Happy Birthday to my dear friend Miss T who turns 25 today. To celebrate, I’ve made her these DELICIOUS chocolate cupcakes, the recipe for which you can find below. I know they’re delicious, because I may have eaten 1 or 2 that didn’t fit in the box..

3/4 cup (180g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups (440g) brown sugar
4 eggs
120g dark chocolate, 70% cocoa, broken into small pieces
320ml milk
2 1/4 cups (280g) self-raising flour
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
pinch of salt

FOR ICING
1 cup (240g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 1/2 cups (440g) icing sugar
1/2 cup (60g) cocoa powder
4 tbsp milk

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line 2 muffin trays with 24 liners.
2. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with electric beaters until pale and fluffy. Add eggs and beat well.
3. Combine chocolate and milk in a microwave safe bowl, and microwave for 1 minute. Remove and stir. Repeat process until chocolate is completely melted.
4. Pour chocolate mixture into butter mixture and mix well. Sift in flour, cocoa powder and salt and using a spatula, mix until combined.
5. Fill paper cases 3/4 full with cake mix, and place in a moderate oven for 20 minutes until cooked through. Allow to cool before icing.
6. FOR ICING: Using electric beaters, mix together ingredients, adding icing sugar a little at a time. Ice cupcakes using a star-tip nozzle. Hint: if you’re having trouble squeezing the icing out, before transferring mix to an icing bag, microwave for 20 seconds to soften.

Makes 24