This cupcake mixes a few of my favourite recent recipe; a vanilla fudge cupcake piled high with my toffee sauce buttercream frosting. Decorated with extra mini fudge pieces or if you’re feeling slightly more decadent, a small drizzle of extra toffee sauce. This is delicious indulgence at it’s best! Easy individual recipe is absolutely delicious, but when put together, each flavour comes together making the perfect cupcake and indulgent treat.
This bake uses mini fudge pieces. These can be found in the baking aisle of larger supermarkets or online in places like Amazon. The basis of this cake is a simple vanilla cake. To make this, you can use the all-in-one method in which all of the cake ingredients are added to the bowl and mixed together. Or you can use the creaming method which starts with mixing the butter and sugar until creamy. Then adding the flour, eggs, milk and vanilla essence. Mix everything together until completely combined, lightly stirring through the mini fudge pieces. You can lightly cover them in a dusting of flour, as some people feel this stops them sinking. However I have found that sometimes that also makes them heavier and the best way to add the glace cherries is to very lightly stir them through the batter with a spoon.
Toffee
With vanilla I always recommended using a vanilla paste over a runny extract. This is because I’ve found a more ‘natural’ flavour and creates a better over all flavour compared to a cheaper runny vanilla essence. It also creates a better overall flavour and texture to the batter and finished cake.
Once these are cooked and have turned golden brown, remove from the oven and cool in the tin for roughly 5 minutes. After this, remove from the tin and allow to cool fully. Whilst these are cooling, start to make the buttercream frosting.
This is made toffee sauce, the type that you might use on top of icing. It is cheap to buy, easy to use and makes the most delicious buttercream frosting!!
The base of this is my classic buttercream recipe. To make this, start to make a basic buttercream frosting. Mix the unsalted butter in an electric mixer along with the toffee sauce until creamy. Next, add the icing sugar in two batches. I always recommend stirring the icing sugar with a spoon before using an electric mixer. This helps to prevent an icing sugar cloud explosion! I added 2 1/2 teaspoons to make it nice and sweet. If you are worried that this will be too much then you can add the sauce in in small increments, tasting along the way until you are happy with the flavour.
Toffee
This recipe is slightly different to my original buttercream recipe. This is because it uses slightly less icing sugar. As the toffee sauce adds a lot of sweetness I wanted to ensure that the icing didn’t become unbearably sweet. By cutting the icing sugar down a little bit, it helped to prevent this whilst still keeping a delicious flavour and the perfect texture for piping.
After the icing is finished and the cake is decorated you can add a little extra toffee to the frosting. I like to drizzle just a little bit extra on top of the finished cake and piped icing, or add some extra mini fudge pieces for decoration.
I like to pipe this on. The icing in this recipe is thick enough to hold its own shape which makes it perfect for piping. But if you prefer then you can just spread this on the top of your bake with a butter knife or the back of a spoon. Remembering to add the toffee sauce on top.
This only makes 5 cupcakes as I’ve always found that a smaller batch is best. These are best enjoyed fresh but any leftovers can be stored in a cool dry place for 2-3 days.
Ingredients
- CAKE:
- 2 oz / 60 g Self Raising Flour
- 2 oz / 60 g Butter
- 1 oz / 30 g Caster Sugar
- 1 Egg
- 1 teaspoon Milk
- 1/4 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 30 grams Mini Fudge Pieces, plus extra for decoration
- ICING:
- 3 oz / 85 g Unsalted Butter, room temperature
- 5 oz / 140 g Icing Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Milk
- 2 1/2 teaspoons / 30 grams Toffee Sauce, the type that you may use for ice cream - Plus extra for drizzling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180*c/350*f/Gas Mark 4/160*c Fan Oven.
- Line a cupcake tin with cases and set aside.
- Place the margarine, sugar, eggs, self-raising flour, milk and vanilla essence in a bowl and using an electric mixture, blend until everything is fully combined.
- Lightly stir through the mini fudge pieces and spoon the mixture into your prepared tin.
- Cook for 16 to 20 minutes, until golden brown but still light and fluffy. You can tell the cakes are ready when they spring back when lightly pressed. You could also insert a skewer into the middle of one of the cakes and if it comes out clean, then the cakes are ready.
- Once ready, remove from the oven.
- Allow the cakes to sit in the tin for roughly 5 minutes, then place on a wired rack to cool.
- Whilst cooling, start to make the buttercream frosting.
- Add the butter to a mixing bowl and using an electric mixer, blend until creamy.
- Add half of the sieved icing sugar to the bowl and using a spoon, gently stir together until just combined (this helps to prevent an icing sugar explosion!), before mixing with the electric mixer.
- Add the remaining icing sugar and milk and follow the steps above. Do not be afraid to overmix, you want this to be nice and smooth.
- Stir through the toffee sauce, adding in small increments until you are happy with the flavour, mixing between each addition.
- This icing is thick enough to pipe if desired or can be placed on top of the cake in your chosen design.
- Once piped or add to the top of each cake, add a drizzle of toffee sauce or mini fudge pieces to the top of each cupcake.
Looking for more baking ideas? Have a look in the recipe section:
Want to stay up to date and receive exclusive content and recipes? Follow me and never miss a moment!