Cardamon Chocolate Cupcakes with Ganache and Cashew Praline.

You will need:-

115g of Caster Sugar

115g of Self-Raising Flour

115g of Butter

30g of Cocoa Powder

1/2 tsp of cardamon

2 eggs

125g of Dark Chocolate (70-80%)

120ml of Double Cream

20g of Cashews

2tbsp of Caster Sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C. Cream together the caster sugar and butter together in a large bowl. Once completely combined, roughly mix in the flour, cardamon and cocoa powder. Then add the eggs and beat the mixture to ensure plenty of air gets into the mixture. Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases and bake in the oven for 20-25min, or until a cocktail stick comes out clean from the cake.

Once baked, remove the cakes from the tray and leave to cool completely. Whilst the cakes are cooling, make the ganache icing and praline. First, weigh out the cashews and prepare a piece of greaseproof paper to place the praline on to cool. Take a heavy-bottom pan and heat it on a medium heat. Heat the sugar with a teaspoon of water, with no stirring, until it turns a light caramel colour (be very careful, the sugar gets incredibly hot during this process). Once you have reached the right colour in the sugar mixture, quickly pour the cashews in to the molten sugar, stir with a spatula until evenly coated and then pour onto the the greaseproof paper. Leave this on the paper until cooled completely, then blend into a fine powder in a blender.

Next prepare the ganache, gently heat the double cream on a low heat until warm, make sure not to boil the cream. When warm, remove the pan from the heat and pour up the broken up chocolate into the cream and stir until the chocolate is completely melted. Leave this to cool until it becomes a little thicker. Then, use a teaspoon to apply a generous amount to the cupcakes, then sprinkle on the cashew praline.

Tip: These cupcakes are the perfect portion size, so simply warm slightly until the ganache melts slightly and serve with cream or ice cream for a perfect pudding!

Enjoy! x