Devil's Food Cupcakes

 

It's been a while since I blogged - or I suppose made - anything that was specifically designed to appeal to my boys. I felt I was starting to neglect them, so I decided to rectify that. Chocolate is usually a sure fire hit in that regard.

 

 

These little cakes certainly fulfilled that part of the brief, as the sponge is dark and intense, and richly chocolatey. The frosting is a US-style 7 minute frosting and is very similar to the marshmallow filling in the teacakes I blogged recently. So, it is very, very sweet.  

While I seem to have developed an incredibly sweet tooth since falling pregnant with Sam, I must admit, I found it a little much, and given that I had piped big swirls of frosting, ended up scooping about half back off in order to eat a cupcake.   



 

Devil's Food Cupcakes

 

Ingredients (makes 12)

 

125g plain flour

30g cocoa powder

1/2 tspn bicarbonate of soda

1/8 tspn salt

90g softened unsalted butter

125g golden caster sugar

105g soft light brown sugar

2 eggs (57-64g each, weighed in the shell)

1 tspn vanilla extract

160ml buttermilk

 

For the frosting

 

260g caster sugar (I used white to keep the colour as white as possible)

80ml water

3 egg whites (from eggs weighing 57-64g each in the shell)

1/4 tspn cream of tartar

1 tspn vanilla extract

 

Preheat the oven to 160 Fan / 180 Conventional / 350 F / Gas 4. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with cases.

 

Sift the flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder and soda into a bowl and set on one side.

 

Beat together the butter and both sugars until light in colour and fluffy (about 5 minutes). Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until well mixed. Add the vanilla and mix.

 

Fold in one half of the flour mix until incorporated. Add the buttermilk, and then the remaining flour mix. Fold in gently. Scoop the batter into the cases.

 

 

Bake in the centre of the oven for around 20 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the middle of a cake comes out clean.

 

Let cool in the tin for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. 

 

 

To make the frosting, place the sugar, water, egg whites and cream of tartar into a large bowl (which you can place over a saucepan of boiling water, and so the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water). Beat the mixture using an electric hand held mixer for a minute or so, until white and foamy. Place the bowl over the water, which should be held at a bare simmer. Beat on high speed until soft peaks form - this should take about 7 minutes.

 

 

The mixture should register 160 C / 70 F on a thermometer, if you want to check it. Remove from over the water and add the vanilla. Continue to beat for a further 2 minutes. This will thicken and help cool the frosting.

 

Swirl or pipe onto the cupcakes (I piped mine using a 2D tip).

 

 

As the letter for this month's Alphabakes is 'D', I'm sending these Devil's Food Cupcakes over to Ros at The More Than Occasional Baker and Caroline at Caroline Makes, who organise the challenge. This month's host is Caroline, and you'll find the round up on her blog at the end of the month.

Susie