Chocolate Mulberry Cupcakes

Afternoon Everyone!

Mulberries.  They taste like my childhood.  My grandma had the best mulberry tree ever and I spent a lot of time just sitting under it and eating and eating mulberries until my hands were stained purple.

Now it is my parents who have the tree and have given me heaps of the sweet little morsels.  So I decided to pair them up with chocolate and the combination is just heavenly. 

I am quickly discovering that the best recipes on the internet are from other bloggers.  I know that I only put my absolute favourite recipes on here and it is the same for other bloggers.  So I used the recipe for chocolate cupcakes from a blog called Glorious Treats.  The icing is a buttercream that is made using mulberry juice. 

So, here it is: chocolate cupcakes with mulberry juice icing and topped with a sweet little mulberry...

Chocolate Cupcakes
(makes 24-27 standard sized cupcakes)

2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups plain flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons bi-carb soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoons vanilla paste
1 cup boiling water

Line muffin tin with paper liners.  Heat oven to 180°C.  Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla.  Beat on medium speed for one minute.  Stir in boiling water (the batter will be quite runny).  Fill liners 2/3 full with batter.  Bake cupcakes for approximately 22-24 minutes.  Cool completely on wire rack before icing.

Mulberry Buttercream Icing

1/4 cup butter (57g)
1/2 tub cream cheese (125g)
1/4 cup mulberry juice
3 1/2 - 4 cups icing sugar

Leave butter out until it is at room temperature.  Using electric beaters blend butter and cream cheese in a bowl until well combined.  Add mulberry juice and blend.  Gradually add the icing sugar and beat until the desired consistency is reached.  Using a star tip pipe onto cupcakes.  The buttercream may need to be returned to the fridge so that it pipes well onto the cupcakes without flopping.

Top the cupcake with a mulberry and enjoy!