Preheat your oven to 180C (Gas mark 4) and line your muffin tray with 12 cupcakes/muffin cases.
Cream together your sugar and baking spread/butter with a hand whisk or stand mixer (using the paddle attachment) until combined and smooth.
Add in your eggs, self raising flour, milk and cocoa powder and beat for around 30 seconds, you don't want to over mix your batter as this will make your cupcakes heavy and dense.
Scoop the mixture evenly into 12 cupcake/muffin cases. I like to use a medium ice-cream scoop to do this as I find it gives me 12 even cupcakes perfectly but you can use a spoon to scoop out your mixture. (You will want to fill them up half way to give enough room for the chocolate layer).
Bake your cupcakes in the oven for 18-20 minutes. Once baked, I like to poke a little toothpick into one of the cupcakes to check they are baked. If the toothpick comes out clean, this means they are done!
Remove your cupcakes from the muffin tin and place onto a cooling rack to let cool fully before decorating.
Melt your chocolate in a microwaveable bowl. Top your cupcakes to the top of the muffin cases with melted chocolate, decorate with smarties and set in the fridge until the chocolate has set!
Finally, tuck into one of those delicious cupcakes!
