\nInstead of making any from Hey There, Cupcake or trying the chocolate cupcake recipe in the latest Cook’s Illustrated, I decided to give the Chocolate Cupcakes with Whipped Chocolate Icing from Donna Hay magazine (issue 17) a try. Here’s how they turned out:
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\nThe batter was really thick, so I was worried they were going to come out like rocks. They weren’t too hard, but they did firm up rather quickly, and I prefer a moister, mushier cupcake. The recipe uses a bit of almond meal, which lent a slight nutty flavor to them. The icing is enough to clog the best arteries in town. White chocolate, butter, and whipping cream. Yowza. It’s a great icing if you really, really like white chocolate, but man, it’s rich!
\nRead on for the recipe …<\/p>\n
\nChocolate Cupcakes with Whipped White Chocolate Icing (Donna Hay magazine, issue 17)
\nMakes about 10. Note: original recipe in Australian measurements. I’ve converted it to US measurements
\n1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
\n1 cup superfine sugar (I couldn’t find any, so I just used regular sugar)
\n3 eggs
\n1 cup all-purpose flour
\n2 tsp baking powder
\n1\/2 cup dutch-processed cocoa
\n1\/4 cup almond meal (if you can’t find almond flour, just grind up some blanched almonds in a food processor)
\nwhipped white chocolate icing:
\n500g white chocolate, chopped (I used 370g, or two boxes of white baking chocolate, then skimped a bit on the other ingredients to make up for it)
\n1 cup whipping cream
\n1 stick plus 1\/8 cup unsalted butter
\nTo prepare the icing: put the chopped chocolate, cream, and butter in a small saucepan and heat over low heat. Stir frequently until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely (you might want to dump the mixture into a larger bowl first). When it’s cool, beat the mixture until thick and fluffy. The recipe says to use a handheld mixer, but I used my trusty Kitchen Aid with the whisk attachment. It took probably a good 10 minutes ON HIGH to get it to thicken.
\nCupcakes: Preheat the oven to 320F. Donna Hay says to put ALL the ingredients into a bowl and beat, but I think it would be better to first cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs, beat some more, then add the dry ingredients and blend them all in. Spoon the batter into a prepared muffin\/cupcake tin. Bake 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cook in the tin for 10 minutes then remove and cool on a wire rack. Smear with the icing when completely cool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve had cupcakes on the brain for quite some time now. I mean, what’s not to like about a cupcake? I have a stack of cupcake recipes to try out, including several from this book that fell into my amazon … Continue reading