Chocolate 'Cupcake' Fudge

When all else fails, sprinkles will fix everything. Sprinkles (especially rainbow sprinkles) are awesome. Sprinkles make me happy. And after a trip to the party supply store I had mountains and mountains of of them in all difference colours. I was determined to make something with these sprinkles. The first thing didn't turn out so great. It's not everyday that I have to go around asking people, "Do these unicorn horns look more like mystical penises?". Yeah.

I was still determined to make something with these sprinkles. They are just too darn pretty. So I decided to try Karen's recipe for easy chocolate fudge, it looked so freakin delicious. I just made a plain chocolate fudge, but poured it into mini cupcake papers and topped it with vanilla icing so they look just like cupcakes. All so I had something to put the rainbow sprinkles on. So cute!

There are many things I love about this fudge recipe. Karen's instructions were super easy to follow and the best part is that there is no sugar thermometer involved. There was a heck of a lot of stirring involved, my arms nearly fell off and my favourite silicon spatula snapped :( But it was totally worth it. The chocolate fudge is so tasty. And with the pink icing and sprinkles on top it looks so fun and cheerful.

The two things that usually freak me out about chocolate fudge is the risks of it not setting, or the chocolate seizing and making the whole mixture turn grainy. This recipe worked perfectly, the mixture sets pretty quickly so you have to work fast. I even kept my fudge at room temperature all day and it didn't go soft or melty at all. My first batch of fudge actually seized up as soon as I stirred in the chocolate and I completely freaked out, but I returned it to the heat and gradually added hot water to the mixture and it totally fixed it. It was like magic!

I wish I had been able to make these in time for our New Year's celebrations, the confetti sprinkles are just perfect for that kind of occasion. But these little cupcake shaped fudge bites are perfect for any party, they are nice and bite-sized, which I prefer since the fudge is quite sweet and you don't want to eat too much of it in one go. And everyone needs more rainbow sprinkles in their life.

Chocolate 'Cupcake' Fudge
(slightly adapted from Citrus & Candy's Easy Chocolate Fudge, makes 24 'cupcakes')
1 x 395g tin of condensed milk
80g butter (I used salted, but you can use unsalted and add 1 tsp salt)
200g light brown sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup
180g dark chocolate, finely chopped

For the icing:
125g butter
2 cups icing sugar, sifted
Optional: Pink/Red food colouring, a few drops
Sprinkles to decorate

Line two 12-hole mini muffin trays with papers. Place condensed milk, butter, sugar, and golden syrup in a heavy-based saucepan. Stir constantly over low heat for about 5 minutes or until the mixture is glossy and sugar has dissolved (do not boil whatsoever).

Increase the heat to medium-low and bring to a simmer while stirring (there’s gonna be a lot of stirring involved here!). Continue to stir and cook for about 6-8 minutes until the mixture has thickened and it 'comes away from the sides' (check out Karen's video at the end of her post, it was a really useful reference for this part). Fudge is ready when a teaspoon of mixture forms a soft ball when dropped into cold water.

Remove from heat and working quickly, add in the finely chopped chocolate, stir until chocolate has melted (work fast otherwise the mixture might seize. Don't fret if it does, return it to the heat and add hot water 1 tbsp at a time and stir until the mixture turns molten again). Carefully spoon into prepared cupcake papers, smooth tops with a spatula and cool for 30 mins on a wire rack. Chill in fridge until firm.

Prepare the icing; remove butter 30 mins before starting. Chop up butter and beat in a large mixing bowl on high with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low and gradually add sifted icing sugar, vanilla and food colouring. Increase speed to high and beat until smooth and fluffy. Peel cupcake papers away from the set chocolate fudge (I sliced a thin layer off the tops of each of them before doing this, so they had flatter tops). Place icing in a piping bag with a 1cm star tip and pipe over the top of the fudge and decorate with sprinkles. Store fudge in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.