Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Devil's Food Cupcakes- My First Sweet Punch!!!!!

                 
The power baking powder has over me is amazing!!! I almost cried when I missed making the Tiramisu for the first Sweet Punch challenge. I did not want to miss the second one, but was unable to retrieve the mail with the recipe from the S P team. Sent an SOS and got a reply from SP. Thank God there were 5 days more to go before the reveal date. The weekend followed by the All India Bandh, gave me a chance and time to make these cupcakes. Well, doing this over the weekend meant  juggling school assignments, preparing my groaning 8 year old son for upcoming assessments, feeding 2 hungry kids every now and then, completing weekend chores, catching up on reading my newly acquired baking book - and then baking and decorating with my 3-year-old daughter literally hovering over the cupcakes. Hubby working furiously over a deadline was an added challenge, cos it meant only yours truly handling the kids :-))Whew!!!! But am not complaining as it was all absolutely worth the effort.

The thing about participating in a challenge is it forces you to stretch beyond your comfort zone and learn new things. Or left to myself, I would have again tried another kind of tea cake and would not have ventured to try out the vanilla cream. I am a die-hard whipped cream fan and  found the vanilla cream surprisingly good and not-too-sweet. The cream is a keeper of a recipe, so is the idea of filling the cupcakes. Thanks Sweet Punch team!!!! Looking forward to more !!

The recipe and method :
Devil's Food Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream filling
Recipe source - Baking Bites

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sour cream (low fat or full) -can be substituted with yogurt or cream mixed with a tsp of yogurt - I have used yogurt.
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2-oz dark chocolate(1/4 cup)
1 cup water, boiling

Method
Preheat the oven to 350F and lightly grease two 12-cup muffin tins.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light.
Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by sour cream and vanilla extract.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.
Add half of flour mixture to the butter mixture, followed by the sour cream and vanilla extract, followed by the addition of the rest of the flour mix.
Stir well between each addition and mix until no streaks of flour remain.
Stir the cocoa powder and the dark chocolate into the boiling water (easiest in a large measuring cup).
Pour chocolate water into the rest of the batter and stir until uniform.
Evenly distribute batter into prepared baking cups. Bake for 13-15 minutes, until a tester comes out clean and the cakes spring back when lightly pressed. (It’s fine if you can’t fit both trays into the oven at the same time, just wait until one batch finishes before putting in the second pan)
Turn cupcakes out onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting and filling.


Vanilla Cream Filling

1 1/2 tsps all purpose flour (the original recipe has 3 tablespoons)
1/2 cup milk (low fat is fine)
1/2 cup butter (or trans fat-free shortening)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 scraped vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk together the flour and milk and cook in a small saucepan over medium heat until thick. This will only take a few minutes.
Stir continuously to prevent the mixture from clumping and do not bring all the way to a boil.
When thickened (consistency will be that of a thin pudding or custard), strain with a mesh strainer into a small bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let cool completely to room temperature.
When the milk mixture is cool, cream the butter (or shortening) and sugar together in a medium bowl until light. Add in the milk/flour mixture and the scraped vanilla bean seeds (or vanilla extract) and beat at high speed with an electric mixer for 7 minutes, until light and fluffy. Scrape into a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip, or a large ziplock bag with the corner cut off, and set aside until ready to fill your cupcakes.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2-3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and beat, with an electric mixer, until frosting is creamy, 3-5 minutes. Add additional powdered sugar as needed to achieve a thick, but not stiff, frosting that is easy to spread. Add additional milk, if necessary, to thin the frosting if it gets too thick.

Assembly
(A photo how-to of the assembly method can be found here.) Take a cooled cupcake and, using a small pairing knife, cut a cone of cake (1-inch across by 1-inch deep) out of the top. Trim off the pointy end of the cone, leaving a flat circle of cake. Set aside and repeat this process for all the cupcakes.                                                                
Take the cream filling and squeeze a tablespoon or so into each cupcake cavity, filling the hole up to the top with filling. Top off with a flat circle of cake to plug the hole and keep the filling in place.(  I used a ziploc bag to fill).Using a butter knife or a small offset spatula, frost each cupcake with a layer of chocolate buttercream frosting. Place a dollop of icing in the center of the cupcake (on top of the cut out circle of cake) and spread from the center to the sides of the cupcake.
If you have leftover filling, transfer it to a fresh ziploc bag and cut a very small opening in one corner. Pipe a swirly line down the center of each cupcake.
Store in an airtight container until ready to serve.
Makes 2-dozen.
My notes: I have halved the recipe for the cupcakes, which made approximately 14 small cupcakes. Halved the vanilla cream recipe too, but found the quantity of flour mentioned here too much as the cream became extremely thick . I have used only 1 1/2 tsps flour and it worked perfectly fine. I have frosted the cupcakes lightly with chocolate ganache.
                      
                                                      
I do wish I had frosted the cake more generously and better. A perfect pleaser for a kiddie crowd.



