour and they went down a treat at my office. You could even add some chocolate chips to the cake batter to make them even more chocolately!


Chocolate Owl Cupcakes (makes 12)

150g butter, softened
150g caster sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
40g ground almonds
40g cocoa
125g self raising flour/gluten free self raising flour
4 tbsp yoghurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate icing:
150g butter, softened
250g icing sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2-3 tbsp milk

To decorate:
3 packets cadbury milk chocolate buttons, chop each button in half
2 packets giant chocolate buttons (for eyes)
2 packs white chocolate buttons (for eyes)
milk chocolate chips (for eyes)
3 cadbury fudge bars (for nose and ears), cut into triangular shapes
white chocolate stars

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan).
2. Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy.
3. Mix in the eggs, vanilla and ground almonds. Then add the yoghurt and sift in the flour and cocoa. Stir through until you have a smooth chocolately batter.
4. Divide between 12 cupcake cases and bake for 20-25 minutes.


5. Meanwhile make the icing: combine butter and half the icing sugar until smooth, beat in the remaining icing sugar and cocoa, then finally add the milk to loosen the consistency slightly.
6. Once the cupcakes are cooled, spread the chocolate icing on top. Keep aside a teaspoon of icing for adding some of the chocolate decorations.
7. Layer the halved chocolate buttons on one half of the cupcake, leaving a small space in the centre for a piece of chocolate fudge for the nose. Place two smaller pieces of chocolate fudge on the top side for the ears.


8. Add two giant chocolate buttons for the eyes. Use a toothpick or the end of a spoon to dab a tiny splodge of icing onto the centre of the buttons, then gently press two white chocolate buttons into place. Add the milk chocolate chips on top of the white chocolate buttons with another small dot of chocolate icing. Pop a couple of white chocolate stars onto the side. Ta da!

23 comments:

  1. Ooh these are lovely :-) You always make everything look so professional and uniform.

    Two words.

    Bake. Off.

    x

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    1. You always say such nice things :-) thank you! x

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  2. They are so cute!! Definitely making these for my friends birthday next month. :)

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    1. Fab, do let me know how they turn out :-)

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  3. These are so cool, I never would have thought of using buttons like that to decorate cupcakes! Great idea, keep up the good work, aLittleBlonde

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  4. They're ace! My fella would love these - am definitely going to give these a go :)

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  5. Hey there! I just found your blog, I love it :) These cupcakes are adorable!

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  6. Suzie, these look amazing!! You are so neat! Your collegaues are very lucky :)

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    1. I bring in so much baking I'm starting to become known as the 'office feeder'!

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  7. I love this idea - they remind me of the chocolate hedgehog cakes my mum used to make me for birthdays.

    Nina x

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  8. Waouh ! they look yummy ! They must have taken you forever to make, no ???
    This is my first visit on your lovely blog and I have really enjoyed myself. Your little felt characters are sweet and your cupcakes, muffins and cakes really look gorgeous, I may try a few of your recipes !
    PS: It is your mother in law who told me about your blog.
    Barbara (http://arbrastuce.canalblog.com/)

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    1. Thank you for your kind words :-) yes the owls were a little time consuming, but worth it! x

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  9. These are adorable I Love Owls and Chocloate so what could be better, I will definitely be baking some up for my friends little ones, if I don't eat them all first that is:) x

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  10. Oh these are so cute, I am bookmarking to make them in the near future.

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  11. Just found these, my daughter loves owls at the moment and wants her friends to make these tomorrow at her party...would this recipe also work to make a large bitrthday cake version? double quantities?

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    1. Hi Steff. Not sure if the cake recipe would work doubled. For chocolate cake I use this recipe on bbcgoodfood http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/6610/chococcino-cake - it works wonderfully every time. To make a larger quantity of chocolate icing use: 240g butter, 350-400g icing sugar, 40g cocoa and enough milk to achieve a good consistency. Hope the party is a hit :-) x

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  12. I used my own cake recipe but was inspired by your adorable owl designs for the last night of my Brownies (Girlguiding) and the girls absolutely loved them and I enjoyed making all 24 of them all day. Thank you for sharing your ideas, :-) and may get round to posting my cupcakes on my blog at some stage.

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  13. Wow. Just found these today from a link on another website!

    My going away party is soon and I think these will go down well!

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  14. Mmmm these look so good. Love chocolate cupcakes and they are decorated so well! :)

    www.alison-at-home.co.uk

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