I told y'all I was lucky enough to go cupcaking with CakeSpy recently, right? Our first stop was at Butter Lane.
Jessie Oleson (Head Spy) was asking Maria Baugh (coowner of Butter Lane) about the care and feeding of the bakery (while I snacked on a most excellent new-flavor summer-cherry cupcake) and Maria mentioned some inconsistencies she'd found baking chocolate (cup)cakes. I am not usually a chocolate cake person (my litmus test for cupcakes is vanilla-vanilla) due, in part, to the dryness I usually encounter with chocolate cupcakes. To be enjoyable for me, it would need to be a fudgy and, well, almost damp cake.
(For the record, I've had Butter Lane's chocolate cupcakes before (especially good with peanut butter frosting) and they were delicious.)
This got me thinking about dryness and chocolate cake, which sent me to my cookbooks (I love cookbooks...), where I selected the following recipe from Entertaining Simple by Matthew Mead (photos by Quentin Bacon). The cookbook is published by Wiley, and I am reprinting the recipe with permission:
Chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter filling
(These decadent-looking cupcakes are easy to make and more tempting with fresh chocolate ganache.)
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
[optional] chocolate ganache
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place liners in two standard 12-cup muffin tins.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until combined. Whisk in the eggs, water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla. Combine whisking until the batter is completely mixed.
3. Fill each muffin cup with 1/4 cup batter. Bake 15 to 17 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes; then remove from the muffin pans. Cool completely before filling and icing.
4. Fit a pastry bag with a number 20 (small) star tip. Spoon the peanut butter into the bag. Press the tip into the center of the cupcake top; squeeze the bag for 3 seconds to fill the cupcake with about 3/4 tablespoon peanut butter. Repeat for each cupcake. Set the bag aside.
5. Using a small knife, remove any excess peanut butter from the cupcake tops. Using an offset spatula, spread [optional, chocolate] ganache over the top of each. Add a flourish to the top by squeezing a bit of peanut butter through the star tip.
Makes 24 cupcakes
Simplify: Begin with cupcakes from your favorite bakery -- all you'll have to do is fill them with peanut butter and frost.
You can see a picture of the cupcake on the cover of the cookbook. This isn't a cupcake cookbook, it's more of an entertaining coffee table book, but I like the ideas they present, and the pictures are lovely. I wish I could do more entertaining, but I live in a tiny Manhattan apartment, and when even 3 other people are here it feels crowded.
As for the recipe, I think I would do this with my patented (not really) injection method. And I'd probably use natural peanut butter, and a standard chocolate ganache for a dipped topping. The author suggests using brandy in the ganache recipe, but I'd probably skip that. Last time I accidentally had whiskey in a pie I almost had to be wheeled home. Sad.
I am thinking that the peanut butter filling, in addition to the fact that the cupcakes are made with buttermilk, would keep things moist (hate that word!!). And sealing the top by dipping them into the chocolate ganache can only help, in my opinion.
Do you have any fool-proof chocolate cake recipes that you want to share? Please post below.
:)
Jessie Oleson (Head Spy) was asking Maria Baugh (coowner of Butter Lane) about the care and feeding of the bakery (while I snacked on a most excellent new-flavor summer-cherry cupcake) and Maria mentioned some inconsistencies she'd found baking chocolate (cup)cakes. I am not usually a chocolate cake person (my litmus test for cupcakes is vanilla-vanilla) due, in part, to the dryness I usually encounter with chocolate cupcakes. To be enjoyable for me, it would need to be a fudgy and, well, almost damp cake.
(For the record, I've had Butter Lane's chocolate cupcakes before (especially good with peanut butter frosting) and they were delicious.)
This got me thinking about dryness and chocolate cake, which sent me to my cookbooks (I love cookbooks...), where I selected the following recipe from Entertaining Simple by Matthew Mead (photos by Quentin Bacon). The cookbook is published by Wiley, and I am reprinting the recipe with permission:
Chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter filling
(These decadent-looking cupcakes are easy to make and more tempting with fresh chocolate ganache.)
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
[optional] chocolate ganache
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place liners in two standard 12-cup muffin tins.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until combined. Whisk in the eggs, water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla. Combine whisking until the batter is completely mixed.
3. Fill each muffin cup with 1/4 cup batter. Bake 15 to 17 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes; then remove from the muffin pans. Cool completely before filling and icing.
4. Fit a pastry bag with a number 20 (small) star tip. Spoon the peanut butter into the bag. Press the tip into the center of the cupcake top; squeeze the bag for 3 seconds to fill the cupcake with about 3/4 tablespoon peanut butter. Repeat for each cupcake. Set the bag aside.
5. Using a small knife, remove any excess peanut butter from the cupcake tops. Using an offset spatula, spread [optional, chocolate] ganache over the top of each. Add a flourish to the top by squeezing a bit of peanut butter through the star tip.
Makes 24 cupcakes
Simplify: Begin with cupcakes from your favorite bakery -- all you'll have to do is fill them with peanut butter and frost.
You can see a picture of the cupcake on the cover of the cookbook. This isn't a cupcake cookbook, it's more of an entertaining coffee table book, but I like the ideas they present, and the pictures are lovely. I wish I could do more entertaining, but I live in a tiny Manhattan apartment, and when even 3 other people are here it feels crowded.
As for the recipe, I think I would do this with my patented (not really) injection method. And I'd probably use natural peanut butter, and a standard chocolate ganache for a dipped topping. The author suggests using brandy in the ganache recipe, but I'd probably skip that. Last time I accidentally had whiskey in a pie I almost had to be wheeled home. Sad.
I am thinking that the peanut butter filling, in addition to the fact that the cupcakes are made with buttermilk, would keep things moist (hate that word!!). And sealing the top by dipping them into the chocolate ganache can only help, in my opinion.
Do you have any fool-proof chocolate cake recipes that you want to share? Please post below.
:)
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Ultimate Chocolate Cake
2 c. sugar
1 3/4 c. flour (whole wheat flour also works well)
3/4 c. cocoa
1 1/2 t. baking soda
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
1 c. milk or soymilk
1/3 c. oil
2 t. vanilla
2 eggs
1 c. boiling water
Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 13” x 9” pan, 2 8” round or square pans, a Bundt pan, or 24 cupcake liners.
Combine sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir until well-blended.
Add milk, oil, vanilla, and eggs; beat at medium speed for 2 minutes, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl.
Fold in boiling water with a spatula. Pour into prepared pans. Bake for 25-50 minutes, depending on the pan being used, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Lisa
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Old-Fashioned-Chocolate-Cake-with-Cocoa-Frosting-755