About once a year I visit one of the Rock and Gem shows which are organised at venues around the UK with my jeweller daughter. You might find the odd gem among the rocks, but that one stone may well be most unusual and beautiful.

The same goes for the café at Kempton Park (my nearest venue). Adjectives such as dry, curled, greasy come to mind… I select with hope, but most on my plate remains, pushed dejectedly to the side. A single gem remains… the muffin.

I attacked the muffin, disillusioned. Biting in though, I found the cake to be moist, and then, a lovely surprise, a dark, gooey, chocolatey centre.

Definitely worth attempting to replicate.

They are, in fact, pretty straightforward, but there are two things you need to know. The first is that you need the right nozzle. The second is that you need to plunge the nozzle into the cupcake (once cooked and cooled) almost (but not completely obviously) to the bottom, and then squeeze the bag until the filling starts to bubble out of the top.

Recipe for Rock & Gem gooey centred cupcakes

Makes 12

Ingredients

• 100g/4 oz (two-fifths of a block) of butter
• 100g/½ cup dark brown sugar
• 1 tsp Madagascan vanilla paste
• 3 eggs – large
• 190g/1½ cups plain flour
• 30g/¼ cup good quality Dutch cocoa
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 120ml/½ cup full milk
• 100g/4 oz bar good quality 70% plus chocolate chopped into chips… or 100g bag Dr Oetker plain chocolate chips

Ingredients for the gooey filling:

• 120ml/½ cup double cream
• 100g/4 oz dark chocolate, chopped (or another bag of Dr Oetker chocolate chips)

OR

• Use ready made salted caramel sauce… or make some yourself

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
2. Put twelve muffin cases (I think these V & A floral cases are gorgeous) into a muffin tin.
3. Mix together in a large bowl the butter, sugar, vanilla paste and eggs using an electric beater.
4. Add in the flour, cocoa and baking powder, mix again.
5. Add the milk, mix again.
6. Divide between the cases.
7. Sprinkle over the chocolate chips.
8. Bake about 25 minutes.
9. Meanwhile make the filling – heat the cream until nearly boiling, then add to the chocolate chips, stir and leave to cool.
10. Remove and after a minute or two make a hole going down into each muffin – not to the bottom. You can do this with a thin knife – go in through one of the natural cracks in the surface if you can. If you’re not worried about the look, just use the nozzle.
11. When the muffins are room temperature fill them with the filling. First, fit your nozzle, pushing the tip through a small freezer bag, holding it tightly at the top so the filling doesn’t go down between the nozzle and the bag.
12. Then, push the nozzle down into the muffin, nearly to the bottom. Then squeeze until the gooey filling bubbles out of the top.

See the beautiful natural salt cellar and spoon I picked up at the Rock & Gem show for a couple of pounds here.