Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes

I hope you all enjoyed the guest blog by Ryan - his Auntie Vi's custard cake is a winner... and he might also have won serious brownie points (ahem, bad pun alert) by giving me a bag of fine, single-origin Lindt dark cooking chocolate.  As a result, I bring you a double hit of Four Figs this week!

When given a kilo of Lindt chocolate it's actually surprisingly difficult to narrow down the recipe options.  Over coming weeks I am definitely going to give David Lebovitz's chocolate bread a try and I think a chocolate shortcrust is also on the list.  But for now, I decided to adapt Martha Stewart's Lavender-Iced Brownie Cupcakes just in time for a picnic under the blossom trees down by the lake.   The benefit of having the brownies encased in cupcake papers, rather than baked in a pan and sliced, is their portability for things like picnics.  Just remember to pick up the wrappers and drop them off in a bin afterwards.

I left out the lavender icing from Martha's recipe as I was under some time constraints and didn't want to wait for the brownies to cool enough to spoon icing over the top.  To be honest, I think icing on top of the gooey sweetness of the brownies may be just be a little too much sugar.  I can see how, for presentation, the icing helps cover the collapsed domes of the brownie bases when they come out of the oven but, personally, I love the cracked tops.  A little imperfection every now and again doesn't hurt, especially when the results taste this good.

I also added chopped roasted hazelnuts to add crunch and interest - you could also add chocolate chunks, pecans or walnuts to the mix instead (or in addition to).  I think this is important to add a little something extra if you are keeping the cupcakes plain and un-iced, which I recommend you do.  The pinch of salt adds an amazing element to this that you wouldn't want overwhelmed by too much sweet icing.

Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes

Ingredients
-  3/4 cup plain flour
-  1/2 teaspoon baking powder
-  1/2 teaspoon salt (I love Maldon sea salt)
-  3 1/2 ounces dark chocolate (I used Lindt 70% dark Ecuador cooking chocolate), chopped
-  1 cup diced unsalted butter
-  1 1/3 cup white sugar
-  1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-  3/4 cup chopped roasted hazelnuts (you can use pecans, walnuts or chocolate chunks)

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celcius and line your cupcake tins - this made 15 cupcakes filled 2/3rds with batter.  You could probably make more if you put less in each cupcake liner and then topped it up with icing as the original recipe called for.   For me, the more batter in each liner, the larger and gooey-er the cupcake at the end.

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.  This will get the ingredients distributed through more evenly and still add air to the flour, like sifting does.

Next, melt the butter and chocolate in a heat-proof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.

In a mixer (or using a hand-held beater) on medium speed, beat together the melted chocolate and butter with the white sugar.  When combined, beat in the eggs then the vanilla extract.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary.

Add the flour mixture, mixing just until combined.  Fold through the chopped hazelnuts, or other chocolate chunks or nuts.  Spoon the mix into the paper wrappers - each should be about two-thirds full.

Bake in the oven until skewers inserted into the cakes come out clean.  This took around 20 minutes in my oven, but keep an eye on them.  Don't overcook though - they need to be just a little gooey when they have cooled.  Allow to cool on a wire rack.  They will crack and collapse as they cool, but don't worry!  They'll still taste amazing and I think their disreputable appearance is part of their charm.

Coconut Cupcakes and Vanilla Frosting

Firstly, let me acknowledge the growing coconut theme at Four Figs.  I don't know if this is the product of my subliminal desire for tropical warmth as the weather grows colder, or if it's simply that the curling, white shreds of dried coconut sitting in my cupboard look so irresistible.

Last post's coconut bread had a wintry spiciness from the cinnamon.  By contrast, this week's coconut cupcakes have a delicate vanilla undertone and look pretty as a picture iced and dipped in shaved coconut, and finally served in silver foil cases.  I made this batch to take to a friend's come-and-see-my-renovations afternoon tea and they looked so sophisticated laid out on my silver-edged glass platter.  All that was missing was a couple of long flutes of sparkling champagne to go along with them.  We got by with some classic gin and tonics though.

This recipe is another beauty from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes cookbook.  My personal favourite so far has been the Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting, but this one is also a lovely addition for something a little less rich and it has such an appealing snow-ball presentation.

