farewell to my teenage years...

so here it is - my last post as a teenager as on tuesday i enter a new decade (and quite possibly a quarter life crisis...!) i'm not entirely sure how this has happened so fast, but let's make the most of these last couple of days with some chocolate fudge cupcakes!

my school friends grace and louise came round the other day for a lunch and baking session (including a few cheeky lunch time glasses of rose - see i'm totally sophisticated enough to be in my twenties!!) once the lunch had been consumed (french bread with brie, ham and smoked mackerel pate) and gossip swapped we entered the kitchen to whip up a fresh batch of chocolate cupcakes.

we followed an equal quantities mixture of six ounces. to make the cakes chocolate you substitute two ounces of self raising flour for cocoa powder.

 spooning the mixture out

the tricky part of making chocolate cake is making sure it stays moist - as cocoa powder can dry the mixture out - however these came out sooooo moist and light! you opened your mouth to take a massive bite and your teeth just sank into little more than air, perfection!

 a complicated spooning out process...

also most people know i'm not normally one for raw cake mixture - but chocolate cake is definitely an exception!

waste not, want not!

 fresh out of the oven and smelling good 

the natural topping of choice was butter icing. the butter was nice and soft and i was able to demonstrate the back-of-spoon motion that is needed for creaming. louise asked why we didn't put it in the electric whisk, however (speaking from a lot of experience) putting a motorised whisk into a bowl of icing sugar tends to end in a lot of mess!

but once you've got a more paste like substance developing it is possible to then use an electric whisk. this is necessary if you want to make really light icing as it's impossible to get that much air in by hand. however we were going for a 'rustic' look and wanted to minimise the making-to-mouth time so did a basic mix by hand, taking turns.

i had a rummage through my baking box and found some fudge pieces from sainsburys that we decided we could put on the top of the cakes (after each sampling!)









the decorating process

so with justin timberlake playing in the background, grace and louise iced the cakes and i sprinkled the fudge pieces on top.

being as impatient as ever the cakes were cool enough to ice but still warm in the middle - which was absolutely perfect!

so while they may not be things of great beauty, they sure did taste fantastic and have kept me going while we've been tidying the house up.

all it remains for me to do is bid you a final farewell from my teenage self - i'll see you on the other side!

love,
nen
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