These Zelda theme cupcakes make a thoughtful and inexpensive gift for your honey this valentines day.

this Instructable includes a fool-proof chocolate cupcake recipe. The cupcakes themselves are super duper easy and quick to make and always disappear *very* quickly whenever i make them round our house :)

A new tutorial every Monday on www.alittlestranger.com

Step 1: You Will Need

Makes 10 muffin sized cakes.

Ingredients:
a) 1 tablespoon icing sugar
b) 150ml milk
c) 175g self raising flower
d) 150ml corn oil
e) 150g caster sugar
f) 2.5 tablespoons of cocoa powder
g) 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
h) 100g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids minimum)
i) 397g can of Carnation Caramel
2 eggs (i forgot to take a picture 0_0 )

For the heart Decorations:
Flat red sweets. I used a roll of sour red candy
White icing. I used "Queen" white chocolate fudge writing icing because the nozzle was small)

Tools:
a) Baking sheet or cupcake tray
b) Spoon
c) Fork
d) Measuring spoons
e) Seive
f) Mixing bowl
g) Measuring jug
h) cake cases - i used muffin cases for extra large cupcakes, nom!
i) Timer
j) Scales
k) Spatula or wooden spoon
l) Small spatula (useful for icing, you could use a butter knife)

Scissors (not pictured)

Step 2: Combine the Ingredients

1) Pre heat your oven to 180º C

2) Prepare the dry ingredients: Sieve the flour and cocoa powder into your mixing bowl

3) Add the bicarbonate of soda and caster sugar

4) Use the spatula to mix to an even colour

5) Prepare the wet ingredients: In your mixing jug measure the corn oil, and add the milk

6) Add in the eggs, and 2 tablespoons of the Carnation Caramel

7) Give the oil/milk/egg mixture a good mix with a fork to combine it with the caramel. And pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients.

8) Mix all the ingredients together thoroughly, scrape the bottom of the bowl a couple of times to make sure there isn't a sneaky pocket of dry ingredients

Step 3: Fill Cases and Bake

9) Lay out your paper muffin cases onto baking sheet, Spoon the mixture into the cases leaving 1cm clear at the top to give them room to rise.

10) Once it's up to temperature pop them in the oven for 20 minutes. Don't open the oven while they're coking or they make not rise so well.

Tip: To check that they're cooked insert a clean sharp knife or knitting needle into the centre of one, if it comes out clean they're done. If it comes out sticky give them 3 minutes more.

Place on a wire rack to cool (Use the wire rack from your grill pan (give it a bloody good clean first!) if you don't have a cake rack)

Step 4: Make the Icing

11) Break the dark chocolate into small pieces and melt in an appropriate bowl/jug in the microwave. Inbetween 30 second bursts give it a mix with a fork to see how its melting.

12) Combine the remaining Carnation Caramel with the chocolate. Leave this to cool a little, 10 or 15 minutes

13) While the icing is setting a little (if you spread it straight awy it'll be more inclined to run over the edge of the cupcakes) cut the tops of the cakes off flat with a sharp knife. This gives you a nice flat surface to ice onto.

14) Start by spooning a blog of icing into the centre of the cake, and use a small spatula to drag it down and around the edge of the cake. Add a little more with the spatula as you go along if you find it's not enough. Finally, drag the spatula around the top of each cake to smooth over where you've added mroe icing.

Step 5: Make the Hearts

Making the hearts is better described with pictures so have a look at them before you start, You want to use sharp scissors to get nice sharp edges.

15) This is a diagram of the shape you're trying to make out of the sour candy. The white dotted line indicates where i've used two pieces of candy to make each heart.

16) Take your roll of sour candy and cut off a section about 6cm long, Trim it to look like the top half of diagram 15

17) Cut a 'T' shape from another piece of sour candy to make the bottom part of diagram 15. This is what your two-part heart should look like.

18) Make four hearts, and cut the fourth one in half. This will be the unfilled heart at the end. Press a heart onto each cupcake. Leave them to set for at least half an hour, this way the surface will set slightly so if you make a mistake with the icing it can be easily corrected.

19) This diagram show where the white line goes.

20) Use your white icing to pipe the thins white line around the heart. Hold it as close to the cupcake as you can without dragging it over the surface.

Tip: Practice on a piece or paper first (or the back of your hand, yum!) If you make a mistake on the cupcakes dip your finger in water and wipe it off.

21) For the half filled heart pipe a line where the sour candy comes up to on the other hearts, and fill in with horizontal lines of icing. Pipe the white line around this like you did on the other cakes.

Step 6: Present Them to Your Sweetie!

Thats it! Decorate the rest of the cakes with sweets, pipe patterns with the white icing, or dust with icing sugar. They'll keep in an airtight tin for a few days, you could give them in a clean white tupperware tub lined with coloured tissue, or lay them out on a pretty plate.

A new tutorial every Monday on www.alittlestranger.com