Cream Filled Cupcakes

Last week, while I was bumbling around the kitchen making these babies,

 the most horrible thought occurred to me. 

I have never posted a recipe on Cream Filled Cupcakes. 

What kind of negligent food blogger am I? 

(You did NOT have to answer that one, I am well aware of my recent self proclaimed blog-cation) 

So I did what any logical and sane food blogger would do - I popped a cupcake in my mouth. 

And resolved to post the recipe as soon as humanly possible:

Cream Filled Cupcakes:

1 recipe Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake

1 recipe chocolate glaze

Cream Filling

1/2 cup margarine or butter

1/2 cup shortening

4 cups confectioner's sugar

1 pinch of salt

6 tablespoons milk or coffee creamer

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Prepare the chocolate cake according to instructions, and divide into 30 lined muffin cups. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until tester comes out clean. Allow to cool completely. Using an electric mixer, beat all cream filling ingredients on high, until light and fluffy. Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a large circle tip. ( I use a Wilton #10 or a Wilton 1M tip) Once the cupcakes have cooled, poke the tip of the frosting tip into the top of the cupcake, and squeeze for about 5 seconds, until you feel the cupcake start to "puff''. You know you filled enough filling when you see the cream start to pop back up through the hole from the top. Prepare the chocolate glaze, and gently dip the top of each cupcake, allowing it to drip back into the bowl. Allow the chocolate to set, and then have fun piping swirlies on top with leftover cream filling. Make sure to invite lots of people over to help you eat them, you may be in danger of eating all of them yourself! Not that I would know, of course.....

Cupcakes and a solemn story

Hey guys. Sorry if I'm not my usual chipper self today. I had an incident today which involved the front of my car kissing the back of another car.Which happened to occur on the most traveled upon highway on July 17th in the entire state of New York.  Which happened to involve a brand spankin' new beautiful Nissan Altima. Which happened to belong to a retired cop. Who happens to be with the DA. Who happened to be a Yankee fan. (He had a NY Yankees tat on his bulging bicep, that's how I know.) Who my son thought would haul me away to jail. Which thank goodness he did not do. 

Anyways, that's why I am not so chipper. 

So very solemnly I share with you a picture:

Just some cupcakes I made a few weeks ago. 

Anyhow, I thought it would be therapeutic to turn this hugely embarrassing story for me into a good laugh for you.

Hope you guys have a better day today than I did yesterday! Which actually wouldn't be saying much. Well, I guess what I am trying to say is:

Have a nice day!

Brooklyn Blackout Cupcakes

Sometimes, something is so insanely good, I have a hard time writing the post to go with it. Really. If it were up to me, I would just hand out these cupcakes this week instead of writing something fun and witty. But frankly I am just too tired. These cupcakes have so many adjectives that go with them, its hard to pick just one.

 Chocolatey would be an obvious first.

Creamy.

Fudgy.

Rich.

Ok, got the basics down pat. Here's some more I thought of:

Chocolate hitting you from every angle....

An explosion of chocolate to your senses...

Chocolate, Chocolate, and more chocolate?

Ok, let's let the picture do the talking:

Brooklyn Blackout Cupakes

For The Cupcakes

One Recipe Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake 
(All good things begin with Hershey's perfectly chocolate cake. If I teach you one thing, its this.)

For The Filling

• 1 cups white sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the frosting

2 sticks margarine/butter

1/4 cup cocoa
4 cups powder sugar

6 tablespoons heavy cream or Rich's whip

1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt

Make The Cake


Prepare the cake, and pour into lined cupcake tins. Bake, and allow to cool completely.

Make the Filling

In medium saucepan, combine sugar, flour, cornstarch and salt. In a medium bowl, beat milk and egg yolks until smooth. Gradually stir into sugar mixture. Stir constantly over medium heat until mixture thickens and comes to a full boil. Boil and stir for one minute.

Remove from heat and stir in chocolate, butter and vanilla. Stir until melted. Pour into a bowl. Place plastic wrap over filling to prevent skin from forming and chill for several hours. 

Make the Frosting

Beat margarine in a standing mixture until creamy. Add 2 cups of the powder sugar, and the cream. Beat until creamy. Add remaining powder sugar,cocoa,vanilla and salt and beat until fluffy and smooth.

