An Archived Recipe of the Month from Jane Asher

Exclusively for you Jane Asher has created a unique and tasty recipe which can be made from one of her wonderful baking mixes. Previous recipes are available here - archived recipes

Deliciously Wicked Dark Chocolate Muffins

You will need:

Ingredients for the Muffins
1 Jane Asher Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix
Muffin tin or baking tray
Muffin cases approximately 16
2 medium eggs
50ml (2 fl oz) oil
180ml (6 fl oz) water

For the Filling
1 can of mandarin segments in juice, drained
(Approx 200g drained weight).

Green food colouring

For the Icing
150g icing sugar
Yellow food colouring
Red food colouring
40g dark chocolate drops or small bar of dark chocolate
4-5 teaspoons of water

METHOD:

Please note that cooking appliances may vary. These instructions are given only as a guide.

Preheat oven to 180 ºC (160ºC fan assisted ovens) / 350 ºF/ Gas Mark 4.

1. Drain the mandarin segments and place in a bowl. Crush them using the back of a spoon.
2. Add drops of green food colouring until you reach the desired colour. Stir well and ensure all mandarins are covered. Leave to stand for the colour to soak into the mandarins.
   NOTE- If you don’t want to use green food colour then just crush the mandarins and leave as they are.
3. Place the muffin cases in a muffin tin or on a baking tray.
4. Empty the cake sachet contents into a mixing bowl and add 2 medium eggs, 180ml water and 50ml oil.
5. Whisk on slow speed for 30 seconds and continue on maximum speed for 2 minutes.
6. Fill the muffin cases half full with the mixture.
7. Place 1 teaspoon of the mandarins on top of the mixture for each muffin. Try not to add too much liquid along with the mandarins.
8. Place in the pre-heated oven for 25 to 30 minutes until cooked and springs back when touched lightly.
9. Leave to cool on a cooling rack.

NOTE- The chocolate frosting and chocolate filling that comes with the cake mix will not be needed for this recipe but you can always use them for something else. The chocolate drops sachet will be used but additional chocolate drops are needed to ice all 16 muffins.

For the Icing:

1. Weigh 150g icing sugar into a bowl and slowly add 4-5 teaspoons water until thick. Don’t make it too thin because it will be too runny to ice the muffins once the food colouring is added.
2. Slowly add a drop of yellow food colour and stir well. Add a drop of red food colour until you have an orange colour. Add more of the colours until you reach the desired colour.
   NOTE- To make orange, more yellow is needed than red. Adding too much red will turn the icing dark pink.
3. Spread the icing over the muffins and leave to set.

For the Spider Decoration:

1. Empty the sachet of dark chocolate drops into a microwaveable bowl and weigh in another 40g dark chocolate drops or broken dark chocolate bar.
2. Microwave for 40 to 60 seconds until completely melted.
3. Either empty the melted chocolate into an icing bag with a small round nozzle or empty into a strong sandwich bag and snip a small hole in one corner.
4. Carefully ice 3 concentric circles on top of the muffins. Starting from the centre and moving outwards.
5. Then using a cocktail stick, skewer or small sharp knife, starting from the centre circle, carefully drag the stick through all three circles to make a spider’s web design. Repeat this 4 or 5 times moving around the muffin.
6. Leave to set.