Chocolate Whisky Cakes and a Book Shop Special
Little dark chocolate whisky cakes covered with a dark chocolate buttercream flavoured subtly with whisky. They’re totally scrumptious. Excellent for parties and feeding a crowd, but best kept for adult consumption.
Last Sunday our fabulous local independent bookshop hosted an evening of talk, slides and music at our nearby community centre. I made a few cakes for it, as I do. One of the four bakes were these rather decadent mini chocolate whisky cakes.
Liskeard Events
For a small market town, we do well for events. The Liskeard Book Shop hosts various talks from authors and the Liskerrett Centre provides all sorts of films, theatre, music, exhibitions as well as the fabulous vegetarian Hub Cafe.
This was a particularly good one which started with a talk by Lisa Woollett about her beach combing activities along the Cornish coast together with a show of her stunning photographs. If you get the chance, do take a look at her books: Sea and Shore Cornwall and Sea Journal.
During the interval, everyone drank and devoured Michèle’s beautiful rolled pancake canapés and my little cakes. We were all then entertained by The Bookshop Band. The band consists of a couple with a vast array of musical instruments who sing songs inspired by the books they have read. They even get the authors to play along sometimes. It was a fantastic evening.
Chocolate Whisky Cakes
Over the years, I’ve come up with what I reckon is the best cupcake base. It’s sturdy enough to ice, but still light and delicious. It’s not overly sweet either. I use this as a template for nearly all of my cupcakes now.
So all I had to do for these chocolate whisky cakes was to change things up a little. I tried to get a good balance of whisky to chocolate, so the chocolate was to the fore and the whisky, the supporting act. It worked.
If you’d rather make larger cakes, you can bake twelve cupcakes instead of twenty four mini ones. But if you do this, you’ll need to increase the baking time by about five minutes.
The chocolate whisky cakes went down a storm as did all the others. I also made a mini version of my matcha cupcakes, some little marmalade cakes and some that were a bit similar to these spelt rhubarb muffins. Only they were more cake than muffin.
Other Chocolate Whisky Cakes You Might Like
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make these decadent little chocolate whisky cakes, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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Choclette x
Chocolate Whisky Cakes. PIN IT.
Mini Chocolate Whisky Cakes – The Recipe
Chocolate Whisky Cakes
Ingredients
- 80 g dark chocolate (I used 72%)
- 125 g unsalted butter softened
- 125 g dark muscovado sugar
- 2 large eggs (I used duck eggs)
- 150 g flour half wholemeal, half plain
- 2 tsp cocoa powder
- 1 tsp mesquite powder optional
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 1 tbsp natural yoghurt
- 2 tbsp whisky
Chocolate Icing
- 75 g dark chocolate (I used 70%)
- 75 g unsalted butter softened
- 120 g icing sugar
- 2 tbsp whisky
- 24 dark chocolate drops optional
Instructions
- Melt the chocolate in a bowl suspended over a pan of hot, but not boiling, water. Allow to cool a little. Don't wash the bowl up as you'll need it to melt some more chocolate later on.80 g dark chocolate
- Cream the butter and sugar together until pale in colour and fluffy in texture.125 g unsalted butter, 125 g dark muscovado sugar
- Add the cooled melted chocolate and beat some more.
- Beat in the eggs, one by one, adding a little of the flour if it curdles.2 large eggs
- Sieve in the dry ingredients and gently stir until just combined, adding the whisky and yoghurt near the end.150 g flour, 2 tsp cocoa powder, 1 tsp mesquite powder, 1 tsp baking powder, ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), 1 tbsp natural yoghurt, 2 tbsp whisky
- Divide the mixture between 24 mini muffin moulds (cases optional).
- Bake in a preheated oven at 180℃ (350℉, Gas 4) for 15 to 20 minutes, when the cakes should be well risen and firm to the touch.
- Leave in the moulds to cool for 10 minutes or so, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Chocolate Icing
- Use the same bowl as before and melt the chocolate suspended over a pan of hot, but not boiling, water. Allow to cool a little.75 g dark chocolate
- Beat the butter and icing sugar until smooth and creamy, then beat in the whisky followed by the chocolate.75 g unsalted butter, 120 g icing sugar, 2 tbsp whisky
- Spread onto the cooled cakes and decorate with a dark chocolate tear drop.24 dark chocolate drops
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Sharing
I’m sending these little chocolate cupcakes off to Ness at JibberJabberUK for Love Cake. The theme this month is signature bakes and although the flavours may be different, I have become known now for making mini cakes like this.