Assemble The Cupcakes

Once cupcakes have cooled, line them up on your work surface. Using a paring knife, cut out a cone shape from the center of the cupcake. Alternatively, you can use a 1M Wilton tip to punch out the middle, or a cupcake corer. Slice off the "skin" from the top of the cone, and place it next to the cupcake to use as a "cover." Save the remainder of the cone in a small bowl. Fill a ziploc bag with the cooled filling, and snip off the corner. Squirt about 1-2 tablespoons of filling into the hole in the cupcake, and place the cover on top. Repeat  with the remainder of the cupcakes. Pour the prepared frosting into a ziploc bag, and snip off a corner- about a half inch wide.  Pipe a swirl on top. Use reserved "cones" to crumble and sprinkle on top. 


I know these sound like a lot of work, but they are SOOO good, its totally worth it. 

I originally saw this as a cake on A Tender Crumb, then on Zoe Bakes. (She has a great clip on her post on how to frost a cake. I would definitely recomment watching it.) I substituted the fillings and frosting for my own favorite recipes, and I was really happy with the result. 

Cream Filled Cupcakes- In a Jar!

The first time I saw these Cupcakes in a Jar, I fell in love. It's such an original and creative idea. So, of course I mentally filed away the idea for future use. When Purim was approaching, this idea floated towards the front of my cluttered brain. I wanted to do something a little different, hence the Cream Filled Part. But these aren't just for Purim- they definitely have the critical "wow factor" and are fun for any sort of gifts or get-togethers. 

Here's what you need to make these:

1 recipe Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake

1 recipe cream filling

1 recipe chocolate glaze

Bake the cake according to instructions, in a 9x13. Allow to cool completely. Crumble the cake- I used a food processor fitted with the knife blade. Fill a clean 8 ounce jar about 1/3 of the way with cake crumbs. Fill a pastry bag (fitted with just a coupler) with cream. Pipe a ring of cream around the perimeter of the inside of the jar, and then fill in the middle. Top with more cake crumbs. Freeze until solid. Make the chocolate glaze, and add a few tablespoons of water to make it extra thin. Pour on top of crumbs. Use remaining cream to make the signature "Squiggly". Tie a ribbon around and enjoy!

J-E-T-S!!

There's a rumbling in New York and New Jersey, and no, its not a snow storm. (Although now that I mention it, there is a snow storm in the weather forecast.) There's a certain team, which shall remain unnamed (due to The Cover Jinx) which up until a few weeks ago was relatively unheard of in the ears of the uneducated sports fans, such as yours truly. But I did mention there was a rumbling, so whats going on? The question is, does said team belong to New York or New Jersey?

 Ah, the age old philosophical question. 
Luckily, we have three reputable authorities to help us out in our quest for the truth:

New Jersey: Governor Chris Christie has a message for Jets fans.  

They're New Jersey's team. 

"Today when they're practicing, where are they practicing? New Jersey. And when they play their home games, where do they play? New Jersey. And where do most of their players live? In New Jersey," 

Well said Gove'na

New York: Next up we have Senator Charles Schumer. 

"It's the New York Jets and that's how the Jets want it. That's how the country wants it and New York is New York. Sorry Jersey,"

Wow, that was deep. Let me take a moment to let that sink in.

New York: And now we have our green-blooded Jets representative who lives in New Jersey, Big D from Prime Source NY: "The Empire State Building glows green and white in honor of the New York Jets, so I would say its pretty obvious who the Jets belong to."


Hmm...food for thought.

 Well, no matter if you are from New York,New Jersey, or Wyoming and you couldn't care less about the Jets, let alone football, here's some cupcakes for you. And let me tell you, they taste good no matter who the Jets belong to. 

Actual conversation overheard between Z-Monkey and Little D:

Little D (pointing to picture above): "Whats that?"

Z-Monkey: "Oh, thats called a pom-pom."

Little D: "What do you do with it?"

Z-Monkey (in his big brother knowledgeable voice): "Well the Jets wear it on their heads so they don't get hurt when they play football."

Little D (pondering this): "Oooooh."

I think these guys need to have a little chat with their father. 

If at first you dont succeed....

