Sis, I saved you from piling on the pounds...

Birthdays are meant for indulgence, aren't they? Even when it is not yours :)  Made these for  my sister on her birthday but since she's too far away, I had to do the eating for her as well.     

This is really chocolate overload, five to be exact, starting with it being a chocolate cupcake, followed by Andes chocolate baking chips sandwiched into the cake then topped with chocolate rice, M&M baking chips and a whole piece of Andes chocolate.  I feel the pounds even while writing this down! Guilty, but it was down right heavenly if you are a chocolate lover.  Sis, I did you a big favour by piling on the pounds to myself!!

The chips that she sent (which was meant for making some Christmas treats) came at the right time when I was still craving for the Andes chocolate cupcake that I saw at Amelia's just about a week ago.  There was no excuse not to try baking one for myself...oops for my sister, I meant :))

For the cupcake, I followed Amelia's recipe (almost to a T) except that I omitted the peppermint essence and 3 tbsp of Baileys.  The texture looks a bit heavy (unlike Amelia's) but wasn't really so when eaten.  Hmm, I wonder why, lack of moisture perhaps?   It was soft though.

As for the frosting, it was cream cheese as I wanted a contrasting color to make the little extra treats stand out.

Overall, this cupcake coupled with the frosting is just pure indulgence! The piece of Andes and M&Ms chips really topped it all!

Recipe

Cupcake
Source : Amelia's De-ssert

Note : The below is half of the original recipe which yields 6 cupcakes 
Ingredients

• 75g butter
• 100g sugar (originally 110g)
• 1 1/2 eggs
• 113g self raising flour
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 25g cocoa powder
• 125ml warm milk
• Andes mint baking chips

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 185C.
2. Sift flour and bicarbonate of soda twice.
3. Sift cocoa powder and mix with warm milk until well blended.
4. Cream butter and sugar until creamy.  
5. Add in egg and make sure well mix. Do not overbeat.
6. Add in flour and cocoa mixture alternately.  Mix well for every addition.
7. Fill cupcake liners half full.   Add mint baking chips and top with more batter until 3/4 full.
8. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes.

Frosting
Source : Your Cup of Cake
Note : The below is a quarter of the original recipe with some variations

Ingredients

• 60g cream cheese
• 22g butter
• 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 1/4 tsp milk or cream

Steps

1. Beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy.
2. Add sugar and cream, beat well.
3. Pipe cream onto cooled cake and decorate as preferred.