Friday 11 September 2015

Chocolate Blackberry Cupcakes


It's been a busy start to September mainly because I was away in Venice to celebrate my birthday over the weekend. I had a lovely chocolate dome cake from a bakery there on my birthday which was absolutely delicious! I was so excited I didn't even take a picture before tucking in. 



I love birthdays and I tend to have prolonged celebrations each year. Obviously a birthday is not really a birthday without cake and lots of it! On my return I decided to bake some cupcakes to continue the celebrations. I chose these flavours so I could enter them into several blogging challenges this month. I initially wanted to bake the cake with blackberry jam but just couldn't find it in the shops.  Lots of blackcurrant jam but no blackberry jam! I did however find some bramble jelly which is made from blacberries so I've incorporated that into the recipe. 


I adapated a recipe from BBC Good Food and it turned out beautifully. The cake was light and chocolatey but not overly so. You can clearly taste the blackberries and I loved the jelly in the middle. The icing was my favourite part as it uses blackberry puree for the flavour and colour. Everyone thought they were really good and they disappeared really quickly. I have some leftover frosting so I will be baking them into cookies. I've never had a blackberry cookie before so I'm quite excited to try it out.

I'm sending this to a few challenges this month.

AlphaBakes hosted by myself this month and Caroline from Caroline Makes on alternate months. The letter this month is J for Jelly.



We Should Cocoa hosted by Kate from The Veg Space on behalf of Choclette from Tin and Thyme. The theme this month is blackberries.


Simply Eggcellent hosted by Dom from Belleau Kitchen. The theme this month is cakes as it's also Dom's birthday in September. Happy Birthday in advance Dom!


Treat Petite hosted by Stuart from Cakeyboi and Kat from The Baking Explorer. The theme this month is anything goes. 


The Vegetable Palette and Fruit Palette hosted by Shaheen from A2K - A Seasonal Veg Table. The theme this month is Purple and Blues.




 The mixture is very liquid but don't worry. I love the colour of the blackberries. 

 adding a generous layer of jelly before baking 

 after baking 

 I love that you can see a bit of the jelly poking out under the gorgeous frosting which is has a really pretty colour and tastes good too! 

Recipe adapted from BBC Good Food
For the cupcakes - makes 15 cupcakes
300g blackberries, divided into two portions of 150g each 
100g butter
100g milk chocolate
225g self raising flour
175g coconut sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 eggs
100mls boiling water 

For the frosting
100g butter
400g icing sugar
Blackberry puree - see recipe

  • Preheat the oven to 180C.
  • Place 150g blackberries in a bowl and roughly crush with a fork so the juices are running but there are still chunky bits of fruit left.
  • In a medium sized saucepan, melt the butter and chocolate and allow to cool slightly. 
  • Crack 2 eggs into the chocolate-butter mixture and whisk briefly. 
  • In a separate bowl, mix the flour, sugar and coocoa powder.
  • Mix the wet and dry ingredients together adding in the crushed blackberries. Add the boiling water and mix well. The mixture will be very liquid at this stage. 
  • Divide the cake mixture between the cupcake cases and fill until approximately 2/3 full.
  • Place a large spoonful of bramble jelly on top of each cupcake.
  • Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes or until cooked and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
  • Allow to cool completely before frosting.
  • To make the frosting, place the remaining 150g blackberries in a food processor and whizz until pureed.
  • Place in a strainer and strain the pureed blackberries. 
  • Beat the butter and icing sugar together until smooth - about 5 minutes in an electric mixer.
  • Add in the sieved blackberry puree and mix well.
  • Decorate the cake using a piping bag and piping nozzle. 




16 comments:

  1. What gorgeous and beautiful cupcakes ! I love blackberries !!!

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    1. Thanks! They tasted great and looked pretty too

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  2. Gorgeous looking cupcakes. I love that you've blended chocolate with blackberries. The frosting is so pretty and such a beautiful colour Yummy! Sammie www.feastingisfun.com

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    1. Thanks! The cake and frosting had blackberries which added flavour and gave a lovely colour to the frosting.

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  3. These look stunning Ros! Lovely idea to use the Bramble Jelly on top, and the colour of the icing is so pretty! Thanks for linking up with We Should Cocoa this month.

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    1. Thanks! The jelly was a good addition and I love the colour of the frosting too - all natural!

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  4. your piping is just sublime! I love these little cupcakes. They're beautiful. Love bramble jelly, that's so nice and I could really murder one or two of these now. Thanks for linking to Simply Eggcellent x

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    1. Everyone loved the bramble jelly. I baked them again for a Great Ormond Street Bake Sale as their colour is purple and they were very popular.

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  5. Such beautiful icing! Thanks for entering into Treat Petite!

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  6. So pretty Ros - thanks for entering these into Treat Petite!

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  7. Happy belated Birthday, Ros! Your cupcakes look beautiful. I love adding pureed berries into butter icing too. It adds such a great colour as well as flavour.

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    1. Thanks Jo! I'm going to add pureed berries to my other frostings now, such a great idea.

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  8. Your cupcakes are stunning, I love the icing mostly. Happy belated Birthday wishes too. The round up should be up soon,

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  9. These look absolutely stunning Ros. I love the look of the icing and would love to do your rose design, but I'm useless at piping and have no patience, so it's unlikely to happen. Belated Happy Birthday and good luck with the forthcoming celebrations. Thanks for joining in with #WeShouldCocoa.

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    1. Thanks for your well wishes. The rose piping is easier than it looks. Just need a star tip and a piping bag. I can't make edible roses but I can pipe them!

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