All I Need

Last night, I had to prepare all three bedrooms for the new carpet to be installed today, and I knew that I would need some sustenance to get me through the evening. So, I decided to make Nigella Lawson's Honey Bee Cake into cupcakes.

The ingredients for the cake include semisweet chocolate chips, butter, cocoa powder, brown sugar, flour, baking soda, salt (not pictured), honey, and an egg. I cut the recipe in half and ended up with eleven cupcakes.

I made a few changes because I was in a hurry to get these in the oven. I used melted butter instead of softened butter and used the heat from the butter to melt the chocolate chips:

Then I added the brown sugar:

Some honey:



And an egg:



I mixed all of that well and then added the flour:

Baking soda:

And salt:

Then the cocoa powder:

I stirred that together and then poured boiling water over everything:

Once all of the ingredients were combined, I filled my muffin tin and ended up with eleven cupcakes:

These baked for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees. After I took them out, I put the cupcakes on a cooling rack while I made the glaze.

The glaze consists of water and honey, which I heated in a saucepan:

Then I added chocolate chips to the hot mixture and stirred until they melted:

Last, I added the powdered sugar and whisked it until the mixture was smooth:

When the cupcakes were cool, I spooned the glaze over each one, letting it run down the sides:

The end result:

These are very good--I'm not usually a big fan of cake, but I love these. The texture is light and airy and the honey in both the cake and the glaze adds a nice spiciness to the flavor. The glaze stays a little sticky, as you might imagine, but you can store these in an airtight container for several days. I don't bother with the marzipan bees that Nigella suggests for decoration--I just want to eat the cupcakes!

Next up: the new carpet!