Delicious chocolate and cherry flavoured cupcakes with a dark chocolate cherry ganache centre.

They are topped with sweetened whipped cream, a cherry sauce, dark chocolate shavings and a glace cherry.

The flavourings I use are concentrate so if you are using a different brand, you may need to add more to get the desired flavour.

Cake

• 145g self raising flour.
• 30g cocoa powder.
• 175g caster sugar.
• 175g stork margarine.
• 3 large eggs.
• 20 drops of Foodie Cherry Flavour.

Centre

• 300g Dark Chocolate.
• 100ml Double Cream.
• The cherries from a tin of Princes Cherries, finely chopped.
• 10-20 drops of Foodie Cherry Flavour (optional).

Topping

• 500ml of Double Cream.
• 50g Icing Sugar.
• 20 drops of Foodie Vanilla Flavour.
• 50g Dark Chocolate for Shaving.
• Glace Cherries.
• The liquid from a tin of Princes Cherries.
• Juice of 1 lemon.
• 1/4 tsp of Xanthan gum or unflavoured powdered gelatine for stabilizing.

METHOD

Cake

• Baking temperature is gonna be trial and error for your own oven as all are a little different but for mine, I pre heat the oven to 170c for my fan assisted oven.
• Cream the margarine and sugar together in a bowl.
• Next, make a gap in the bowl and crack the 3 eggs in.
• Give them a little mix to combine the yolks and whites, then combine with the rest of the mix.
• Once done, you should have a smooth mix.
• Add the cherry essence and give it another little mix.
• Now sieve in the flour and cocoa.
• Fold that in then give it a good mix until fully combined.
• Split the mix evenly between 12 cupcake cases.
• I find 2 level scoops of a “small” ice cream scoop does the trick for me.
• Bake for 16-18 minutes until baked.
• You can do it by feel, as you can feel if it’s sufficiently spongy but you can’t go wrong with the tried and tested skewer method by poking a cake to the middle with a skewer and see if it comes out clean.

Centre

• Melt 300g of dark chocolate in a pot on the hob on a medium heat.
• Stir until there are no lumps.
• Add 100ml of double cream and fully combine.
• Finely chop the cherries from the Princes cherries and mix in.
• If it is not cherry tasting enough for your liking, add a few drops of the cherry essence at a time until it’s right for you.
• Once all combined, leave to cool.

Topping (Cream)

• Add 500ml of cold double cream and the icing sugar to a cold bowl.
• Add the Xanthan or gelatine.
• Mix it slowly until combined.
• Now add the vanilla essence and mix again.
• Once all combined, mix on a fast speed until the cream is forming stiff peaks and is pipeable.

Topping (Cherry Sauce)

• Add the cherry liquid to a bowl.
• Add the lemon juice half a lemon at a time.
• Mix together and the lemon juice will thin the cherry out so you can drizzle.
• If too thick after half a lemon, add the juice from the other half.

Construction

• Core out the centre of the cakes with a cake corer or a teaspoon.
• Drizzle a little of the cherry sauce in the hole.
• Spread a little on the top of the cake.
• Fill the hole with the chocolate cherry ganache.
• Pipe on the cream.
• Drizzle the sauce over the cream.
• Shave over the dark chocolate.
• Add the literal (glace) cherry on top!