Very easy (and quick) chocolate cupcakes

I love to bake. I love to eat what I bake. There are times when an incredible need vague hankering for a home made treat occurs and time is limited. I have a couple of different recipes that fit the bill. Recently though, as I trawled through my recipe box, I stumbled upon this recipe which I copied from my mother's recipe box when I left home. I have no idea where she got it from. For those days when time is of an essence and you don't want to drag out the mixer of choice (Kitchen Aid on my part) for the creaming of butter and sugar, etc then try this recipe.

An added bonus is that, unlike some recipes, it doesn't do a huge amount. I generally get 15 or 16 cupcakes from the batter. Now I have some wierd idea that you would get fewer from the mix in Canada because I think that cupcakes are made bigger there. Since all my Canadian kitchen stuff is stored in Canada (many thanks to the generous use of my brother's basement storage) I am not sure if this belief is true or based on the knowledge that everything was bigger when I was younger (except me). Chocolate bars were bigger. Bags of crisps were bigger (translation for North America - bags of chips). Stuff was just bigger then.

Anyway - however many it makes - here is my quick and easy recipe for chocolate cupcakes for those who want it quick and easy.

1/2 cup butter (4oz)
4 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder (I kind of heap it up rather than do a proper measuring spoon measure)
1 cup caster sugar
3/4 flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk (4 oz)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350F, 180C or gas mark 4. (Adjust fan ovens accordingly.)
Place butter and cocoa in a small pan and place over a low heat until the butter is melted and ingredients blended smooth.
Combine dry ingredients in a medium sized mixing bowl.
Combine milk, eggs and vanilla in a measuring jug. Stir in cooled butter mixture (if you keep an eye on it when melting the butter then it never gets particularly hot and this step can be done without waiting).
Pour liquid ingredients into dry and stir lightly to blend.
Fill cupcake casings 3/4 full and place baking tray in oven for 15-20 minutes until cakes spring back to touch.

Done! How easy is that? Now you can eat them warm, ice after cooling or they are nice with vanilla ice cream as well.

If you try this I hope you like it. Here's what mine looked like -

There's only one left now and I have a fool proof method of keeping Helen and Emily fighting over it, but I can't let them catch me.

Susan