Gloverly Cupcakes

Several years ago (probably over 20!) I got a Cadbury’s Crunchie bar at a birthday party I went to. I decided I didn’t want to eat it so I gave it to my grandpa. However, he forgot to take it home with him so I held onto it until the next time I saw him. For a while afterwards he called me “Crunchie” and I would always get a Crunchie at Christmas or a Crunchie Easter egg at Easter. So when it came to trying to decide what to make him for his birthday this year I decided to make Crunchie cupcakes.

Fancy an inside-out Crunchie in cupcake form?

My grandparents get to see all the photos of my cakes but have only ever tried my plain vanilla ones, so for Pop-pa’s birthday I decided to make up some Crunchie ones. Rather than buying some Crunchie bars, I made a batch of my own honeycomb (recipe below). The recipe assured me that it was “one of the simplest and most fun confections to make at home”. And I think I would agree – provided you have a sugar thermometer it’s pretty straight forward. I broke half of it into chunks and coated it in milk chocolate to put on top of the cupcakes. I then put the other half into my blender and turned it into honeycomb dust to stir into the cake mixture and buttercream to try to give it a “honeycomb” flavour.

I wanted the cupcakes to be an inside-out version of a Crunchie: honeycomb flavoured cupcake and buttercream, with a surprise chocolate filling. Sadly I didn’t get any photos of the middle of them – and I forgot to take my camera with me so I had to make do with photos from my phone – but they worked out as I had hoped they would.

Crunchie Cupcakes (a Gloverly Cupcake creation)

Makes 18

100g honeycomb dust (I weighed out 100g of honeycomb and then ground it to a fine dust in a blender. You have to grind it when you need it and not too long before otherwise it will just turn to a sticky mess!)

180g caster sugar

240g plain flour

80g slightly salted butter

1 tbsp baking powder

250ml milk

2 large eggs

For the milk chocolate ganache:

135g milk chocolate, broken into pieces

100 ml double cream

For the honeycomb buttercream:

450g icing sugar

100g honeycomb dust (see comment above about how to make it)

160g butter

50 ml milk

Preheat the oven to gas mark 5 and line 2 muffin trays with 18 cases.

In a stand mixer, beat together the sugar, powdered honeycomb, plain flour, butter and baking powder (or rub together with your hands) until it looks like sand. Whisk together the milk and eggs and then slowly add to the dry ingredients while constantly beating. Make sure you scrap down the sides of the bowl occasionally to ensure it’s evenly mixed.

Once it’s all combined, beat for a minute until it is smooth. Divide evenly between the 18 cases and then bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes – check them after 15 minutes and turn the trays around.

Once cooked, take them out of the trays and leave to cool on a wire rack.

While the cakes are cooling, make the chocolate ganache by placing the pieces of milk chocolate into a bowl. Heat up the milk until it just reaches boiling point and then pour over the chocolate. Leave for about 5 minutes and then whisk to create a smooth ganache. Leave to cool.

Make the buttercream by placing the icing sugar, honeycomb and butter into the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on a slow speed (and cover with a tea towel to prevent covering your kitchen in icing sugar!) until it resembles sand. Slowly add the milk until it comes together and then beat on high for several minutes to make it lighter. Taste it to see if the honeycomb flavour is strong enough – if not, add some more ground honeycomb.

To assemble the cakes, once they are cool, using a knife or a cupcakes corer (I got one from Father Christmas this year and it saved me so much time!) cut out core from each cupcake. Place 2 teaspoons of the cooled chocolate ganache into the whole and then place the core back on top. Pace the honeycomb buttercream into a piping bag with a star nozzle attached and pipe a swirl of buttercream on top. Finally, top with a piece of chocolate coated honecomb.

Cinder Toffee/Honeycomb (from Couture Chocolate by Willam Curley)

Makes 20-25 large chunks

50 ml water

190g caster sugar

50g soft light brown sugar

150g liquid glucose

50g honey

10g bicarbonate of sofa (sifted)

500g tempered (if you can be bothered… I couldn’t!) to coat – if you’re using it to make the recipe above then you won’t need as much chocolate since you don’t need to coat the whole lot

Line a 20cm square tin with silicon baking paper – don’t use ordinary greaseproof as it will just stick and you won’t be able to get it off (I used a silicon baking sheet). The tin needs to be at least 6cm deep – mine was about 5cm but I lined it so that the baking sheet went higher than the edges of the tin.

In a large pan (this also needs to be deep), mix together the water, sugar, brown sugar, glucose and honey. Gently heat until dissolved and then bring to the boil and continue heating until it reaches 144-146 C (291-295 F). Immediately take the pan off the heat and add the bicarb while stirring at the same time. The mixture will start to rise to the top of the pan, at which point, pour it into the prepared tin and leave to cool in a cool dry area.

Once it’s cool and hard, carefully break into chunks and dip into melted chocolate. You need to make sure that it’s fully coated – any uncovered areas will become sticky and soft.

Store in an airtight container for up to a month.