Salted Caramel, Chocolate and Popcorn Cupcakes

These nutty little beauties are cupcakes I made for a competition in the newly launched Taste Magazine. The idea is to 'cook the cover' and share the results on their social page. Let me just say... I love this new magazine! It's beautifully designed and the food photography is gorgeously styled. It reads like your favourite food blog and the contributors are all well known Australian food personalities. In fact, Adriano Zumbo gives up his recipe for his famous Zonuts, his riff on the notorious Cronut. Awesome!

These decadent chocolate cupcakes are topped with chocolate frosting and a glistening mound of Lolly Gobble Bliss Bombs and salty peanuts, bound with salted caramel. Good Lord! For those not in the know; along with Twisties, Tim Tams and Vegemite, Lolly Gobble Bliss Bombs are the quintessential Aussie snack food. Popcorn and nuts, all coated in crunchy caramel. So good!

The recipe for these babies can be found in the new September issue of Taste Magazine, on sale now. In the meantime, here's my recipe for the ultimate chocolate cupcakes!

Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 24 cupcakes

These cupcakes are insanely good! They're decadent and deeply chocolatey. They're not super duper sweet so they pair well with all types of frosting; from ganache to buttercream to fluffy meringue icing. Sky's the limit! I love topping these with a lush Salted Caramel Italian Meringue Buttercream. 

Ingredients:

400g plain flour

200g caster sugar

100g brown sugar

50g dutch cocoa

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp instant coffee

3 large eggs

140ml greek yoghurt

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

175g butter, melted and cooled

125ml canola oil, or any other neutral flavoured oil

300ml cold water

Method:

Preheat oven to 180ºC and line two cupcake pans with paper cases. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl (flour, sugars, cocoa, baking powder, soda and salt). Dissolve the coffee in a teaspoon of warm water. Mix together the yoghurt, coffee mixture, eggs and vanilla in a jug and set aside. In a large bowl, combine the butter, oil and cold water and mix with a hand-held mixer till combined. Add the dry mix and beat on a low speed until the dry mix is incorporated. Slowly add the yogurt mix, beating at a low speed all the while. Mixture should be the consistency of pancake batter. Using a large ice cream scoop,  divide the mix between the cupcake pans and bake for 15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack and frost when thoroughly cooled. Enjoy!

Over and out!