3D Cupcakes

No I have not lost my marbles. Even though these cupcakes are in 3 dimension, that’s not what the 3D stands for. It really stands for the name I have given to these cupcakes – Dark and Delicious Devil’s food cupcakes. You see, it makes sense really!

At the moment I am on exam leave, preparing for my exams later on this month. I have spent the last 5 days practically glued to my desk, preparing my revision cards for my first exam, Food Technology. Yesterday I finally finished making the cards - all 81 of them! Now it’s just a matter of learning them, but it felt such a relief to be able to move away from my desk, at least I can take the cards and go and revise out in the sunshine now. In order to celebrate I allocated this morning to baking a Devil’s Food Cake that I have been meaning to try out for some time. I found a very yummy looking recipe on Martha Stewart’s website. Her cake involved 3 large layers, which I thought was a bit much just for myself (and no doubt Chris) to eat and so I halved the recipe and turned them into cupcakes instead.

I have never made a Devil’s Food Cake before and was quite amazed at the amount of liquid which went into the batter. The recipe, although fairly straightforward does involves a few bowls and a very precise way of mixing the ingredients together, but this just added to the fun of making them.

Once baked the cakes had lovely even surfaces and were a very deep chocolaty brown colour. On lifting the cakes out of the tin, they felt a little heavy and dense but I need not have been concerned. The cakes do have quite a close texture but they are in no way heavy. They had a very moist, damp, almost silky texture to them that was simply delicious. I topped them with a rich glossy icing of my own creation which worked very well. I think I can safely say this cake recipe has become my new favourite chocolate cake. I intend to try out the whole three layered cake as soon as a suitable opportunity arises.

Dark and Delicious Devil’s Food Cupcakes
(Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart)
For the cakes
150g butter
35g cocoa powder
60ml boiling water
100ml milk
170g plain flour
¾ tsp baking powder
100g caster sugar
25g dark soft brown sugar
2 eggs

For the icing
100ml milk
110g dark chocolate (I used 70%)
10g butter
1½ tbsp icing sugar

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C and line a muffin tin with 12 paper cases.
Measure the boiling water into a jug and whisk in the cocoa powder until no lumps remain. Then stir in the milk and set to one side.
Weigh out the flour and baking powder into a small bowl and set to one side.
In a large bowl, cream the butter with an electric whisk until pale and smooth. Then beat in the two sugars until fluffy.
Beat the eggs into the butter mixture one at a time. Don’t worry of the mixture looks a little curdled, it will come together when you add the flour. Add one third of the flour mixture to the batter and whisk until well incorporated. Then add a third of the cocoa liquid.
Repeat this process until all the flour and cocoa has been used. The batter should be smooth, glossy and fairly runny.
Divide between the 12 paper cases, you can add more batter to each case then you might normally as they do not rise that much.
Bake for 20 minutes, they should spring back when gently pressed.
Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire wrack to cool.
Makes 12 cakes.

To make the icing, add the milk, butter and chocolate to a small saucepan.
Stir over a low heat until everything is melted and glossy looking. Then bring the mixture to a gentle boil and whisk using a small hand whisk until thickened.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool for half an hour.
When still slightly warm, beat in the icing sugar until thick and glossy.
Place the icing into a piping bag and swirl over the tops of the cooled cakes.