Dark chocolate muffins with a coconut mocha glaze

When I was growing up in Norway childrens' birthdays were marked with chocolate cake -hardly unique I grant you - but the Norwegian version of chocolate cake was improved significantly with a sprinkling of desiccated coconut. These muffins are the adult version of birthday cakes from bygone years - not only do they look pretty but they're simple to make. Actually, they're not adult at all, kids would love these as much as you or I do. 

Anyway, here's the recipe and it's pretty standard. Plus there's an easy glaze and pretty coconut sprinkles to top it all off. What more could a girl ask for on a Sunday afternoon? As we say in Norwegian, deilig!

• 125g dark chocolate
• 125g butter
• 1 tbsp cocoa
• 200g self-raising flour
• 150g light brown soft sugar
• 100g plain yogurt
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 medium egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp instant coffee
• pinch salt

Preheat oven to 190 C. Line a 12x muffin tin with paper cases.

Place the chocolate, butter, coffee granules and cocoa powder in a heatproof bowl over a small saucepan of simmering water. Allow the mixture to melt (should take about 5 mins) and then take off the heat to cool slightly.

In a large bowl, sift the flour, sugar, salt and bicarb. Stir together and then add the egg, yogurt, vanilla and give everything a quick stir. Then add the melted chocolate mixture. If it's very thick, add a couple of tablespoons of milk or water to the mixture - you don't want it dense, more like a light mousse consistency.

Stir the mixture together and scoop into the muffin cases, bake 20-25 mins on the upper-middle shelf of the oven and allow to cool while you make the glaze:

• 100g butter
• 50g dark chocolate
• 1 tbsp cocoa
• 1-2 tsp coffee granules
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3-4 tbsp icing sugar (depends how sweet you like the glaze...I like it quite bitter)
• shredded coconut

As you did with the chocolate mixture for the cake, place the butter, chocolate, cocoa and coffee in a heatproof bowl over simmering water. Allow to melt, then add the vanilla and icing sugar - making sure to sift the sugar beforehand as it gets lumpy. Mix this together and then glaze the muffins when they've cooled. Sprinkle with coconut and devour immediately!