Animal parade cupcakes

This weekend I was asked to make chocolaty cupcakes for my cousin's son's birthday party, and I was also given an animal themed cupcake set to go by.

The cupcakes were made using a recipe I've used before, but for the frosting I decided to try something new. I can't remember which idea came first - that I would incorporate white chocolate into the frosting or that I'd use green-coloured frosting and pipe grass (in keeping with the animal theme) - but eventually I decided to make a green-coloured white chocolate frosting and pipe it with my grass/spaghetti tip.

I searched for the perfect white chocolate frosting recipe from both Finnish and English sites, but eventually decided that the American style white chocolate and buttercream mixes would simply be too sweet in order to taste good, so I used this white chocolate frosting recipe:



White chocolate frosting: (enough for 24 cup cakes)

250 g         white chocolate
100 g         margarine
125 g         mascarpone cheese
2 tbsp        icing sugar


Melt the white chocolate and let it coold down slightly. Mix together margarine and mascarpone cheese and add the white chocolate and icing sugar while continuing to mix. Add food colouring if desired. Keep whisking the frosting until it's fluffy enough.



Chocolate chip muffins: (makes 24)


300 g        margarine
3 dl           caster sugar
4               eggs
7 dl           plain flour
4 tsp         baking powder
5 tbsp       dark cocoa powder
3 dl           milk
160 g        dark chocolate chips


Whisk margarine and sugar together until fluffy. Add one egg at a time. Mix together all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and add into the batter along with milk. Finally mix in the chocolate chips.

Pour the batter (I used a piping bag which makes this a lot easier) into cup cake cases and bake in 225°C for about 12-15 minutes. Let cool.