Recipe: Christmas Pudding Cupcakes

Christmas puddings are a traditional part of Christmas. Some of you may love them, some of you may hate them. I for one love them after having spent my entire childhood hating them. And with it being the season of eating copious amount of pudding, I thought it only right to try and put a cupcake twist on the traditional Christmas pud. These cupcakes can be made two ways, one is a chocolate sponge like I've made or you can do a spiced fruit sponge to give it a more authentic taste. I went with chocolate purely as it made them look more like Christmas puds and they were more likely to be eaten by my work colleagues if they didn't contain fruit.

Ingredients 
100g Caster Sugar
100g Self Raising Flour
100g Stork, softened
2 Eggs
30g Cocoa Powder
50g Ready To Roll Fondant Icing
12 Miniature Holly Leaf Sugar Decorations
A Dab Of Nutella

Method
1- Pre heat oven to 180C. Line a twelve hold cupcake tin with paper cases.
2- In a bowl, cream together the sugar and the stork until it's pale in colour and fluffy in texture. An electric mixer is the best for this as it's quicker and gives it a creamier finish which leads to a lighter cake.
3- Break one egg in at a time followed by a spoonful of flour. Combine with the butter and sugar mix, taking care to scrape round the sides of the bowl so everything gets fully incoporated.
4- Once you've mixed in both eggs, gently fold in the rest of your flour. Take your time doing this as you don't want to knock out any of the air you've just built up.
5- Add in the cocoa powder and fold again, taking care to scrap everything off the sides of the bowl.
6- Spoon into your paper cases and bake for 20-22 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
7- Once cooked, leave to cool in the tin for five minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
8- When the cupcakes are completely cool take your ready to roll fondant icing and cut a block off. I just estimated how much I thought I'd need from a 500g block. Knead it a little to soften it up then roll out on a lightly floured surface until you have your desired thickness. 
9- Then using a sized cutter you want, cut out twelve identical shapes and place to one side. Grab your now cooled cupcakes and smear a little nutella over the area where you want your fondant icing to go.
10- Gently place your fondant shapes onto your nutella topped cakes, using your fingers to gently press it into place. Be careful not to tug at the fondant too much as you'll end up losing any definition your edges may have.
11- Once you have your white topped cupcakes, dab a little nutella onto the your holly leaf decorations and place gently into the centre of each cupcake. Press down lightly to keep it in place.
12- Once you've successfully decorated all twelve cupcakes, place to one side to let everything set slightly. Then all that's left to do is enjoy them, preferrably with a cuppa.