Chocolate Forest and Peppermint Patty Cupcakes

Here are the cupcakes I promised i'd make after eating those nice looking but bland tasting ones I bought last week.

I gave it my best shot but did have problems along the way. You see i'm not the best at cooking cupcakes (i know it's tragic isn't it) and i'm even worse at making and icing them swirly style, but i'm here to learn.

Chocolate Forest/Chocolate Fountain

I wanted to try those fountain things and they were heaps of fun to make. Melt some chocolate and make designs on greaseproof paper and leave to set.

The cupcake wasn't particularly amazing that's why i'm not posting the recipe. It was nice but not nice enough. The icing was normal choc buttercream but I put some melted dark chocolate in it which made it taste quite nice.

Peppermint Patty/After Dinner Cupcake

Topped with an After Dinner Mint

Mmmm, doesn't that icing look sooo nice (joking!) I don't like peppermint essence much so I tried a buttercream with some After Dinner Mints but I think the combo of the mints and too much milk made the icing look like this. It didn't taste bad but didn't look too good either. Actually, it reminded me of peppermint choc chip ice-cream! The photo doesn't capture the green colour but the colour was really cool. I used Wilton's leaf green gel colouring.

Melting Moment. You know summer is almost upon you when chocolate starts to melt at 6 o'clock at night.

I made this for my husband. I put a marshmellow on the cupcake and piped the icing around it and stuck heaps of those fountains on it.

What I've learnt:

*That i need to get my hands on a nice chocolate cupcake recipe that's made from scratch and is super moist and doesn't contain Bicarb Soda (had a bad experience with it once and avoid using it) I'm fine with baking powder.

*I'm not a fan of great globs of icing

*Practice Practice Practice