Back on Day 2 of 12 Days of Christmas, I posted my recipe for Melted Snowman Chocolate Chip Cookies. The story behind those was the idea of seeing your snowman melt away slowly and needing some comfort with some warm chocolate chip cookies.

I’ve since seen quite a few melted snowman themed bakes which involved fondant icing and marshmallows for the snowman’s head. This inspired me to create some Melted Snowman Chocolate Cupcakes based on the idea of a chocolate snowball, which is a marshmallow covered in chocolate and desiccated coconut.

The layer of ‘marshmallow’ frosting contrasts the soft and light chocolate sponge, I use the inverted commas because it’s a cross between a Swiss meringue and marshmallow but I use marshmallows to help set the frosting and give a bit of chewiness. The marshmallow topping is quite runny so would just run down the cupcake and the case if I didn’t trim off the tops of the cupcakes; the excess cake is a chef’s perk!

Remember to also check out the other 4 days of my 12 Days of Christmas, you can find the links here:

Andrew in the Kitchen’s Dairy Milk Caramel Cupcakes

Andrew in the Kitchen’s Lidl Favorina Spiced Biscuit Spread Review

Andrew in the Kitchen’s White Chocolate and Cranberry Crunch Biscotti

Andrew in the Kitchen’s Red Velvet Hazelnut Biscotti

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110g margarine

110g granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

15g cocoa powder

100g self raising flour

1 tbsp milk

1 egg white

60g granulated sugar

4 tsp water

2 tsp honey

40g mini white marshmallows

Desiccated coconut, to sprinkle on top

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Preheat the oven to 170˚C. Line a 6-hole muffin tin with muffin cases.

Cream together the margarine and the sugar until it is light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla extract and the eggs one by one, beating well between each addition, scraping down the bowl halfway through. Sift in the cocoa powder and the flour and then using a spatula, fold the dry ingredients until they are incorporated followed by the milk.

Use an ice cream scoop to divide the cupcake batter between the 6 cases, not filling them more than three quarters full. I like to level out the surfaces before baking (which also helps me to see if they need more (or less) batter in them) with a teaspoon.

Bake the cupcakes for 18 – 22 minutes until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Leave the cupcakes to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool fully. Once cool, trim off the tops of the cake to create a flat surface.

Over a pan of simmering water, whisk together all of the ingredients for the frosting except the marshmallows for around 6 – 7 minutes until it increases in volume, is thick and holds the shape of the whisk; it doesn’t need to be stiff like a meringue.

Melt the marshmallows in a bowl in the microwave and whisk the melted marshmallow through the meringue. Spoon the icing on top of each cupcake and use a spoon to spread the frosting out into a single layer. Sprinkle over a generous layer of desiccated coconut and finish with a sprinkling of the leftover cake crumbs.