chocolate

The Easter bunny has been and gone. For Easter I made chocolate muffins, I wanted them moist so I tweaked my carrot cake recipe. I replaced 2oz (50g) of the plain flour with 2oz (50g) of cocoa powder

INGREDIENTS 

1. 6floz (175ml) corn oil

2. 6oz (150g) caster sugar

3. 3 eggs

4. 1tsp vanilla essence

5. 8oz (200g) carrots

6. 4oz (100g) walnut pieces

7. 4oz (100g) plain flour

8. 2oz (50g) cocoa powder

9. 1tsp bicarbonate of soda

It's difficult to give exact amounts but this is the general idea and these sweet treats lend themselves to imaginative experimentation!

There is no cooking involved, just melting the chocolate, and most of the ingredients I found in the 99p Store (cake, Nuttella, branded chocolate, sprinklings, wooden skewers and even the cellophane bags!)

Before I started I prepared a stand, a chunk of polystyrene covered in foil, to put the finished chocolate coated pops in while they harden in the fridge.

In Poundland I found some silicone ice cube trays, in the shape of really cute animals. In the pack you get two sets of animals, I chose the ones with ducks, dogs, squirrels and rabbits. I looked at them and thought the moulds would be perfect for chocolate. I melted some chocolate, in the microwave, poured it into the moulds and left to set. Because the moulds are made from silicone it was easy to remove the shapes from the trays. The animals are just the right size to decorate a cupcake or you could use a few of them to decorate a cake.