Favourite Chocolate Bar His 'n' Hers Cupcakes

This weekend we had another wedding to attend, this time of our fabulous friends Doyle and Jeni. We were even more excited for this one because not only are these two lovlies some of our bestest friends but also we were involved in the wedding - me as a bridesmaid and Bailey as the official wedding photographer! Wow!

So following the success of our Mexican Cookies wedding as a wedding gift to tell their recipients how ace we think they are, we decided we would bake something nice for the Doyles too. But what to bake?

Well we know that the Doyles like a nice bit of chocolate so Bailey had the brainwave of making some His 'n' Hers cupcakes and basing them on their favourite chocolate bars. Easy... only... I didn't know what their favourite chocolate bars were (yeah, I know we said they are our best mates but it's never come up in conversation, alright?!) Unfortunately "What is Doyle's favourite chocolate bar?" hadn't come up in the Mr & Mrs quiz we'd done for Jeni's hen party - what a goof!

So I decided I would go on Facebook and ask Jeni another Mr & Mrs question which was to name Doyle's favourite chocolate bar and just asked what her's was too. They probably worked out what I was up to but oh well!

Turns out Jeni and Doyle (much like most of Doyle's answers to the Mr & Mrs questions) were quite unusual - Jen's favourite is a Dark Chocolate Bounty and Doyle's is Galaxy Fruit & Nut  - two chocolate bars I never even knew existed before then!

So I had a look through my trusty Primrose Bakery Cupcakes book and adapted two recipes from there to make a Bounty Coconut Cupcake and a Galaxy Fruit & Nut Cupcake!

The rarity of both of these chocolate bars meant that neither of them were sold in the local Asda... and I really didn't have time to go on the hunt unfortunately. So I had to make a few adaptations to the planned recipe... For example, for Jen's I just bought ordinary Bounty then made sure the icing was dark chocolate, and for Doyle's I had to make do with Galaxy Hazelnut then put some sultanas in the cake mix!

I think the cupcakes turned out OK - I was happy with how they looked, shows that I should take the time to do things neatly more often. I made an extra of each cupcakes for Bailey to eat and he said they were nice but that not only was the icing too buttery, there was also too much icing. Oops, maybe I went a bit icing crazy after my trip to Sweet Tooth Cupcakery.

The wedding was an absolute success and I can safely say everyone had a ball. Not only was it one of the best weddings I've ever been to, it was one of the best parties I've ever been to full stop! So thanks and congratulations Doyles, wishing you the happiest of marriages!

Recipe

For the Bounty Coconut Cupcakes
55g butter
90g caster sugar
1 large egg
1/4 tsp almond extract
65g self raising flour
60g plain flour
60ml coconut milk
12g desiccated coconut

For the Galaxy Chocolate and Sultana Cupcakes
42g butter
85g soft dark brown sugar
1 large egg
60g dark chocolate
90g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Pinch salt
125ml semi-skimmed milk
50g sultanas
1 tsp plain flour

For the Chocolate Icing
175g dark chocolate
225g butter
1 tbsp semi-skimmed milk
250g icing sugar

To decorate
Desiccated coconut
Bounty Bars
Galaxy Hazelnut

I made the coconut cupcakes first. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl. Add the egg and beat well.

Sift the two types of flour into a separate mixing bowl. To the original mixing bowl, add a third of the flour and a third of the coconut milk and keep mixing. Repeat the previous steps until all the flour and coconut milk is mixed in.

Finally, add the desiccated coconut before setting up your cupcake tray with muffin cases.

Add around 2-3 teaspoons of the cake batter to the muffin cases until they are all two thirds full. Place in the oven and bake for around 25 minutes or until the cakes are golden and cooked through. Leave to cool

While the coconut cupcakes were baking, I made my batter for the Chocolate and Sultana cupcakes. Cream the butter and brown sugar together in a large mixing bowl. Separate the egg and put the white to one side but beat in the yolk. Melt the chocolate carefully in the micrwave and add to the mixing bowl. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a separate mixing bowl. Add one third of the flour and one third of the milk to the original mixing bowl and stir well. Repeat the previous steps until all the flour and milk is mixed in.

Mix the sultanas with the flour and shake around to make sure the sultanas are fully coated in flour. This is a little tip I heard somewhere that apparently stops the sultanas from sinking to the bottom of the cakes.

Whisk the egg white until soft peaks have formed. Fold into the cake batter using a metal spoon. Line a cupcake tray with muffin cases and fill them to two thirds full as with the coconut cupcakes.

Place in the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until cooked through.

Leave to cool completely. Meanwhile make the icing by melting the chocolate and mixing with the butter and milk in a large mixing bowl.

Gradually sift the icing sugar into the bowl until the icing is thick and smooth. Leave to cool before piping the icing onto the cakes.

Decorate the coconut cupcakes with chunks of Bounty and sprinkles of desiccated coconut. Decorate the chocolate cupcakes with chunks of Galaxy et voila!