These look very complicated to make but actually are very, very easy. It’s a basic fairy cake, rolled in hazelnuts and then topped with a wonderful, velvety frosting which goes so well with the sweet strawberry.
Super simple but incredibly eye catching and tasty sweet canapes
You’ll need
For the cakes
- 175g caster sugar
- 125g soft unsalted butter
- 2 eggs
- 3 tbsp milk
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder
- 175g self raising flour
For the frosting and decoration
- 90g dark chocolate (min 70% cocoa solids)
- 125g soft unsalted butter
- 125g icing sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 150g chopped hazelnuts
- 24 small to medium sized strawberries
You will also need two muffin trays and a piping bag fitted with a star shaped nozzle.
To make them
- Preheat the oven to 180C and grease the muffin trays.
- To make the cakes bases, cream the butter and sugar together until it’s soft and fluffy. This take a good 10 minutes in my KitchenAid on setting 3.
- Beat the eggs and then add them to the creamed mixture a large spoonful at a time. Don’t rush this because the mixture will curdle.
- Mix the flour and cocoa powder together and then sift a third over the creamed mixture.
- Pour over 1 tbp milk and then fold it in.
- Repeat two more times til the flour is used up.
- Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases. Put in half of what you normally would to fill the muffin hole as these will need to be half the size of a standard cupcake.
- Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown.
- Cool slightly in the tins and then turn them out to cool completely on a wire rack.
- To make the frosting, beat the butter and icing sugar together until light and fluffy. I do this in the KitchenAid and it takes about 8 minutes on timer.
- Melt the chocolate in a microwave and then leave to cool slightly and then pour it into the icing sugar mixture with the vanilla and beat it all again until it’s smooth.
- To assemble the canapés, ice the edges of each cupcake and then roll it in the chopped hazelnut to cover them evenly. I do them one by one because the frosting does set and then the nuts don’t stick very well.
- Take the rest of the frosting and spoon it into the piping bag and then pipe a blob on top of each cake.
- Finally plop a strawberry on top and line them up on a serving tray (not forgetting to scoff a few before you send them out to your guests).
Perfectly bite sized Strawberry Canapes