The Surprise Inside Chocolate Cupcakes

It was a special occasion on April 1st - it was a certain someone's birthday (not just April Fool's day). And a special occasion calls for special treats. So I put my thinking cap on and dreamed up something that would suit Miss Alison on her birthday. I would be providing for a crowd of about 30 so I thought mini cupcakes were called for. But how to make them special enough for such an awesome person such as Alison??? Inject them with extra flavour!!! Because that is Alison to a T: looks like a regular person on the outside but is full of extra flavour (in a good way! in a good way!).



For these "Surprise Inside Chocolate Cupcakes" you can really use any filling that you think would be tasty. I made two types: caramel and raspberry jam.

Chocolate Cupcakes

3 oz of dark dark chocolate
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup of warm water

This will make about 12 large but not over sized cupcakes. I increased this by 50% and made 36 "large" mini cupcakes

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler and set aside to cool a it (but not resolidify - just enough so that it doesn't "cook" the eggs when you add it later)

In a seperate bowl beat the butter until airy then add the sugar and keep beating.

Add the eggs and vanilla and mix til combined.

Add the chocolate and mix a little more.

In another bowl mix toget the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Add the dry ingredients in two batches adding the water in between.

Mix until combined and smooth.

Pour into cupcake tins (with liners) and bake 15 - 25 minutes depending on the size (15 for mini cup cakes, 25 for the big ones in a poor oven). A toothpick will come out clean but moist when cooked.

Set aside to cool.

Filling

This is where you can have some fun. I used a high quality caramel sauce and some organic raspberry jam. In the case of the caramel sauce I heated it in a warm water bath to make it a bit runnier so it was easy to inject. And I added a few teaspoons of warm water to the jam to make it runnier too.

To inject your filling of choice you have a few choices. I used a baster. Mostly because I couldn't find a pastry bag with an appropriate tip. The baster worked like a charm. I sucked up some of the filling, inserted the tip to about 1/3 the depth of the cooled cup cake, squeezed some in while withdrawing the tip. The caramel or jam kind of oozed out the top but it tends to settle so when you've gone through once you can go back and top up as you see fit.

I made mini cup cakes in this case so the tip was thin enough for long enough. If you are making a bigger cupcake you might want to find a pastry bag tip that is longer and use a bag.

Icing

Now that you have a cupcake with a bit of an oozing "sore" on top (especially if you used jam!) you'll want to patch it up. OK unless it's Halloween and you want something icky looking then I suggest vanilla cupcakes with jam! So I made a sour cream based icing. Feel free to substitute in your favourite icing. This one is pretty chocolaty.

3 oz of dark chocolate
1/2 c of sour cream
3/4 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 - 2 c of icing sugar
Some cocoa powder - optional

Melt the chocolate, allow to cool a bit

Wisk in sour cream and vanilla

Add the icing sugar in 1/4 c batches sifting the sugar in each time. After about 1 1/2 c start taste testing to get the sweetness and the thickness just right.

If it's not chocolaty enough for you (it wasn't for me) add some cocoa powder too. You might need to add more sugar too. Taste it with each addition until it's just right. If it gets too thick add a touch of milk. If it's still not thick enough more sugar in your answer! Have fun with it.

Ice your cupcakes with a spoon and serve them up!