Night-and-Day Cupcakes

Name: Night-and-Day Cupcakes
Yield: Makes 12
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons boiling water; 75 g golden caster sugar; 2 scant tablespoons cocoa powder; 2 large eggs; 125 g very soft unsalted butter; 50 g dark muscovado sugar; 125 g self-raising flour; juice of ½ a lime (or 1 tablespoon lemon juice); juice of ½ a lime (or 1 tablespoon lemon juice); 12 chocolate-coated coffee beans or dark chocolate; 12 chocolate-coated coffee beans or dark chocolate; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 1 tablespoon milk; 200 g icing sugar, sieved; 100 g cream cheese

Preparation info

Makes
12

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

How to be a Domestic Goddess

By Nigella Lawson

Published 1998

About

This, like the cream-cheese brownies, uses my favourite combination of densely sweet and smoothly sharp. I love the way chocolate-coated coffee beans look like buttons or studs on top of the creamy whiteness of the icing, but use dark chocolate coarsely shaved through a grater if you prefer.

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

2 scant tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons boiling water
75

Dessert
Lunch
Vegetarian
Cake

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6. Mix the cocoa to a paste with the boiling water and set aside while you make the cupcake mixture.

This couldn’t be easier: just put the sugars, flour, eggs and butter in the processor and blitz to combine smoothly. Scrape the mixture from t