Cherry Ripe Cupcakes

No, these cupcakes don't actually contain Cherry Ripes; however they do attempt to recreate the flavour of the chocolate bar.

I had made the trek to Melbourne to go to Cake Deco (it is possibly one of the only things I miss about Melbourne...that and Costco, and Ikea, and Max Brenner, and The Essential Ingredient, and the Prahran Market, and Lombards, and Southland, and the General Trader...yeah ok, I miss a lot). I spent up pretty big on cutters so I thought I'd try some of them out on these cupcakes.

Cherry Ripe Cupcakes

1 cup self raising flour

3 tbls cocoa powder

1 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

90g butter, melted

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup dessicated coconut

150g Morello cherries, chopped and drained very well

Preheat oven to 180 celsius (160 fan forced) and prepare a 12 hole cupcake tray with liners. Sift flour and cocoa into large mixing bowl. Add sugar, eggs, butter, milk and vanilla and mix with electric mixer until combined. Stir in cherries and coconut.

Spoon mixture into prepared liners and bake for 16-20 minutes or until the tops spring back when lightly pressed.

Chocolate Buttercream

200g unsalted butter, chopped & softened

500g icing sugar

3 tbls cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

a few tablespoons of boiling water

Cream butter, vanilla and cocoa until smooth. Gradually add icing sugar a little at a time (this is where the KitchenAid guard comes in handy!) Add boiling water as required until you get a smooth, glossy consistency that is solid enough to hold its shape. Spread or pipe on to cupcakes.

I opted to smooth the buttercream onto the cupcakes with a small pallet knife. I then topped them with fondant cutouts.