Chocolate Cupcakes

This recipe makes about 20 cupcakes or you can make a cake in an 8 inch square tin, in which case the baking time increases to 35 minutes.

Ingredients:
1¼ cups plain flour
⅓ cup cocoa
1½ tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 cup plus 1 tbsp caster sugar
½ cup unsalted butter (or margarine), softened
1 large egg
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp white vinegar

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C (160C fan-forced). Line muffin tins with paper cupcake cases. You need about 20. Sift flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt together into a bowl. In a second mixing bowl cream the butter and sugar together, then whisk in the egg, milk and vanilla, but not the vinegar. Still stirring with the whisk, mix in the flour mixture, a few spoonfuls at a time, until smooth. Then stir in the vinegar. Place spoonfuls of the mixture into the cupcake cases, filling them about ⅔rds full. Bake for about 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.

Butter Cream Icing:

Mix together 4 oz (115g) softened butter, 2 tbsp milk, 2 cups sifted icing sugar and 1 tablespoon sifted cocoa. Add more sugar if it is too sloppy, or more milk if too stiff. Pipe onto the tops of the cooled cakes.