White chocolate Christmas cupcakes

I’ll concede that cupcakes aren’t a traditional Christmas tea time item but these seemed too pretty to leave out. Plus, Christmas is a time of serious eating and it’s nice to have something spongier and lighter and generally more manageable with a cup of tea!

These cupcakes had a lovely taste to them; the white chocolate wasn’t over powering but gave a subtle creamy taste to both the sponge and buttercream.

Alas, I cannot claim the chocolate coin idea as my own. It was Marie, one of our super-imaginative entrants at the Christmas Iron Cupcake London event who gave me the idea. Basically, it’s taking the tradition of the silver coin in the Christmas pud and bringing it into a more modern baked good. The bonus being that every cupcake has a coin so everyone wins! The key thing to remember is to put the coin in the sponge AFTER baking it – sorry if that sounds patronising but I’d hate anyone to misunderstand and end up with a mess in the centre of their cupcake.

Here are the cupcakes with the coins inserted – they go in very easily without disturbing the sponge or altering the shape of the cake:

Voila! A cupcake with a coin promising good luck for the coming year!

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g caster sugar
2 eggs
125g self raising flour
50g white chocolate buttons

For the buttercream:
75g unsalted butter, at room temperature
175g icing sugar
50g white chocolate buttons, melted

Optional inclusion: chocolate coins

Method

- Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.

- Line a 12 hole cupcake tin with paper cases.

- Start by making the cupcake sponges: Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

- Gradually beat in the eggs.

- Beat in the flour.

- Stir in the white chocolate buttons.

- Spoon into the paper cases and bake for approximately 15-20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cupcakes comes out cleanly. Mine took 17 minutes.

- Leave to cool on a wire rack.

- Now make the buttercream: beat together the butter and icing sugar until well combined.

- Beat in the melted chocolate.

- If using, now is the time to make an incision into the cooled cupcake and slot a chocolate coin into the sponge. It’s more effective if you leave the foil on the coin.

- Spread the buttercream over the top of the cupcake and decorate as required; I used fondant Christmas decorations.

- Warn anyone who has metal fillings that the coins are in the cake!!!

- Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have made.

- Eat.