Ummm yeah. So these are for real. It happens to me too....disasters.  Cookiesandcups makes the most adorable treats ever, and I have had lots of success with her creations. So when I saw these  ice cream cone cupcakes, I was just waiting for the right opportunity to come up to make them. When I was invited to a girls sleepover camp to give a baking class, I had the perfect opportunity to show off. Ok, so that should have been the first indicator that everything is not going to go smoothly-showing off never leads to anything good :) Moving along, I decided to be a smart alec and not use the chocolate cake recipe provided, and to use my no fail, perfect chocolate cake recipe. ( it is perfect, really!) Well, you can see what happened to that idea above....24 ice cream cones, and an oven filled with smokey chocolate batter, I was about ready to give up and just admit that I can't make everything. But I have this really cool thing in my house this summer- my two little sisters are staying by me....and little sis's always believe in their big sis's. So my little sister (yep, the chocolate bear claw culprit) turned to me and said " you cant just give up!" How are you supposed to argue with that? So I went to sleep. Morning came and with brand new resolve and energy, we got everything going.  24 overflowing cones, 2 frosting recipes and one smashed ice cream cone later, I hereby present to you: 

 See- I wasn't kidding...

Notes:

• Use the recipe that Martha gave for the cake- trust me!And don't fill the cones more than half way. Seriously.
• For the cream, I used this recipe, and was very happy with the flavor. I did substitute the butter with margarine and it came out fine. The Liebers vanilla sugar gives it a terrific vanilla flavor.
• The cherry is a cherry sour candy. 
• Refrigerate the swirled ice cream cones for 2 hours before dipping
• One more very important thing- these babies are TOP HEAVY. If you put one down, and breathe next to it, it will fall. Don't believe me? Reference above picture. Since Cookiesandcups so kindly warned me, I cut a square of cardboard the exact same size of the box they were going in, and then cut twelve circles in the middle of the cardboard- exactly the same circumference of the bottom of the cones so they can slide in and hold them in place. As an extra security I wrapped the bottom of the cones with foil so they wouldn't wiggle, and they survived a 3 hour car ride with 3 adults and 3 monkeys in perfect condition. Not a sprinkle moved out of place.

So it doesn't look like the picture....still tastes amazing!

I have a long list in my brain of  "to-try recipes." Of course it would make a lot of sense to actually write down this "list" or at least save them in my favorites, but nope, my life generally doesn't make sense, and who's checking anyways, right? Anyways, the things on my "list" usually get made when I look at the picture, start drooling and my brain starts thinking...."you know, its my neighbor's cousins birthday... I probably should make these cupcakes." Ok maybe not that drastic, but something along those lines. This post from BrownEyedBaker went up a few weeks ago, and I am pretty sure that everyone agrees that they look delicious, so I decided I simply must make them. I followed the recipe exactly- except I substituted Rich's Whip for the heavy cream, and here are the results.

Look the same? Not at all!I think the Rich's Whip was the culprit for "ruining" the frosting. I say this in quotes, since the frosting was delicious. Not light and fluffy like the picture, but it tasted literally like Reese's Pieces. Seriously. And for a Cholov Yisroel convert, this is a huge deal.  Once I saw the frosting was so thick, and adding milk wasn't helping, I realized I had to come up with a Plan B. Her recipe does not call for filling the cupcakes, but since my frosting came out so thick, I figured it would make a good filling - sort of like a Reeses.

Once they were filled, naturally chocolate on top follows, and the peanut butter flower was just for kicks.Result: Delicious. I still wonder what her frosting would have tasted like...next time I will try with authentic heavy cream to see if that was the problem. If you do decide to make these, I want to point out that I was not at all happy with her chocolate cupcake recipe. I love my chocolate cake recipe, and I use it for everything. I found that this recipe just didn't measure up. If I would make these again, I would use my own chocolate cake recipe, and look for a different peanut butter frosting recipe that doesn't call for heavy cream. End of the day, these were delicious, and I was happy that I did not waste a day in the kitchen!

Cream filled cupcakes

There is something about making cream filled cupcakes that is so much fun. They are a huge pain in the neck- between baking the cupcakes, filling, dipping and making the little twirlies, there is just so many bowls!! But for some odd reason, when the last twirly was done, I kinda wished there were more to make. Weird, right? I know, hence the name of my blog....anyways, here are some pics. Enjoy!