Bonfire Cupcakes (Chocolate & Ginger)

I decided to make these for a fireworks party but I think they're a great autumn/winter cake. I tried to base these cakes on the posh ginger buscuits (covered in dark chocolate) that you tend to get around this time of year. Chocolate is always a winner but with the little bit of heat that the ginger gives these feel like a warm fire. They're also great fun to decorate because, since it is a bonfire, you can use lots of glitter :)

Ingredients:

200g Butter or Margarine
200g Caster (Golden) Sugar
170g Self-raising flour
30g Cocoa Powder (Mixed with 2 tbs of milk to form a paste)
4 eggs
Pinch of Salt
1 tsp Baking Powder
2-4 tsp Ground Ginger (Depending on how gingery you want it)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°c or Gas Mark 5.
2. Cream butter and sugar together. Then stir in the cocoa powder paste till it's all combined.
3. Whisk eggs in a separate bowl to get lots of air in.
4. Weigh all the dry ingredients in another bowl and mix together. At this point add 2, 3 or 4 tsp of ground ginger. I think 3 would probably be the right amount and then add more if you want it to be more firey or less if you're not too keen on too much ginger.
5. Then add about a quarter of the eggs. Beat together and add some flour if the mixture starts to curdle. Keep doing this until all the egg is combined with the butter and sugar.
6. Slowly add the rest of the flour and fold in with a large metal spoon so not to overwork the gluten, this will help your cupcakes rise.
7. Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases, a little over half way to account for rising. Try and make sure they're all level so you can achieve a nice effect when they're displayed.
8. Bake for between 15 - 20 minutes depending on how big your cupcakes are.
9. Once you take the cupcakes out of the oven leave them to cool for five minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
10. Leave to cool completely before decorating otherwise your hard work will just melt!

For decoration this is entirely up to you but I can let you know what I did for the cakes below. I used a ready made icing (Betty Croker Chocolate Buttercream Style icing) because it has a rich chocolate flavour and it needed to be used up from the cupboard. I then grated Green & Blacks Ginger chocolate on top of the icing and added plenty of glitter. I then finished the cakes off by sprinkling crumbled ginger buscuits on top. Then look firey and add more to the giner flavour.

- Emma xxx