Nigella Lawson Christmas Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground mixed spice
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/2 cup soft unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, plus
• 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 3 tablespoons sour cream
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, broken into pieces
• 1 teaspoon instant coffee
• 9 ounces instant royal icing (1 cup plus 2 tablespoons)

• 1 (12 ounce) package ready-to-roll green fondant
• 30 cranberries, for decoration (about)

Directions

1. 1

   Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper baking cups.

2. 2

   In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and soda, the mixed spice and salt.

3. 3

   In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Beat in one-third of flour mixture followed by a tablespoon of the sour cream, repeating till all is used up.

4. 4

   Put water, chocolate, and instant coffee in a pan and heat gently, just until the chocolate is melted. Fold this into the batter, but don't overbeat. The mixture will be very thin; "so don't worry about that," advises Nigella.

5. 5

   Pour batter carefully into waiting muffin cups and put in oven for about 20 minutes. The cakes should be cooked through but still dense and damp. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes then lift out carefully onto a wire rack. Let cool completely.

6. 6

   To ice them, make up the royal icing according to the package instructions and cover the tops of the cupcakes thickly. Cut out holly leaves from the green fondant using a small holly-leaf cutter with veining stamp . Arrange 2 leaves on each cake, then then press on the cranberries, 2 or 3 to a cake, to represent the holly berries.