Nutmeg Spice Cupcake with Rum Spiked Buttercream

This recipe originally started as a cake, and I made it as such - there is a photo below but its not very pretty as I was rushed. However my younger sister made a request to have these as cupcakes when she finished her exams so I converted the recipe into cupcakes. You can make either the cake or cupcake version with this same recipe. It will make a two-tiered cake or 18 cupcakes. Just remember to increase the cooking time for a further 15-20 minutes if making the cake version.

Devil's Food Cake

I will be the first to admit that I am not a huge fan of chocolate cake. People either tend to make them too dry, or add so much chocolate to them that one bite fulfills your sugar quota for a month and puts you into a sugar coma. I have two very good chocolate cake recipe's for the inevitable request for one. This is a more sophisticated grown up cake, as I like to call it. Four layers of a delicate crumb cake layered with a beautifully rich, but not overly sweet, dark chocolate ganache. I highly recommend that if you are going to make this cake use the highest grade dark chocolate you can get your hands on for the ganache as possible. I tend to use a Lindt dark chocolate and I have found that you can now by it in the supermarket. I would make this cake if I was going over to a friends place, having an afternoon tea, etc. Due to the dark chocolate it is not really a kids cake, although my 3 year old niece did polish off her slice quiet fast.