Once upon a time, before they were bouffant, cupcakes were unostentatious little iced cakes.
I remember them from childhood as home-made individual party cakes with white icing and a cherry on top, or as the Lyons cupcakes from the shops that came in chocolate, lemon and orange flavours.
Like the Lyons variety (which are still available, as far as I know) these chocolate prune cupcakes have a flat shiny top and a moist semi-dense sponge.
Unlike the shop-bought variety, they are vegan and have the added nutritional credentials of prunes, which always marry well with chocolate. You won’t taste prunes in the finished cake. The result is a deeply chocolatey cake which has a slightly chewy softness. I find 70% chocolate too intense for a cupcake, so I use one of the dairy-free dark chocolates with less than 50% cocoa solids for the topping.
They can be left plain and simple, or dressed up very easily with a few sprinkles to make party cakes.
Don’t overfill the cases as the cupcakes will double in height, and you need to leave room to fill up the cases with icing.
If you paint a layer of apricot jam on the top before icing and leave the tops unadorned, they take on a more sophisticated sachertorte style.
Vegan Chocolate Prune Cupcakes…
Ingredients
- 140 g soft (ready to eat) prunes
- 110 ml light olive oil
- 200 g light brown sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 200 g self-raising flour
- 50 g cocoa powder
Icing
- 350 g dark chocolate
- 1 tbsp golden syrup
- 140 ml soya or other plant milk
- 75 g icing (confectioner’s) sugar
Method
- Set the oven to 180°C/360°F.
- Line cupcake or muffin tins with paper cases. This recipe will make twenty medium sized cupcakes (like those shown).
- First, make the prune puree. Pour 150 ml boiling water over the prunes and leave to sit for at least a few minutes before transferring both prunes and water to a blender. Puree until there are no visible pieces of prune skin. Transfer the puree to a large bowl.
- Whisk the oil, vanilla and sugar into the puree.
- Sift the flour and cocoa into the mixture and stir until well combined. It should be dropping consistency. You can add a tablespoon or two of water if it feels too stiff to spoon evenly.
- Using two dessert spoons, transfer the mixture to the paper cases. Fill them a little less than half full and level the tops. (The mixture will double in size and retain any bumps as it rises, so low and flat is ideal!)
- Bake the cupcakes for 20-25 minutes. Leave to cool. If any of the tops are above the top of the case, you can always slice a little off to ensure an even iced top.
- While they are still cooling, make the icing. Heat the milk to boiling point. Remove from the heat. Break the chocolate into small pieces and drop gently into the hot milk. Leave for a few minutes and then stir until all the chocolate is melted. Stir in the syrup and then the sifted icing sugar to create a thick glossy ganache-style icing.
- Before the icing has started to set spoon it carefully over the cupcakes to create an even top.
- If you are adding decorations, do this before the icing has set completely.
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