Easy to make, chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing and a surprise liquid chocolate centre. These mini chocolate surprise cakes are perfect for a party or afternoon tea.
It’s rare for a week to go by without me baking something, but I don’t always manage to bake ninety six cakes all in one day. Admittedly, they were mini cakes, not large ones, but I still felt like it was a bit of an achievement.
Party Cakes
A friend had asked me to make some cakes for an event she was putting on. She was making canapés to go with drinks and wanted some little cakes to go alongside. I duly got my thinking cap on and came up with a variety of flavours, textures and colours, so there would be something to suit all tastes as well as dietary requirements – or so I hoped.
So what cakes did I make for this event? Well, apart from these mini chocolate surprise cakes, I thought the following would make an interesting combination:
- Apple crumble & custard mini cakes
- Lemon & almond coconut cakes – dairy and gluten free
- Rum & raisin mini cupcakes
The recipe for dairy and gluten free lemon & almond coconut cakes is one I created for a friend.
One fine may morning, fellow Cornish food blogger, Janie over at The Hedge Combers embarked on an epic road trip. She was off to Wales in a quest to find the best food and drink on offer. It’s a hard life! In her absence she invited a few blogger friends to guest post for her. So, here are my rather cute and most delicious mini lemon and almond coconut cakes over on her blog. They’re easy to make, gluten free and dairy free, so ideal party fare when you’re a bit unsure what dietary requirements your guests might have.
Mini Chocolate Surprise Cakes
There had to be chocolate of course and these mini chocolate surprise cakes seemed to fit the occasion. The surprise came in the form of a liquid chocolate centre, although there was of course chocolate in both the cake mix and icing too. Dr Oetker had sent me a surprise inside cupcake centre pouch some time ago along with a recipe and other chocolate ingredients. The idea is to inject the cakes with liquid chocolate once they are baked. It was time to try it out.
I did my usual tinkering with the recipe and used butter instead of margarine, added wholemeal flour to the cake mix and chocolate to the icing.
I made a crafty extra one on the side, because I do like to try my wares before they go out into the big wide world. The cake was a well flavoured chocolate one with a nice texture and the injected liquid chocolate was fun and gave added interest. All of the different cakes were thoroughly enjoyed and these ones were deemed to be a great success.
Sharing
I’m entering these mini chocolate surprise cakes into Tea Time Treats with Karen at Lavender & Lovage. You’ll find a permanently groaning tea table here. But somehow, I just can’t help contributing to it, especially as the theme this month is chocolate.
I am also sending some off to Dom over at Belleau Kitchen for his new Simply Eggcellent challenge. This month it’s also all about chocolate.
As it happened, we didn’t have any chocolate eggs left over from Easter. If we had, they would have been great for decorating the tops of these little cakes, going into the icing or both. So, I’m sort of crossing fingers that I will be allowed to enter the Biscuit Barrel this month, which is all about candy or using up leftover Easter chocolate. It’s over to The Lass in the Apron and I’d Much Rather Bake Than …
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make these mini chocolate surprise cakes, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below or via social media. Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
If you’d like more cupcake ideas for, you’ll find plenty of recipes in my Cupcakes category.
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Mini Chocolate Surprise Cakes – The Recipe
Mini Chocolate Surprise Cakes
Ingredients
Cakes
- 125 g unsalted butter
- 125 g dark brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 150 g flour (half wholemeal, half plain white)
- 25 g cocoa powder
- 1 rounded tsp baking powder
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 pouch Dr Oetker rich chocolate cupcake centres
Icing
- 100 g unsalted butter
- 150 g icing sugar
- 75 g 70% dark chocolate
- dark chocolate drops
Instructions
Cakes
- Cream the butter and sugar together until pale in colour and fluffy in texture.
- Add the vanilla extract and beat some more.
- Beat in the eggs, one by one, adding a little of the flour if it curdles.
- Sieve in the dry ingredients and gently stir until just combined, adding the water near the end.
- Divide the mixture between 24 mini muffin moulds (cases optional).
- Bake at 180C for 15 to 20 minutes, when the cakes should be well risen and firm to the touch.
- Insert the chocolate centre nozzle into the cakes and inject a little of the filling into the centres.
- Leave in the moulds to cool for 10 minutes or so, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Icing
- Melt the chocolate in a bowl suspended over a pan of hot, not boiling, water. Allow to cool a little.
- Beat the butter and icing sugar until smooth and creamy, then beat in the chocolate.
- Spread onto the cooled cakes and decorate with dark chocolate tear drops.
Cakes with liquid chocolate inside? Sounds like a great idea! Making me think of all the other things you could inject!
Sounds like loads of fun making so many cakes in one hit. We love mini cakes….. they are always such fun! You did a great job!
Thanks Kate. I quite enjoyed planning four cakes that would deliver different flavours, textures and qualities as well as baking them of course 🙂
Very nice with that liquid centre and they look really pretty 🙂
Thank you Alida. It makes for a bit of fun and something different.
I want a surprise on the inside cake. Please can you post me one?
A box of cakes in the post would be rather fun Bintu.
Yum, they look lovely, and the chocolate filling sounds great. And well done on making so many cakes in a day!
Thanks Lucy, it was quite fun really. I wouldn’t want to do it too often though.
Ohhhhhhhh! A liquid chocolate centre does it for me! I’ll have to get some of those!
Haha Jac, I know what you mean. It feels so decadent somehow.
They sound amazing Choclette, well done on the big bake.
Thanks Janice, it was fun 🙂
They look really cute! Tempting icing mmmm
Thanks Sarah. I’m not quite up to your decorating standard, but they did taste good.
96 cakes in a day what ever the size, iced too, that’s quite an achievement. They look lovely and i bet with a liquid centre were really lovely. GG
It was GG, but it was fun too. As for chocolate cake, it’s hard to beat – unless it has a liquid centre of course 😉
wow… 96 cakes, that’s hardcore! They look so sweet and so perfectly chocolatey. Thanks so much for entering them into Simply Eggcellent xx
Thanks Dom, it was kinda fun doing four similar but quite different bakes all at the same time.
Yum, yum!!! These sound so good!
Helen – #ukbloggers
Thanks Helen.
Wow they look absolutely delicious. I am useless in the kitchen but I would love to be able to make something like that.
Tank you. I’m sure you could be perfectly useful in the kitchen Terri, but it’s easy for me as I love baking.
That’s an interesting ingredient, sounds a bit like injecting doughnuts! Could you reuse the nozzle again with other fillings, like jam?
Sadly, not Rachel. It’s very much a disposable item.
The liquid centre sounds amazing. You can’t beat a classic chocolate cake.
Indeed Dannii, ultimately chocolate is THE cake 😉