In Japan, Bento is a single-portion meal, which perfectly describes this cupcake – too good to share! A chocolatey cake studded with chunks of milk chocolate and containing a melting caramel at its heart, then decorated with unctuous white chocolate cream cheese frosting. We think this sweet meal-in-one is totally worth it!
muffin pan lined with 12 muffin cases
Makes 12
Preheat the oven to 180˚C/350˚F/ Gas 4.
Sift together the flour, cocoa powder and salt in a bowl.
Put the melted butter, sugar, vanilla and beaten eggs in a mixing bowl and beat with an electric hand mixer until well mixed.
Mix in the sifted dry ingredients and chopped chocolate.
Divide just half the mixture between the muffin cases. Put a caramel-filled chocolate in each cupcake on top of the mixture, then divide the remaining mixture between the cases.
Bake in the preheated oven for 25–30 minutes or until well risen. Remove from the oven and let cool completely on a wire rack before decorating.
While the cupcakes are cooling down, make the white chocolate cream cheese frosting.
Put the cream in a saucepan over medium heat and heat until just starting to bubble around the edges.
Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate has melted and you have a glossy ganache. Let cool to room temperature.
When the ganache is at room temperature, put the butter in a mixing bowl. Beat with an electric hand mixer until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and cream cheese and beat for 2–3 minutes. Beat in the white chocolate ganache. Refrigerate for 1 hour, or until firm enough to pipe.
Spread the frosting over the cold cupcakes using a spatula, or spoon the frosting into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle/tip and pipe it on top of the cupcakes. Decorate with chocolate sticks, broken into short lengths.