Week 33, September 15, 2014 ~ Triple Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes

I can't believe how behind I am! At this point I really don't have any good excuse. Oh well...I do need to catch up though because I don't really take notes and it only gets harder to remember what I did the longer I wait! This cupcake I kind of threw together. It was really good I just didn't put a lot of planning into it. I just used what I had! So anyway this is a olive oil and sea salt chocolate cupcake with a Frangelico chocolate pastry cream topped with a chocolate hazelnut ganache and a vanilla bean buttercream to balance out the richness of all the chocolate. The olive oil cupcake was very moist, dare I say almost too moist to support a filling. What I did like was that they didn't really have much rise so it gave for a cleaner and more put together with the ganache and buttercream. 

This recipe made 16 cupcakes!

For the Frangelico chocolate pastry cream:

• 2 egg yolks
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 tablespoons flour
• 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 +1 tbsp cups milk
• 1/3 cups heavy cream
• 1/2 cup chopped dark chocolate
• 2 tbsp Frangelico

1. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar, flour and cornstarch. 
2. In a saucepan, bring the milk and cream to a simmer; whisk 1/2 cup of the mixture into the eggs, then whisk the egg-milk mixture into the saucepan. Cook the pastry cream over low heat, whisking constantly, until thick, 2 minutes. 
3. Off the heat, whisk in the dark chocolate until melted and the liquor. Transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cool, about 2 hours.

For the olive oil and sea salt cake:

The recipe made 16 cupcakes

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temp

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

2 ounces semi sweet chocolate

2 large eggs, room temp

2 large egg yolks, room temp

1/2 cup + 1 tbsp olive oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/3 cup sour cream

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup cocoa powder--I use Hershey's Special Dark

1/2 cup brewed coffee, room temp

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Melt the chocolate and set aside to cool.
3. Beat butter and sugar until fully combined and looks like wet sand; add the melted chocolate once cooled and mix to combine.
4. Mix in eggs and egg yolks one at a time until just combined.
5. Mix in oil, vanilla, and sour cream until just combined.
6. Sift flour, salt, baking soda, and cocoa powder in a separate bowl.
7. Add dry ingredients to the wet mixture a little at a time until just combined.
8. Add the coffee and mix till combined.
9. Fill cupcake liners and bake with 18 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
10. Set aside on a wire rack and let cool. Once cool fill with the pastry cream.

For the Nutella ganache:

• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup Nutella

Place the chocolate chips in a small bowl. Heat heavy cream in a medium saucepan until simmering, then pour the hot cream over the chocolate chips. Let stand for one minute, then stir together until all the chocolate chips are melted and mixture is smooth. Stir in Nutella. Let cool and then dip each filled cupcake into the ganache.

For the vanilla bean buttercream

• 1 sticks unsalted butter
• 1.5 cups confectioners sugar
• 2 tbsp heavy cream
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste

1. Cream the butter until it is really light and fluffy. About 5 minutes, scraping the sides occasionally.
2. Gradually add the sugar, mixing after each addition--frosting will be pretty thick by the end.
3. Add the vanilla, 
4. Add cream and beat the frosting for a few more minutes.
5. Frost cupcakes!

Week 3, February 14th, 2014 ~ Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes

For Valentine's Day I wanted to do something different. I usually make red velvet but I wanted to be a bit more creative...It's only week 3 after all! So than I thought about different Valentine's Treats and thought Chocolate Covered Strawberries! I could of taken this cupcakes in a few different directions but I knew I wanted more of a fresh tasting strawberry as opposed to an artificial candy flavor. So I settled on a rich dark chocolate cupcake then filled it with a strawberry compote and topped it with a layer of nutella, to put my own stamp on it and I thought it would balance everything out and offset the sweetness of the frosting (It should be known I love nutella!), then finished it off with a strawberry cream cheese buttercream. This will be my go to strawberry frosting! It was light and had a fresh strawberry flavor! The decoration is dark chocolate hearts covered in sprinkles.  

DARK CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES-makes 12 cupcakes

• 1/2 cup (1 stick or 115g) unsalted butter
• 2 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate
• 1/2 cup (64g) unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch processed)
• 3/4 cup (95g) all-purpose flour*
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup (50g) light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup (120ml) buttermilk

For the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Line a 12-cup cupcake/muffin pan with cupcake liners. Set aside.

Melt the butter and chocolate together in the microwave. Microwave in 30 second increments, stirring between each time. You may also melt the butter and chocolate over low heat on the stovetop. Stir until smooth and set aside to slightly cool.

In a medium sized bowl, toss the cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together until thoroughly combined. Set aside. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla together until smooth. Add the cooled butter/chocolate and whisk until smooth. Add half of the flour mixture, then half of the buttermilk. Repeat until everything is added. Stir until *just* combined; do not overmix. The batter will be very thick like pudding.

Divide the batter between 12 liners in your cupcake pan. Bake for 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

recipe courtesy of Sallysbakingaddiction.com

Strawberry Compote

• 2 cups of fresh strawberries, cleaned, hulled and chopped--frozed fresh strawberries work well too (not the ones in juice or anything)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp. corn starch

In a small saucepan, combine strawberries, sugar and cornstarch and stir.

Bring mixture to a boil and allow to thicken.

Remove from heat and cool completely.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
8 oz (1 package) strawberry cream cheese, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp freeze-dried strawberries, pulverized

1.  In a large bowl, cream together butter and cream cheese. 
2. Gradually add powdered sugar until completely combined. 
3. Stir in powdered strawberries

Then lastly I spread nutella on top of the cupcake before I frosted them!

For the sparkly chocolate hearts on top I just melted some wilton candy melts --the dark chocolate ones and put it in a candy squeeze bottle. I then made heart designs on a plate covered in a layer of red wilton sprinkles. Once you let them dry for about 10 minutes they are good to go! I have also made four leaf clovers with green sprinkles for St. Patty's Day! It couldn't be easier they chocolate doesn't really get away from you. I am not the most coordinated person so if I can do it anybody could!