The technique for flavouring the batter was really original, and I am dying to try it out in different cakes and breads and see how it goes.  You use a food processor to grind shredded coconut into a powder and then fold it into the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt), providing a subtle coconut flavour without the metallic undertone of coconut essence.  The moistness comes from the butter and the coconut milk.  As for the frosting, I altered Martha's recipe by using coconut milk to flavour and thin out the buttercream, and it turned out pretty well.  I am curious to see if these cupcakes could take a cream cheese frosting, or whether they would be overpowered by the sweet-sourness of it.  But that is an experiment for another time...

Coconut Cupcakes and Vanilla Frosting

Ingredients

Cupcakes
-  1 3/4 cups plain flour
-  2 teaspoons baking powder
-  1/2 cup shredded, dried coconut
-  180 grams butter, unsalted (make sure it's nice and soft at room temperature)
-  1 1/2 cups white sugar (if you use raw sugar that's fine but it will change the colour and make the cupcakes a little nuttier in flavour)
-  2 whole eggs (large) and 2 egg whites (all room temperature)
-  1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (don't use essence, it just doesn't taste as good)
-  3/4 cup coconut milk

Frosting
-  360 grams butter, unsalted (again you want this to be room temperature)
-  4 cups icing sugar
-  1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
-  1 1/2 tablespoons coconut milk
-  also keep a little bit of shredded coconut for topping the cupcakes

Let's kick off with the important things - preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celcius and line two regular muffin tins with cupcake liners (should make between 20-24 cupcakes).

Now, set up your food processor (I have a fab mini-processor that is really useful for things like this) and grind up your shredded coconut into as close to a powder as you can get.

One of the things I love about Martha's cupcake recipes is that you generally don't have to sift your dry ingredients.  Instead, you pop your flour, baking powder, ground coconut and salt, and whisk it all together in a bowl.  This aerates the flour etc without having to mess about with a sifter.

Next, you focus on the wet ingredients.  Set up your stand mixer, or if you don't have one use a electric beater and a nice large bowl, and on a medium-high speed cream the butter and sugar until it's light and fluffy.  One by one, beat in the whole eggs and then the egg whites and, finally, the vanilla extract.  If you are using a stand mixer, you should scrape down the sides of the bowl periodically to ensure it all mixes properly.

Now, on a lower speed, add the flour in three lots, mixing in the coconut milk in between each addition.  Don't over mix this, but make sure it's all combined properly too.

Then, fill the cases up to about 2/3rds of the way full and bake.  Don't forget to switch your muffin tins around in the oven, so they cook evenly.  And remove them after 20 minutes, or a cake skewer comes out clean.

I suggest you remove them fairly quickly from the tins (so they don't continue to cook and get tough) and leave them to cook on wire racks.  They should be completely cool when you ice them - you don't want the icing melting right off them.  If you're running short of time, pop the wire racks in the fridge to cool them quickly.  It's not ideal, but it does the trick.

Next, wash out your mixer beaters and bowl because you're going to use them to mix up your frosting.  Plop (and it should plop, if you've let it reach room temperature) your butter into the bowl and whip it until it's gotten thicker, creamier and pale.

Reduce the speed to roughly medium, and add in your icing sugar about 1/2 a cup at a time.  You'll need to scrape down the sides of the bowl every so often, and after a couple of additions speed up the beaters to aerate the icing.  Don't forget to put it back onto medium when you add in the next half-cup of icing sugar.  Finally, add in the vanilla extract and coconut milk and give it one last pulse.  It's done!  (Just note that, while this keeps in the fridge in an air-tight container for up to 10 days, you do need to let it come to room temperature before you ice any cupcakes with it.)

Finally, using a butter knife or spatula, ice your cupcakes fairly simply.  Sprinkle your shredded coconut on a plate and then roll the top of your iced cupcake in the coconut.  It's a simple finish, but it looks like an edible snowball, and who doesn't want one of those?

Devil's Food Cupcakes (To Cure All Ills)

The lull in blog posts has largely been due to two things; too much work (aka too many revolutions and natural disasters) and a small dose of broken heart.  Alas, Mr J and I have parted ways, so there will be no more tasty whole-animal-spit-roast events... at least until I figure out how to do it myself!

Given the sadness of recent times, both on my own part and for people around the world who have so tragically been affected by the earthquakes and tsunamis in Christchurch and Japan, I thought it was time for some sweet sweet baked treats.  I certainly felt a whole lot more together while I was measuring and mixing and melting and baking.  It's amazing how the process helped me move from feeling crazy out of control to a measure of contentment and healing.  Thus the power of cooking.

