Marbled Vanilla & Chocolate Cupcakes

A couple of birthdays crept up on me this week, of which I hadn't planned any baked goods for. I wasn't sure if the birthday girls were chocolate lovers or vanilla. My struggle with vanilla cake persists, but I refuse to give up so I decided to mask my vanilla cake shortcomings with a swirl of chocolate.

Following Easter holidays, I had quite a bit of chocolate lying around, including a giant Kinder Surprise and a solid milk chocolate Easter bunny. I decided to re-purpose a bit of both, becuase I'm clever like that. I melted the bunny down and added a bit of butter and icing sugar, which resulted in a delicious ganache-like frosting. However, within two minutes it had hardened back into a solid. Lucky for my cupcakes, I'm not that easily detered!

I put a dollop of rock hard chocolate frosting on each cupcake when they came out of the oven and let the cupcake melt the frosting into a glaze. Then I plopped a piece of broken Kinder Surprise on top. They look darling.

Marbled Cupcakes with Easter Bunny Glaze

3/4 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsps cocoa powder

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Put liners in muffin tin.

Cream softened butter with sugar until light and fully. Add eggs one at a time (it's best if they are room temperature) and beat until smooth. Add milk and vanilla a little at a time, until the batter is fully incorporated. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt - one third at a time. Do not over mix.

In a separate bowl, take a cup of the batter and mix with cocoa powder.

Drop a spoonful of vanilla batter into each tin and top with a bit of chocoalte. Use a toothpick or knife to swirl the two batters together.

Bake for 20 minutes. Top with chocolate glaze as soon as the cupcakes come out of the oven. Use a knife to spread the frosting evenly as it melts. Top with a chunk of kinder surprise, or other Easter treat.