Black Forest Cupcakes

I made these Black Forest Cupcakes for my friend Fred's birthday. To create them I used my favorite chocolate cake recipe from the back of the box of Trader Joe's cocoa powder and then made a cherry filling using dark Morello cherries.

I like the homemade filling because it isn't too sweet and the flavor of the cherries really stands out as opposed to canned cherry filling that tastes more like straight sugar than cherries.

To finish them off I made a Swiss Meringue chocolate buttercream and topped them with a stemmed Maraschino cherry. These treats are pretty and festive and would be a great addition to your holiday table.

Here's the recipe:

Black Forest Cupcakes
(makes 24 to 30 cupcakes)

"World's Greatest and Easiest Chocolate Cake":

 3 1/3 cups flour

1 1/3 cups cocoa powder

3 cups sugar

1 tablespoon baking soda

1 teaspoons salt

12 ounces butter 

3 cups buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla 

5 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with cupcake papers.

Place all ingredients in electric mixer bowl and beat on high speed for 3 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl once during mixing. Pour into muffin tins.  Bake cupcakes for about 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cupcakes ready for the oven. This recipe makes a lot so you might have to bake them in batches if you don't have enough muffin tins.

Cherry Filling:

1 cup Dark Morello Cherries, drained (I buy mine at Trader Joe's)

1 tablespoon of the cherry juice

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1/8 cup milk

1/4 cup butter, room temperature

1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened

In a saucepan, combine cherries, sugar and almond extract. Cook over medium heat for five minutes until simmering and try to smash the cherries as much as possible. 

Simmering cherries, try to smash them up as much as possible as they simmer.

In a small cup combine the cornstarch and milk. Mix until smooth and add to the simmering cherries, stirring constantly. Simmer another 4 minutes or until the mixture is thickened.

Transfer the cherries to the mixing bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk attachment. Beat for three minutes to help break up the cherries more. Let this mixture cool completely before adding the final ingredients.

After breaking up the cherries more by using your whisk attachment, let this cool completely at room temperature before adding the butter and cream cheese.

When the mixture is completely cool, add the butter and cream cheese and whip until smooth. 

Your filling will look like this after adding the butter and cream cheese.

Transfer to a pastry bag with just a coupler inserted. Push the coupler into the center of each cupcake and pipe about a tablespoon of the cherry filling into each one.

Filled cupcakes ready to be frosted.

Chocolate Buttercream:

6 large egg whites
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla
pinch of fine sea salt
1 teaspoon espresso powder, dissolved in 1 teaspoon hot water, cooled

2/3 cup dark chocolate pieces, melted and cooled

Place the whites in a clean mixing bowl. Whisk in sugar and cream of tartar.

Place bowl over a double boiler on medium heat, stir frequently until the mixture is very hot (120 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit).

Move to mixer and whip whites on high for 2 to 3 minutes; turn down to medium low until cool (use the bowl as your guide).

In a separate bowl with a wooden spoon, stir butter to soften.

With mixer on medium/high speed, add the butter one tablespoon at a time, adding the next tablespoon just as the previous one is blended in. Once all the butter incorporated, add in vanilla, salt, coffee and chocolate whip on high speed until fluffy.

Garnish: 

Maraschino cherries, drained.


Frost each cupcake and top each with a cherry.

All done!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Here are the Red Velvet Cupcakes I just baked for a graduation party tomorrow.

Cupcakes are a smart choice for parties because they are easy to serve — no slicing and plating required!

And, they can be baked a day in advance. I won't frost them with cream cheese icing until right before the party. I'll post the final results tomorrow.

I like my recipe for Red Velvet Cupcakes because the batter is nice and thick which makes it so much easier to put into the cupcake papers.  Filling cupcake papers can be torture! — Messy and frustrating!

With thick batters that thankfully don't drip like this recipe, I just use a large spoon.  For thinner cupcake batters, I've found that a pitcher with a sturdy spout works best.

The pitcher I like to use when filling cupcake papers with thinner cupcake batters.

But don't worry about that for this recipe. That's why I love it! It's delicious and a breeze to portion out.

Cupcakes that are ready to be baked.

Red Velvet Cupcakes
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 ounce red food coloring
1/2 cup buttermilk
4 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups flour

Cream butter, add vanilla and mix well. Add sugar and beat until fluffy.

Add eggs, sour cream, food coloring and buttermilk. Mix well.

Add salt and baking soda. Mix well.

Add cocoa powder and flour and mix just until blended. Don't over mix.

Fill cupcake papers 2/3 full and bake at 350 degrees for 14 to 16 minutes or until done.