Chocolate Muffins

I found the perfect pastime for this grey and rainy (even snowy...) Easter weekend: I added a recipe index to my blog! I have now successfully sorted, listed and linked all my sweet recipes. Check out the new buttons just below my blog-header! And, since today the sun is shining, I finally get to go out for a walk! So I'll add the list of savory recipes later this week. I also intend to add a new "about" section and a list of useful links... But, one thing at a time. For now, I give you the recipe for these chocolate muffins I made for my family. And you can also see the result of Friday's egg-coloring session. Aren't they beautiful?! Almost too pretty to eat.

Recipe
(from: Trish Deseine - I love Cake)

225g soft butter
225g sugar
4 eggs
225g flour
4 teaspoons cocoa powder, dissolved in 4 teaspoons hot water
1.5 teaspoons baking powder

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a muffin tray with paper cases.

With an electric hand mixer, mix all the ingredients for the dough in a large bowl until well combined. Fill the muffin cases with the dough. Now, here comes the thing: the recipe is actually intended for about 20 cupcakes... However, I somehow ended up with 12 muffins because they rose much more than I expected... If you intend to bake cupcakes and decorate them with chocolate glaze, don't overfill the cases! Trish writes in her book that you should fill about two thirds of the paper cases, I'd say, you could even fill them with a little less dough. As you can see, I overfilled them a bit, so I skipped the whole glaze and just left those cupcakes as they are and called them muffins ;-) I am going to give you the recipe for the glaze anyway, so you can choose what you like best. I just dusted them with icing sugar and cocoa powder.

ingredients for the glaze:
200g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
100g butter
4 teaspoons water

Melt chocolate and butter either in a small saucepan or over a hot water bath. Stir well so that you have a smooth mixture. Let rest for a few minutes until it is a little thicker. Spread on your cupcakes.