Black Forest Cupcakes

Black Forrest gateau sounds like it should be an all year round kind of dessert, however, in our house and many other British houses, it's a winter treat. 

As a kid I never cared much for Black Forrest cake, it always had actual cherries in and as I was opposed to real fruit (like a lot of small children) I would avoid it at all cost. It's amazing how your tastes change as you age and now I can't get enough of this chocolatey, cherry goodness. 

I recently found this amazing recipe on BBC Good Food for Black Forrest Muffins and with a little tweaking, it turned out to be delicious! 

Ingredients:

160g unsalted butter

120g icing sugar

3 large eggs

100g plain flour

50g cornflour

25g cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

425g can of cherry pie filling

thick whipped cream

150g dark chocolate

Method: 

1. Preheat oven to 180C and line a 12 hole muffin tin with muffin cases.

2. Mix butter and icing sugar together until pale and creamy.

3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. 

4. Fold through the combined flour, cornflower, cocoa and baking powder. Add approx 100g of the dark chocolate, chopped into small chunks.

5. Spoon a 1/4 tbsp of mixture into each of the cases, then add a dollop of pie filling to each one. Cover the pie mixture with another dollop of mixture. 

6. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the tops bounce back.

7 . Add some of the left over pie filling (without the cherries, just the jam) to a jug and mix with boiling hot water to create a liquid. 

8. Once the cakes are completely cooled, poke holes in each cake and pour over cherry liquid. 

9. Apply some whipped cream to the tops of the cakes and add shavings of the dark chocolate.

Let me know what you think of this tasty recipe and if you want to give the original a go, head over to BBC Good Food now!