Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Filling

These are like Hostess Cupcakes. Next time, I think I will just buy them. They were a lot of trouble and the recipe only made 9 cupcakes. Oh well, live and learn.  I made them for Bodie. He and Nicholas are coming this weekend while Stacy has a law school reunion. Hope he likes them.  Nicholas may even get a little bite, since it is his birthday next week. Of course I will ask his mom if it is o.k.

Printable Version:
https://sites.google.com/site/whatscookingsherry/chocolate-cupcakes-with-cream-filling

Ingredients for Cupcakes:
1/2 cup pluss 2 tablespoons cake flour
1/3 cup unsweet Dutch-process cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
2 large eggs, separated
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons water

Ingredients for Filling:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners; sugar
3/4 cup Marshmallow Fluff
1 1/2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon heavy cream

Ingredients for Frosting:
1/4 cup heavy cream
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened

Directions:
1. Make the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 12-cup nonstick muffin pan with vegetable oil spray. In a medium bowl, sift the flour and cocoa with the baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks with the canola oil, 1/2 cup of the sugar and the water. Beat in the dry ingredients at low speed until smooth.
2. In a clean bowl, using clean beaters, beat the egg whites at high speed until soft peaks form. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar and beat until stiff and glossy. Beat one-fourth of the whites into the batter, then fold in the remaining whites until no streaks remain. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups, filling them halfway. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the cupcakes are springy when touched. Let the cupcakes cool for 5 minutes, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
3. Make the Filling: In a medium bowl, beat the butter with the confectioners; sugar, marshmallow fluff, and 1 1/2 tablespoons of the heavy cream at medium speed until fluffy. Transfer all but 1/2 cup of the filling to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/4 inch plain round tip. Beat the remaining 1 teaspoons of cream into the remaining 1/2 cup of filling and reserve. I did not add the extra cream. I just popped it in the microwave in the pastry bag for a few seconds to get it thin enough to make the little decorations on the top of the cupcakes.
4. Line a large baking sheet with wax paper. Insert the tip of the pastry bag about 1/2 inch deep into the bottom of each cupcake; squeeze lightly to fill with cream. Set the cupcakes on the sheet.
5. Make the Frosting: Heat the cream in a small saucepan (I used a double boiler) until steaming. Add the chocolate and let stand for 5 minutes. Add the butter and stir until smooth. Spread the top of each cupcake with the frosting. Spoon the reserved filling into a pastry bag fitted with a very small plain tip and pipe decorative swirls on each cupcake. Refrigerate the cupcakes for at least 10 minutes to set the frosting. I put the cupcakes in the refrigerator after I frosted them.  After this frosting was hard, I decorated the tops with the reserved white icing.

Fresh Strawberry Cake

When you have fresh strawberries at your fingertips, you just have to find recipes to use them.  This strawberry cake would be good with a strawberry icing, but not while I'm in Oregon with as many strawberries as I want. That would be a sin, I'm sure of it. The recipe came from Country Living Magazine. Not sure which month, but I'm sure it was a Summer month of 2011.


Printable Recipe:
https://sites.google.com/site/whatscookingsherry/fresh-strawberry-cake

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup softened butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup strawberry preserves
4 eggs
3/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon red food coloring won't be needed if you have ripened on the vine strawberries
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 3/4 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 pints strawberries, hulled
Directions for cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two 9" cake pans with parchment paper. Lightly coat the pan with butter, dust with flour, and tap out excess. Set aside. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda together and set aside. Cream the butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until light and fluffy in a large bowl.Add 3/4 cups of strawberry preserves and the eggs, one at a time, blending each addition throughly. Scrap down the sides of bowl and beat in vanilla extract and the food coloring if needed. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture by thirds, alternating with the buttermilk and ending with a final addition of the dry mixture. Divide the batter equally between the pans and spread evenly. Bake on the middle rack of the oven until a tester inserted in the center of each cake layer comes out clean--about 20-30 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack. I didn't have cake pans in the little house and was too lazy to go borrow cake pans from Carolyn, so I just used small loaf pans (4X8). It made three cakes. So I served one, and saved the other 2 for later.
Directions for assembling the cake:
Beat the whipping cream and remaing 2 tablespoons of sugar to soft peaks and spread over the top of one layer. Wrap and freeze the remaining layer for up to 2 months. Top with strawberries and drizzle with remaining preserves. Serve immediately. As you can see by my picture, I cut the cake into serving pieces, topped with strawberries and strawberry jam that I heated in the microwave to make it thinner. Then topped the whole thing with a dollop of whipped cream.