Delicious hot chocolate cupcakes with a hot chocolate sponge, marshmallow frosting and more – my favourite hot drink in cupcake form!
If you have followed me for a while you will know how obsessed I am with hot chocolates. They are cosy, and heavenly, and because its the winter festive season I thought they were the perfect cupcake to celebrate with.
Hot chocolates
Honestly, I started going to cafes purely for hot chocolates as one point because I was just obsessed. I adore them. It’s being cosy in a drink, and I just adore it! I was a regular at a few coffee shops and they learnt my hot chocolate order very quickly.
I adore all sorts of hot chocolate whether they’re plain, mint, orange, hazelnut, gingerbread and so on. I just can’t get enough. My favourite one to make at home is anything whittard because they’re so so delicious.
I generally find baking with hot chocolate fine, but as long as it’s a good quality one. I tend to stay away from cadburys as the flavour doesn’t translate in the same way – but whittard, green and blacks, etc all work wonderfully.
Cupcakes
For the cupcakes I followed the same idea as my normal chocolate cupcakes because it really is a simple switch. I say to use good quality hot chocolates or even high cocoa content ones because of the flavour and sweetness. A lot of hot chocolates have a tonne of sugar added in, and this can become too sweet.
I use a simple chocolate mixture of butter, sugar, self raising flour, the hot chocolate powder and eggs. It’s super simple, but effective. It means that kids tend to absolutely adore them as well, so in the colder months it’s something delicious for them as well.
I am the person that would drink a hot chocolate in the middle of summer though, so of course these beauties can be made whenever.
Marshmallow
This marshmallow frosting has become insanely popular. I can’t actually keep up?! I posted it first on my s’mores cookie recipe not so long ago and the amount of people who have made it now is mental! I wouldn’t necessarily call it a marshmallow fluff as its a meringue based frosting, but it tastes marshmallowy and delicious.
I know it may read slightly terrifying, but it’s so easy to make. You want to make sure your egg whites have no egg yolk in, and you’re mixing the meringue in a super clean bowl with a super clean whisk. You can leave the mixer running whilst you make the sugar syrup, but if you don’t have a stand mixer, you can start to make the meringue towards the end of your sugar syrup boiling to temperature.
I use a thermometer to make sure that my sugar syrup has got to the correct temp, and it’s so easy. Because the syrup boils to 113ºc you don’t have to worry about the egg whites being raw. Whisking in the sugar syrup slowly cooks the egg whites to safe temperature.
Decoration
I used my favourite piping tip as always to pip my frosting onto my cupcakes because it’s heavenly and just looks beautiful. I did carried away as I always do, but sprinkling on some extra micro mini marshmallows, a little dusting of hot chocolate powder and a small flake each finished them off perfectly.
I wanted the decoration of the cupcakes to represent the look of a beautiful hot chocolate, and it worked wonderfully! Of course, if you wanted to be a bit more classic to the idea of hot chocolate, you can use whipped cream to decorate the cupcakes instead. I would whip up 450ml of double cream with 2tbsp of icing sugar to soft peaks and pipe that onto the cupcakes instead.
Tips & Tricks
These cupcakes will last for 3 days, but can freeze for 3+ months
The marshmallow is best used fresh, but can be kept for 2-3 days in the fridge and re-whipped before use.
In this recipe I used
Hot Chocolate Cupcakes!
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Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 175 g unsalted butter (room temp)
- 175 g light brown soft sugar
- 135 g self raising flour
- 40 g hot chocolate powder
- 3 medium eggs
Marshmallow Buttercream Frosting
- 3 medium egg whites
- 100 g caster sugar (for meringue)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 100 g caster sugar (for syrup)
- 65 ml water
Decoration
- mini marshmallows
- flakes
- hot chocolate powder
Instructions
Cupcakes
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Preheat your oven to 180ºc/160ºcfan and line a muffin tray with 12 cases
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Add the butter and sugar to a bowl and beat together until creamy
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Add in the self-raising flour, hot chocolate powder and eggs and beat until smooth
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Split between the cases and bake in the oven for 19-21 minutes until cooked through
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Leave to cool on the side.
Marshmallow Frosting
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Add the egg whites to a large bowl and start to whisk to stiff peaks
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Add the 100g of caster sugar, 1 tsp at a time, whilst whisking.
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Once all the sugar is in, whisk in the vanilla and leave the meringue to whisk on a slow speed just to keep it moving and stop it from sitting.
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Whilst this is whisking, add the other 100g of caster sugar to a pan with the water. Heat this on a low heat to dissolve the sugar.
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Once the sugar is dissolved, turn up the heat and boil the mixture to 113ºc.
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Once heated, turn the whisk up high again and trickle the syrup into the meringue to make the marshmallow. Once all the syrup is in, whisk for a further 5 minutes.
Decoration
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Pipe your marshmallow frosting onto the cupcakes however you fancy (I used a 2d closed star piping tip!)
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Decorate with mini marshmallows, a flake, and a dusting of hot chocolate powder
Notes
- These cupcakes will last for 3 days, but can freeze for 3+ months
- The marshmallow is best used fresh, but can be kept for 2-3 days in the fridge and re-whipped before use.
- In this recipe I used
- This thermometer
- This piping tip
- These piping bags
- This cookie scoop is perfect to help portion the mixture between the cases evenly.
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