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Food coloring paste, I'm using Grape Violet
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Gold chocolate button (or any candy coated chocolate)
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1 recipe Chocolate Ganache, recipe follows
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Special equipment: 1 (12-cup) cupcake pan or 3 (12-cup) mini-cupcake pans with appropriately sized paper baking cups
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Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
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For the cupcakes:
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Put all the ingredients for the cupcakes except the milk into a food processor and blitz furiously.
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Then pour in the milk, and process again until you have a smooth batter.
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Divide the mixture between either the big muffin pans or the 3 small pans.
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Cook the big cupcakes for about 15 to 20 minutes, and the small ones for about 10 minutes, although you might need to keep a closer eye on the little ones.
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Cool the cupcakes on a wire rack.
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For the icing:
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To ice the mini-cupcakes, mix the confectioners' sugar with a tablespoon or 2 of water from a recently boiled kettle or cold water (according to package instructions) for instant royal icing until you have a smooth, spreadable paste.
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In both cases add water slowly: you don't want this runny, and nothing is more irritating than having to start sifting more sugar.
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The merest, tiniest blob of food-coloring paste- in this case, as I said, Grape Violet - will be enough to bring a dizzy and rich-toned intensity to the proceedings; you can always add more coloring if you want, but again the important thing is to guard against having to do any more sifting.
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And if you have been too heavy-handed and landed yourself with a batch of unusable dark icing, then just make up some more plain white icing and add to tone down.
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Slice any peaking humps off the tops of the cakes with a sharp knife and then pour, from a dunked-in spoon, the icing over each cake until the tops are thickly and smoothly covered.
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Let stand for a couple of minutes until the icing has set a tiny bit and then dot a gold button or other decoration of your choice on top.
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Chocolate Ganache:
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Put both ingredients in a saucepan and, over low heat, cook until the chocolate's melted.
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Whisk together with handheld mixer or electric whisk (for ease and preference), watching the mixture become thick and glossy.
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Spoon and smooth over your waiting cupcakes.
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.
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Let stand for a couple of minutes until the icing has set a tiny bit and then decorate in whatever way you want.
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Yield: enough to ice 12 normal-sized cupcakes
