Easy Chocolate Cupcakes with Marbled Buttercream

Cupcakes are mini cakes that take a fraction of the time to make, but look as good as a cake you slaved away for hours to bake. Plus they are perfect for every party or celebration. Especially kids' parties. My little ones adore cupcakes or any kind, well I guess they like the icing more, but still, who can blame them?!

Ready-made cupcakes are nowhere near as delicious. The icing/buttercream/frosting always tastes cheap and the flavours are not as strong as the basic icing you can make at home with pretty much 2 basic ingredients: icing /confectioner's sugar and butter.

When it comes to flavours, the sky is the limit, you can go for pretty much anything you can think of. But, as it happens, less is more, and the two classic flavours: vanilla and chocolate, are my favourite of them all.

You can either use them separately, or combine them to create a marble effect, which looks pretty amazing, doesn't it? All you need is a piping bag, and the rest is easy peasie.

How to make the chocolate cupcake sponge

Making the sponge is an easy job, just make sure the butter is soften at room temperature(but not melted), and the eggs and milk are at room temperature too.

• in a bowl, beat together the sugar and butter until you get a creamy consistency
• add the eggs one by one, mixing well after each addition
• add the sifted flour, cocoa powder and vanilla extract, and beat well until smooth
• grease and flour a 12-hole muffin tray, and divide the mixture evenly
• bake in the preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius (350 Fahrenheit) for 20 minutes
• remove from the oven, leave to cool for 5 minutes, then use a sharp knife to remove them from the tin
• transfer to a cooling rack, and leave them to cool completely

How to make the marbled buttercream

If you have a food processor or a blender, making buttercream is so much easier. It can, of course, be made using a hand mixer too, although you have to be careful for the icing sugar not to go everywhere when you first start beating it.

• sift the icing sugar - this step is crucial to obtain a smooth, lump-free buttercream, otherwise not even the food processor can give you the result you want if the sugar is lumpy
• add the sugar to a food processor together with the soft butter, vanilla extract and milk
• blitz everything until smooth
• scoop out half of the buttercream, and set aside in a bowl
• add the cocoa powder to the half remaining in the food processor, and blitz again to get the chocolate buttercream

Now we have 2 colours waiting to be piped onto the cupcakes. Once the cupcakes are cooled down, fit the preferred nozzle onto a piping bag, and alternate one spoonful of vanilla buttercream with one spoonful of chocolate buttercream. Pipe onto each cupcake, and job done!

Expert tips

There aren't many tricks when it comes to making cupcakes, they are probably one of the easiest desserts you can make. My Cadbury Creme Egg Cupcakes are still one of my favourite desserts to bake at Easter, and they use the same basic recipe for the sponge.

One thing I would recommend is storing the cupcakes in cool place, but not the fridge! The buttercream will harden, and the sponge will be too dense and heavy, as the butter in the sponge hardens as well.

It might sound as a cliché, but do use a good-quality vanilla extract, that will make all the difference when it comes to super tasty cupcakes. And that's it, a crowd-pleaser recipe for all ages.

Other cupcake recipes

Moist Vanilla Cupcakes

Victoria Sponge Cupcakes

Red Velvet Cupcakes