I’m also submitting these to Bake of the Week with Sarah at Maison Cupcake and Helen at Casa Costello.
The instructions don’t match the ingredients list. There’s no mention of water or vanilla essence in the ingredients but there is in the instructions with no amount???
Eek, I’m so sorry Beth. You’re absolutely right, the instructions for this are wrong. Thanks for pointing it out. I shall amend asap. There shouldn’t be any vanilla extract in these cakes as it’s whisky that does the talking. I’ll need to check on the water situation.
Hi Beth. I’ve edited the method now to match the ingredients. Let me know how it goes if you dare make them after this.
Look lovely – I think I’d be tempted to try them with rum (any excuse to get rum into a bake!)
Haha, it used to be rum with me CC, but I’ve decided whisky works even better – for the moment 😉
My husband would love these but I would have to ask him which of his whiskies to use first! Definitely not one for the kids to try!
Hahaha, not for the kids, no. A collection of whiskies? I’m intrigued.
I always want to tuck into your cakes Choclette. They always look so enticing.
Thanks Jac – I do try to make them look appealing 😉
That sounds like a great evening and those cakes must have gone down a storm. GG
They certainly all disappeared very quickly GG 😉
Ooh these sound absolutely heavenly Choclette…I can certainly see why they went very quickly! Whiskey and Chocolate Yum! Pinning
Angela x
Thanks Angela. I really like these sort of cakes which have a good texture and are flavoursome but don’t really take too long to make.
I love hearing about where you live – Sounds like my sort of event: Books & Cakes. Just perfect! Your mini cakes looks so well decorated and luxurious. #BakeoftheWeek
Thank you Helen. Coming from you that is much appreciated. One of my dreams was to have a bookshop/cafe.
You do not have to answer my question about mesquite powder. I have already googled it myself. Always very interesting to know more about natural ingredients.
I often add mesquite to chocolate cakes as it gives them a slight caramel flavour.
Lovely cakes, again ! It surprises me that noone asks for the recipes of the 3 other ones 😉 I am rather intrigued by the those beautiful green thingies. And what is mesquite powder ? You seem to have a rather large cupboard full of secret ingredients.
Best regards to Cornwall, Liskeard, the bookshop and of course Michèle.
Ah, the beautiful green thingies are already on the blog, only I made them small this time. In fact I made them for another of Michele’s events a few years ago. I think I put more matcha in this year’s batch though. They were a great conversation starter with everyone wondering what they were, but everyone seemed to like them – /2012/03/matcha-white-chocolate-cupcakes-we/ I keep trying to cut down on my ingredients, but it never quite seems to work.
Sounds like my kind of evening and those cakes look irresistible! It’s also nice to be able to get those bakes out into the community, a lovely thing to do!
Yes, it was fun – the baking, the evening, the eating, the plaudits 🙂
Looks like a lovely event and I am sure your cakes were appreciated by all. They look delicious.
Thanks Nayna. It’s always nice to get positive feedback.
These look and sound fantastic, I like the idea of boozy whisky chocolate cake! Thanks for joining in with #BAKEoftheWEEK !
Thanks Sarah, whisky and chocolate is my latest favourite combination.
Oh my goodness, these sound amazing!! What a creative and delicious combo!
Thank you Jenn, whisky and chocolate is a fab combination 🙂
Chocolate and whisky, how did you know these were two of my favourite things? These sound AMAZING!
Ah, I’m not called a temptress for nothing 😉
oooh, don’t they look so pretty… little cakes all in a row… and whisky and chocolate – quite frankly they are heavenly.
Thank you Dom. Heavenly sounds an apt description to me 😉
This sounds like my kind of bookshop talk! I can see why the cakes went down so well: they are gorgeous and quite adult. I bet the duck eggs make them extra rich too. MMM 🙂
It was a fun evening Kellie and luckily no kids around to be tempted by the spiked chocolate cakes 😉
Sounds like a really fun evening…bet these booze infused chocolate cakes were a hit! I definitely would go for a 2nd!
Thanks Angie and you would of course be very welcome to a 2nd 😉
Oooh chocolate and whisky… Sounds like a marriage made in heaven – imagine it might be a little adult and smoky which suits me just fine 🙂
Definitely one for adults Lucy. Luckily, there’s were no children present.
This sounds like a fun evening! Those cakes look really good. I love the idea of the whisky with the choccy.
Chocolate and whisky is my new favourite flavory combination.