'grown-up' chocolate cakes

I'm still in the process of going through my pantry and using up as much of the stuff I've got in the house as I can before I move. I had lots of chocolate around, the usual cakey ingredients as well as a bottle of whiskey I was never going to get around to drinking. Using my Dr Pepper cupcakes recipe as the starting point I came up with this rather grown up recipe. The whiskey flavour isn't particularly strong but it does add some complexity to the end product. You could replace the chocolate spread with the equivalent amount of melted chocolate or a dark jam such as cherry or blackcurrant, why not try out whatever you've got to hand.

Ingredients
100g unsalted butter
300ml whiskey
100g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
2 tbsp chocolate spread such as nutella
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g demerara sugar

12 dark chocolate lindor truffle balls or similar.
2 eggs

Ganache Topping
100g dark chocolate
100g butter
pinch of salt

Makes 12 cupcakes.

1. Start by add the sugar to the whiskey then heating the mixture of a medium heat until the sugar is dissolved, the alcohol has evaporated off and the mixture has reduced by about two thirds (around 200mls or so).
2. Preheat the oven to 180C fan oven. Put the paper cases in the muffin tray and fill a large oven proof dish with water and place in the bottom of the oven. The steam that is produced will help the cakes to rise and be lovely and light.
3. Put the butter and chocolate spread in the saucepan and allow it to melt in the residual heat. Stir through and add the vanilla extract.
4. Sieve together the dry ingredients to get rid of any lumps, then beat in the whiskey mixture followed by the eggs until thoroughly combined. 
5. Put a dollop of the mixture into each of the paper cases (about 1/4 cup if you have a measure). Place a chocolate ball in the centre of each case then put in the oven. Bake for around 20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
6. Allow to cool completely before decorating with frosting or ganache.

Making the ganache

1. Melt the butter and chocolate together in a heatproof bowl over gently simmering water. You can use it now as it is to give a thin covering to the cupcakes but I prefer to allow it to set in the fridge, returning to beat it every 10 minutes or so until it is a spreadable consistency. Once you've achieved this consistency you're ready to go.

rum balls / romkugler / rum truffles

Ever end up with just too much cake in the house? No, it doesn't happen to me often either! However, I've recently been on a bit of a cupcake making spree and had far too many around and the freezer was full. It seems wrong to me to throw anything away that still has use so I looked around to find something different to do with all this left over cake. This recipe is my version of a rum ball. Many countries have their own versions, mine is more influenced by the scandinavian approach and in particular the Danish romkugler. I know I ate these somewhere when I was younger but they just don't seem to be around anywhere at the moment. I do urge you to try this recipe. It's a proper blast from the past and delicious.

This recipe is intended to use up any regular chocolate cake, however I used my left over salted caramel chocolate cupcakes and some of the cherry filled version. As a consequence I didn't need any additional jam, just from blitzing the left over cupcakes I ended up with a fairly gloopy paste, especially after I added the rum. To thicken it up a little I added in a couple of handfuls of rolled oats and blitzed them up a bit too. This was inspired by the Swedish chokladboll. You may beed to adjust the quantities depending on the moistness of the cake you're using. The most important thing is that you achieve the right consistency.

 Ingredients 
around 800g left over cake bits
70g cocoa
3 - 4 tbsp jam (apricot or dark cherry work particularly well)
1/2 cup dark rum (or more to taste)

rolled oats if needed
150-180g dark chocolate vermicelli/desicated coconut/roasted, flaked almonds/chopped hazlenuts for coating

1. Put the cake and cocoa in the food processor and blitz until all the cake is pulzerised to fine crumbs.
2. Add the jam then pulse until thoroughly combined.
3. Pour in the rum and mix for 20 seconds or so.
4. At this stage, if the mix is too runny add in the oats and blitz. Don't get carried away by adding too much in one go. Add a little at a time and mix thoroughly after each addition until achieve a thick paste.
5. Remove the mix from the bowl and place in another container to firm up in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
6. Once the mixture has chilled and firmed up remove a spoonful at a time and roll in your chosen coating. Place in paper cases and serve.