36 comments:

Indian Khana said...

Looks yum n so tempting...

Anonymous said...

Whoa whoa whoa! Devil's food indeed! And they're filled ones to top it! The cupcakes look really smug if I must say. They're each screaming - "Eat me, eat me...". The sugar flowers are only adding to the smugness me thinks! If I must describe this in one word - TEMPTILICIOUS it is!!
Please adopt me Suma, I promise I'll eat all that you bake, without making a fuss, and what's more, you dont have to help with my assignements...I'll do them on my own :) tee-hee! :) :)

Priya Suresh said...

I enjoyed making them, hope the same with u, elegant cupcakes with beautiful sugar flowers..

Suma Rowjee said...

@ Madhuri- Thank ya!! ROLF!! The adoption idea sounds very appealing to me- I bake, u take the pics, edit them and post them on my blog. So u will be playing my teacher and helping ME with my 'assignments'. You of course get to enjoy the bakes and then carry on with your assignments. Lol!! Someone call the lawyer quick, before she changes her mind:-))))

M D said...

Woh! That's calling out the Devil in me! ;) Those cupcakes look very rich. I like this thought of stuffing cream frosting. That must be heavenly!

M D said...

BTW... while u r on a diet, I doubt if u will ever let me go on a diet!!! Ur desserts tempt me!

ann low said...

WOW Suma! These are too pretty to look at! Thanks for the guide :)

amna said...

lovely :)

Umm Mymoonah said...

Wow! you have done a great job here, beautifully decorated cup cakes.

Prema said...

Cup cakes luks very nice,Presentation is too gud...

Nachiketa said...

Suma.. Suma.... Suma....
is a chant in my head after seeing these yummmmmmmmyyyyyyy cupcakes......

pl bake me some.... :) am drooling at my desk..... need a dessert fix....

Cheers,
The Variable, Crazy Over Desserts - Nachiketa
Catch me on facebook @ Crazy Over Desserts

sweetartichoke said...

These cupcakes looks absolutely scrumptious! And they are so nicely decorated :-)

Vrinda said...

Perfect cute cup cakes...lov the decor tooo...........

Pavithra Elangovan said...

Looks absolutely gorgeous suma.. Loved the decor as well. Those cute flower adds extra beautity to the cake...

Rachana said...

Such gorgeous looking cupcakes!

RV said...

This is truly a develish cake.. I love the rich chocolate flavor in this cake.. yumm yumm..

Unknown said...

They are so cutely decorated, great job !!!

Anu Nandu said...

The cupcakes look wonderful! You are a superwoman! Juggling all these activities and making these tempting cupcakes at the same time. You deserve to eat at least 6 of these - I hope you did!

Unknown said...

Suma, thanks for leaving comment on my "methi mangodi". You do get regular "moong dal vadis" in the market, but I have not seen these methi ones as this is just my twist to it ;)

panchpakwan said...

Wow suma..lovely cupcakes..are those flowers edible?

Nitha said...

Tempting ones.. .

s said...

The flowers do look lovely..and the cake..My! they are simply so wonderfully lovely looking!

Nithya said...

Looks pretty pretty :) cute flowers :)

Akanksha said...

I love cakes..do you how to prepare "Irish coffee cake". I had it in bread story recently and it was awesome..love black forest too

Sum said...

Ohhh Myyy!!!
This is just awesome!!! Wonderful recipe!

Vegetarian Zest said...

Hi Suma, my first time here and glad that i visited your blog. Lovely baking recipes you have posted. Will try the cup cake recipe.

Nandinis food said...

Chomp! Chomp! Chomp! Chomp! Munch! This is lovely and attractive! Munch! Slurp! I'd leave the plate empty with no single crumb!

Sanjeeta kk said...

Beautiful presentation and lovely recipe. Following you to keep in touch.Best wishes, take care.

Champa said...

Suma, I'll include it in next week's round up. I think you have missed linking to the announcement though. Let me know.

Sindhura said...

They look great.Wish i was there....Awesome presentation...
Do drop in sometime Suma ji

Sushma Mallya said...

Lovely cup cakes suma, looks beautiful...

Deepti Pawar said...

How in God's world did I miss coming by your blog for so long? The devil in me is raring to eat each one of those babies!!

"Look me in the eye, you cuppie cakes... You belong to ME!"

Suma.. get two sets of adoption papers, please! :P

Spice said...

Perfect cupcakes.....

Padmajha said...

They look so cute!!Bet they are equally tasty...

Bharathy said...

I was about to delete the word,"optional" for cofee powder after your suggestion, but girl, you still make me feel, "optional" for the devil's cake.(Wiki says its mandatory though nigella hasnt suggested the same)..I confirmed with my friend from whom I got the recipe and she says there is NO cofee powder in the cake added!!

Sangita said...

Suma, please experiment with eggless versions of recipes also.