And so I bring you Devil's Food Cupcakes (To Cure All Ills), care of Martha Stewart's marvellous "Cupcakes" cookbook.  In retrospect, I should probably have read the recipe more closely before embarking on this one - it seemed simple, it involved chocolate and used up my yummy sour cream bought straight from the dairy man at the farmer's market a while ago.  Beyond that, I just assumed it was your basic, "cream butter and sugar, add eggs and flour, bake" kind of recipe.  But you know what they say about assuming!  This was in fact quite an involved recipe, and quite unusual for a "Martha" cupcake recipe in that it used butter rather than vegetable oil.

I guess the key differences between this and most of the other cupcake recipes I have used were the fact that I had to melt the butter and sugar together first, then whip it for 4 minutes while it cooled in my KitchenAid.  I also had to mix the sizable amount of cocoa with hot water into a deliciously chocolate-brown paste before adding it almost at the end of the recipe.  Sour cream was also added, replacing the milk.  The result was an absolutely delicious, dark chocolatey, rich and moist cupcake that will most definitely be a permanent feature in my repertoire.

I topped these cupcakes with a brown sugar cream cheese frosting (yum!!!!) and added as a final touch some crystalised violets my Mum bought me from Essential Ingredient yonks ago, which had been sitting rather forlornly in my pantry.  The result was very well received, despite some strange rising shapes reminiscent of souffles in some of the cups as a result of me using the fan forced setting on my oven rather than the classic bake setting.  You live and learn, don't you?  Guess that's the takeaway message from my week.

Devil's Food Cupcakes (To Cure All Ills)

Ingredients

- 3 cups plain flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons sea salt flakes (I like Maldon)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon bi carb soda
- 3/4 cup cocoa (Dutch process)
- 3/4 cup hot water
- 1 1/2 cups butter
- 2 1/4 cup white sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup sour cream

Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients
-  1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
- 8 ounces cream cheese (room temperature)
- 1 cup raw caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To start with preheat your oven to 170 degrees Celcius, and pop some cupcake cases in your pans - this should make approximately 36 cupcakes according to Martha's recipe, but mine made around 24 cupcakes - half large and half medium-sized.

Next step, pop all your dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, bi carb soda and salt) into a big bowl and whisk to combine - I know it sounds weird but whisking it really does keep it light, without having to sieve the flour.  But if you want to sieve it, be my guest - it may be even more delicious.

Now, in a second medium-sized bowl, use yet another whisk to combine your cocoa and hot water so it forms a deliciously glossy chocolate paste.  Yum!  Did I mention I am a fan of the whisk?  Just look at my collection of different sizes... I love the small ones for things like salad dressings.  But I digress.

So you've put your dry ingredients and cocoa paste to one side, and then set up your KitchenAid (other mixer or hand beater).  Now, melt on a medium-high heat the butter and sugar in a medium saucepan.  When it's melted, pop it into the mixer bowl and beat for about 4 minutes on a medium-high speed until it is cooled and getting fluffy.  (See, this is where it starts seeming like a particularly complicated recipe, for a cupcake recipe, but the results are worth it.)

Now add each egg, beating between each addition until they are completely incorporated.  When this is done, add half the dry flour mix, followed by half the sour cream, then the last of the flour, and then the last of the sour cream.  When it's all mixed, add in the cocoa paste and the vanilla.

Mix just until it's all combined and starting to look thick and unctuous.   Absolutely fabulous, this delicious batter will call you to leave rather more in the bowl than you have intended, just so there's more for you to lick at the end!

Now, fill the cupcake tins/liners to about 3/4 filled.  Pop in the oven for around 20-30 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.  Let them cool completely before you ice them.

While they are cooling, it is time to make up your icing.  Beat the butter and cream cheese together, then add the sugar and vanilla.  Easy peasy.  And super, super delicious.  It's certainly a crowd pleaser!

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

On a slightly more successful note (by comparison to my failed sorbet experiment), the happy ending to the weekend's tale of woe was the perfectly delicious Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting I baked on Sunday afternoon.

