Chocolate Nest Cupcakes

1. Preheat the oven to 170 C/325 F/Gas Mark 3. Line a 12-count cupcake/muffin tin with paper cupcake cases. Now the reason I have said cupcake cases there is because there is such a huge array of paper cases out there and they all come in different sizes. Muffin cases are a little bit too big and bun cases are just a little bit too small so if you can get cupcake ones they are perfect. I can’t give you a specific size because even within those 3 main categories they all seem to vary ever so slightly.

2. Break the eggs into a large mixing bowl and add the brown sugar. Using a handheld electric whisk/standalone electric mixer beat them for around about 5 minutes until the colour is paler and they have grown in size.

3. Add in the oil and the vanilla extract and beat for a further minute or so until the mixture has thickened up slightly.

4. Sift in the flour, cornflour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Add a pinch of salt and fold the lot through gently, so as not to knock out all of the lovely air you have added.

5. Finally add in the buttermilk or milk and again gently fold this through.

6. Divide the mixture evenly between the paper cases, approximately 2 tablespoons per case. Place in the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes. A clean skewer inserted into the middle of the cakes should come out clean when they are done. Remove from the oven and leave in the tin to cool slightly, about 5 minutes, before removing them from the tin and placing on a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the buttercream:

1. Put the icing sugar in a large bowl and add the butter and beat together using a handheld electric mixer/standalone mixer. I highly recommend covering the bowl and top of the mixer with a tea towel if it doesn’t have a shield as the icing sugar will go everywhere for the first couple of minutes. Once the mixture has come together and is smooth add in the milk and vanilla and then beat it for at least 5 minutes. It is very important to beat it for a good few minutes to give a nice light buttercream.

2. Remove half of the mixture and place in a separate bowl. To one half of the mixture add the cocoa powder and gently mix through. To the other half add the green food colouring drop by drop and gently mix through until you have a colour you are happy with. The type of colouring you use will determine how much you need. I used gel colourant and needed 3 drops.

3. Insert the nozzle of your choice into a piping bag. I used a very wide star-shaped one. Fill the bag with the chocolate buttercream. Starting at the centre of each cupcake pipe a spiral shape (see photo). Leave a gap of at least 1cm around the edge. Now pipe one circle on top of the edge of the spiral to form the sides of the nest, leaving a hollow in the centre for the eggs to sit. Repeat until all 12 cupcakes are done. And don’t worry if they aren’t perfect. They look more nest-like if they are a bit wonky.

4. Insert the nozzle of your choice into another piping bag. I thought I had a nozzle for grass but I didn’t so instead I used a flower shaped nozzle. Pipe grass/flowers around the edge of the nest using the green frosting.

5. Pop 2 or 3 mini eggs into each nest and press them down slightly to secure them.

6. Alternately, if you do not have any piping nozzles you could just make all of the icing chocolate buttercream, spoon it onto each cupcake and create a little hollow in each for the eggs to sit.