Filled Cupcakes for the sweet punch

“Mama I’m hungry, I want something to eat” and a list of specifications follows for ’something’, the most prominent being ‘something different’. I am sure every mother hears this dialogue several times a day. Many times my son has specific hunger pangs;’ I am hungry for chocolate or hungry for oranges or raisins or some favorite snack’ Like every mother I find it challenging to come out with ideas to satiate the ever hungry boy!

This month’s Sweet Punchmade my life easier at least for a while; ‘Devils food cupcakes with Vanilla cream filling’ to get me through a few hunger pangs for this week. The boy loves chocolate, even though he does not have a sweet tooth, so he was jumping with joy at the mention of Chocolate cupcakes.

A Sweet Punchis a monthly baking event started by three lovely girls  Ria, Maria and Divya, to make baking as simple as possible, bringing you a tried and tested recipe every month.’

This month’s punch was chosen by Divya and the recipe is originally from Baking bites. Thanks Divya I am delighted by your choice of recipe- Filled Cupcakes, a first for me.I don’t think I would had attempted the recipe without your instigation.

The recipe makes about 2 dozen cupcakes. I did not fill and frost all the cupcakes, left  few of them as it is. The cupcakes were rich and delicious even without the frosting. The little elf polished off a few even as they were still cooling on the rack.

Here’s the recipe:

Devil’s Food Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream filling

Recipe source – Baking Bites

The recipe looks lengthy and consists of three parts:

a)Making the cupcakes

b)Making the filling

c)Making the frosting

Filled Cupcakes for the sweet punch

Print Recipe

Servings

2 dozen

Servings 2 dozen

Filled Cupcakes for the sweet punch Print Recipe Servings 2 dozen Servings 2 dozen

Ingredients

For the Cupcakes:

• 1/2 cup butter , room temperature (I used salted and skipped the addition of salt)
• 2 cups sugar (I used Vanilla )
• 3 eggs large
• 3/4 cup sour cream (low fat or full) u2013(I used cream mixed with a tsp of homemade yogurt)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 2 - oz dark chocolate (~55 gms)
• 1 cup water , boiling

For the Vanilla Cream Filling:

• 3 tbsp all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar granulated
• 1/2 1 tsp vanilla bean vanilla extract scraped or extract

For the Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:

• 1/2 cup butter , room temperature
• 1/2 cup cocoa unsweetened powder
• 1 cup sugar powdered
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Servings: dozen

Instructions

For the Cupcakes:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F (180C) and lightly grease two 12-cup muffin tins (I used 4-6 cup muffin pans of different shapes)
2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light.
3. Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by cream and vanilla extract.
4. In a small bowl, sieve together flour, baking soda and salt.
5. Add half of flour mixture to the butter mixture, mix nicely and add the rest of the flour mix.
6. Stir well between each addition and mix until no streaks of flour remain.
7. Stir the cocoa powder and the dark chocolate into the boiling water
8. Pour chocolate water into the rest of the batter and stir until uniform.
9. Evenly distribute batter into prepared baking cups. Bake each tray for 13-15 minutes (it took ~20-22 minutes for me), until a tester comes out clean and the cakes spring back when lightly pressed.
10. Cool the cupcakes completely and then turn onto a wire rack to remove from the muffin pans.

For the Vanilla butter filling:

1. Whisk together the flour and milk and cook in a small saucepan over medium heat until thick. This will only take a few minutes.
2. Stir continuously to prevent the mixture from clumping and do not bring all the way to a boil.
3. When thickened (consistency will be that of a thin pudding or custard), strain with a mesh strainer into a small bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let cool completely to room temperature.
4. When the milk mixture is cool, cream the butter and sugar together in a medium bowl until light. Add in the milk/flour mixture and the scraped vanilla bean seeds (or vanilla extract) and beat at high speed with an electric mixer for 7 minutes, until light and fluffy.
5. Scrape into a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip, or a large ziplock bag with the corner cut off, and set aside until ready to fill your cupcakes.
6. For the chocolate butter cream frosting:
7. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and beat, with an electric mixer, until frosting is creamy, 3-5 minutes.
8. Add additional powdered sugar as needed to achieve a thick, but not stiff, frosting that is easy to spread.
9. Add additional milk, if necessary, to thin the frosting if it gets too thick.
10. Scrape into a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip or a large ziplock bag with the corner cut off
11. Assembly:
12. Take a cooled cupcake and, using a small knife, cut a cone of cake (1-inch across by 1-inch deep) out of the top.
13. Trim off the pointy end of the cone, leaving a flat circle of cake. Set aside and repeat this process for all the cupcakes.
14. Take the cream filling and squeeze a tablespoon or so into each cupcake cavity, filling the hole up to the top with filling.
15. Top off with a flat circle of cake to plug the hole and keep the filling in place.
16. Pipe out the Chocolate frosting to cover the top of the cupcake.

Recipe Notes

Top with some vanilla cream if you have any leftover from the filling and some sprinklers.(I topped the boy's cupcakes with sugar coated marzipan cherries)

Note: I found it difficult to unmold the cupcakes which did not use cupcake liners, while they were still warm. I had to wait for them to completely cool and then remove them from the pan.

I used a piping bag to frost the cupcakes, I found this easier

I used only 1 cup of powdered sugar for the Chocolate frosting, instead of the recommended 2-3cups.