I have always loved the combination of the earthy vanilla-chocolate sweetness of red velvet cake topped with the sour creaminess of the cream cheese frosting.  I also get a kick out of the contrast between the dark, red-brown colour of the cake and the whiteness of the icing.  But I have been a bit scared of making a red velvet cake myself, though god knows why because this was pretty straight forward recipe (even if it did make an exceptionally large number of cupcakes).  I think largely as a result of Saturday's sorbet trauma, I chose a recipe from Martha Stewart's Cupcake cookbook and stuck to it to the letter - I was not disappointed by the results!

The recipe helped me to conquer two kitchen-related fears:
1) using large amounts of vegetable oil rather than butter in cakes, and
2) recipes involving vinegar.
I'm not sure whether all the blog-o-sphere whinging about Martha's recipes relates only to her online site, but this recipe was seamless, well explained and absolutely delicious.  It's the second recipe I have cooked from this cookbook, and both have turned out beautifully.

The cupcakes also gave me an opportunity to use one of the many items in my kitchen I unearthed in the New Year and pledged that I would not neglect for another year!  Yippee!!  So, now these gorgeous red and white cupcake papers have had a work out and boy are they convenient when you have a recipe that makes enough batter for 38 full-sized cupcakes and you only possess one 12-cupcake tin to bake them in.  I did 12 in normal white cupcake liners in my existing tin, and the other 12 in the red-and-white stand alone cups I had purchased about a year ago and never used.  Both shapes worked really well and to great acclaim when I presented them at a Sunday night BBQ and today at the office morning tea.  Snaps to Martha!

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups sifted plain flour
1 1/2 cups neutral flavoured vegetable oil (I used sunflower oil)
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon sea salt (the little bursts of saltiness work perfectly with the frosting)
2 tablespoons cocoa powder (the darker and more expensive the better)
2 large eggs (the recipe says room temperature, but mine were out of the fridge and it was fine)
1/2 teaspoon red paste food colouring (you need to use a hell of a lot more if you only have liquid stuff)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons white vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate soda

Frosting ingredients

1 cup butter (unsalted and softened)
12 ounces cream cheese (also room temperature - helps to whip it up real good!)
4 cups icing sugar (yes, 4 cups.  I know.  This makes one hell of a lot of frosting)

Let's start with the easy stuff - heat your oven to 175 degrees celcius.   Now, line your cupcake tins with pretty, pretty liners.

Now that you're organised, go sift your flour, salt and cocoa and whisk together until combined.  Pop the dry mix aside while you get out the Kitchenaid and deal with the wet ingredients.

Whisk the oil and sugar together until they're all combined, then add in your eggs one at a time, whisking together properly between each.  Add in the food colouring (beware, it will stain your fingers and your tea towels.  It's water soluble, so don't panic) and vanilla extract, and mix until combined - and a lovely bright red colour.

While your speed is low, add in a third of your flour mix, then half your buttermilk.  Then a third of your flour mix, followed by the other half of your buttermilk. Finally, add the last third of your flour mix and only use the mixer for as long as necessary to combine.

Now comes the fun chemistry part of the process.  Mix the bicarb soda and vinegar in a separate bowl and watch it fizz and foam.   Add quickly to the batter and mix for only ten seconds.  I don't know why the ten seconds (or the vinegar-soda mix for that matter) is necessary, but don't question the genius - this tastes amazing when it's done.

Okay, now fill your cupcake liners two-thirds of the way up and bake in the oven for around 20 minutes.  Test with a cake tester before you remove from the oven, to make sure it's cooked all the way through.  I used the "classic bake" setting on my oven, rather than the fan-forced oven setting and it worked a treat.

When they're done, pop them out of the tins and onto some wire cooling racks until they are completely cooled through.

Now, onto the cream cheese frosting - which was super easy (as long as your butter and cream cheese is room temperature)!  My expert cupcake-making-red-velvet-baking friend had advised me to ensure I whipped the butter and cream cheese first, before adding the icing sugar, otherwise it turns all soupy and doesn't taste nearly as nice.  Fortunately, that was exactly what Martha's recipe required...

Beat your butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy.  Add in your icing sugar, one cup at a time and making sure each addition is properly and smoothly whipped into the butter and cream cheese.  And that's it - done.

Ice your cupcakes and eat immediately.  Or not.  You can keep the frosting in the fridge for up to 3 days, and the un-iced cupcakes too - just make sure you return the cupcakes to room temperature before you serve them.

And they were a total hit.  Musky, earthy not-quite-vanilla-not-quite-chocolate with all the creamy, sweet-sour counterpoint of the frosting.  Highly recommended.