Buy:http://www.alltimeplastics.com/kitchen-aids-measuring-cups-spoons
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Baking Time: 20 minutes
Decoration Time: 15 minutes
Serves: Yields 12-14 cupcakes
Black forest cake is a delight! Wondering how mini versions of it would taste? As delicious! This recipe is the same as that of a black forest cake and takes less than an hour to make. What’s more interesting is that it is so easy to make- make chocolate cupcake and decorate with whipped cream, chopped cherries and chocolate shavings. These are visually beautiful, chocolaty and, not that I have to mention, delicious!
INGREDIENTS:
For the Chocolate Cupcakes:
1.2 cups of flour
2.5 tbsp cocoa powder
3.1 tsp baking powder
4.100 g butter, softened
5.1 cup of sugar
6.2 eggs (For vegetarians: 1 cup of condensed milk)
7.1 tsp vanilla essence
For Decoration:
1.200 g fresh cream (You may use Amul Fresh Cream but I would advise you to use heavy/whipping cream, if available)
2.½ cup grated chocolate
3.1 tin of canned cherries (About 200g cherries- you may also use the local candied cherry variety)
4.5-6 tbsp water
5.2 tbsp of icing sugar (or more depending on your sweetness intake)
METHOD:
For the cake:
1.Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius.
2.In a bowl sieve flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Mix well and keep aside.
3.In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add in the eggs or condensed milk and vanilla essence and combine well.
4.Add the flour mixture slowly, into the egg mixture and mix well using a hand blender. (Add milk if the mixture is too sticky)
5.Pour the mixture into prepared cupcake tins.
6.Bake it in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the skewer or fork comes out clean.
7.Your chocolate cupcakes are ready. Let the cupcakes cool completely before decorating it.
For Decoration:
1.In a large bowl add the cream. Using an electric beater, whip until hard peaks appear. Place the bowl in the fridge until the cake is cooled enough to be decorated.
2.In a small bowl add water and 2 tbsp of icing sugar and mix well until the sugar is completely dissolved.
For Assembling:
1.Put 3/4th of the whipped cream in a piping bag and the remaining aside in a bowl.
2.Once the cupcakes have cooled completely, take a knife gently cut the cupcakes into two halves.
3.Spread half of the sugar syrup evenly over the bottom half of the cupcake. This is to ensure the cake is moist.
4.Next, take a spatula and cover the surface evenly with whipped cream kept aside in the bowl.
5.Spread grated chocolate shavings over the whipped cream.
6.Add cherries over the layer of chocolate.
7.Now take the remaining portion of the cupcake (face portion) and sandwich it gently with the bottom half.
8.Take the piping bag and make swirls and decorate the cupcake as shown in the picture. Decorate with cherry and chocolate shavings.
9.Now repeat the above steps for the remaining cupcakes.
10.Put it in the refrigerator and let the icing set.
11.Take it out of the refrigerator- Black Forest cupcakes are ready!
TIPS:
1.To further shorten the time from an hour, simply use ready-made, packaged chocolate cake mixture.
2.You may substitute the sugar syrup with rum or any juice (preferably cherry or strawberry or orange).
3.To reduce too much effort, make the cupcakes a day in advance and assemble it the day after.
Recipe by: Sukanya Saha