Full question
I would like to make the Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes without the jam - they are so delicious, they hardly seem to need it. I wondered if I can just leave it out or whether I would have to replace/increase one of the ingredients to make up for the lack of jam? Thank you.
Our answer
Nigella's Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes (from HOW TO BE A DOMESTIC GODDESS) are moist chocolate sponge cakes studded with pieces of cherries that come from the jam. Unfortunately we would not recommend removing the jam from the recipe as it makes up quite a large proportion of the ingredients and the cupcakes would be dry and flavourless without it. It is also difficult to recommend switching in alternatives such as extra sugar and another liquid without testing various forms of the recipe first.
If you would like to make just chocolate cupcakes then you may like to try Nigella's Red Velvet Cupcakes as an alternative, omitting the red food colouring. Otherwise you could bake the Devil's Food Cake in cupcake form. The full recipe should make about 24 cupcakes and a half quantity about 12 cupcakes. The baking time at 180c/160c fan/350F will be about 18-20 minutes for cupcakes, or until a cake tester inserted into the centre of one of the cupcakes comes out clean (test a cupcake in the centre of the pan). They could then be iced with the chocolate ganache icing from the Chocolate Cherry Cupcake recipe.
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