Marble Cupcakes

Over at my blog, JavaCupcake.com, I've been going through a bit of a personal life transition and have enlisted the help of my friend Jenn to pick up the cupcake slack for me during this time.  Well... she has created more delicious cupcakes in these last few weeks than I think I have in the last few months.

Today... Jenn posted Marble Cupcakes inspired by a cake she had from Celebrity Cake studio in Tacoma, Wa.  These cupcakes are a marble cupcake with an eclair filling and vanilla buttercream frosting.   Can we say, HELLO HOT DAMN?!!? DELICIOUS!

To see more recipes by Jenn.... visit JavaCupcake.com and click on the link Posts by Jenn!

I mean really.... how can you go wrong with a cupcake that's filled with eclair filling?  That in itself is just fantastically amazing.

This cupcake is so awesome, I seriously needed to share it with you all.  Enjoy!

Marble Cupcakes
1 3/4 cake flour (not self-rising), sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup milk, room temperature
1/3 cup heavy cream, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/4 cup boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 16 muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together flour, baking powder & salt. Combine milk and heavy cream.
2. With a standing bowl mixer on high speed, cream together butter & sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla. Add flour in 3 batches, alternating with milk mixture until batter is combined.
3. To make chocolate: measure 1 cup batter into a bowl. Combine cocoa and boiling water in a bowl. Stir into reserved batter.
4. Fill cups alternating with spoonfuls of vanilla and chocolate batter filling each tin 3/4 full. Run a wooden skewer through the batter in a figure 8 motion to make swirls.
5. Bake until tops are golden, a cake tester comes out clean, about 2o mins.
6. Transfer to a cooling rack.
7. Core the center of each cupcake to make room for the filling.
8. Reserve core to cover the pastry cream filling.

Yield: 16 cupcakes

Pastry Cream
4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
pinch of salt
2 cups milk
1 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Whisk egg yolks until smooth in a large bowl. Combine sugar, corn starch, and salt in a medium saucepan and heat over medium. Stirring constantly, gradually add milk in a slow, steady stream and cook until mixture begins to thicken and bubble, about 5 mins.
2. Whisking constantly, slowly pour 1/3 of milk mixture into the eggs yolks. Temper the egg yolks so they do not curdle. Pour mixture into remaining milk mixture in the saucepan. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until mixture comes to a full boil and is thick enough to hold shape when lifted with a spoon, 2-4 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla.
3. Strain mixture through a fine sieve into a heatproof bowl. Cover with parchment paper or plastic wrap, pressing it directly on surface to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until chilled and firm, at least 2 hours (or up to 2 days).
4. Pipe pastry cream into each cupcake.
5. Press reserved cupcake cores over the pastry cream filling.
6. Add your favorite vanilla buttercream frosting
7. Enjoy.

Recipe Source: Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes