Dish of the Week- CupCakes Two Ways- White and Dark Chocolate

This week one of my friends at work had his birthday, and since he is always so generous to me and other colleagues, I wanted to make him a special treat! I like my sweet treats, as most of us do, but I think he is in a league of his own. He is the only one I know who had packets of 'Starburst Snakes' (Australian candy) as his main food group whilst training for his first full marathon, and I have utmost respect for him finishing it in less than 5 hours!!

Since Mr.T is a special person to me I decided to make two different types of cupcakes courtesy of Norwegian Chef Lise Finckenhagen (who does cooking shows on NRK- the Norwegian equivalent of ABC and BBC), and it was made easier when almost all the ingredients for the two cupcake batches were identical (apart for the white and dark chocolate frosting of course). That way it was cheaper and more convenient than making two completely different types of cupcake recipes. Needless to say that this is not a necessity, and if you are tight for time than I would recommend just making one of them, and judging on the feedback from my colleagues the raspberry cupcakes were clear winners.

Raspberry and White Chocolate Cupcakes:

Ingredients:

250g of plain flour

2 teaspoons of baking powder

150g of sugar

2 big eggs

1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar

100ml of milk or cooking cream

150g of butter

100g of frozen raspberries

75g of white chocolate

(Alternatively you can use 200g of raspberries and leave out the white chocolate. Since I love having lots of raspberries in my cupcakes I decided to leave out the white chocolate and add more raspberries- but it’s up to you!)

White Chocolate Frosting

300g of white chocolate

300g of Philadelphia Cream Cheese

Chocolate Cupcakes with Dark Chocolate Frosting

250g of plain flour

2 teaspoons of baking powder

150g of sugar

2 big eggs

1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar

100ml of milk or cooking cream

150g of butter

1-2 tablespoons of cocoa powder

Dark Chocolate Frosting:

250g of dark cooking chocolate

150ml of cream

2 tablespoons of sugar

1 tablespoon of butter

100g of Philadelphia cream cheese

How to make the Cupcakes:

Melt the butter and add the milk when it is fully melted, whilst the butter is melting whisk the eggs and sugar in a bowl until it has a soft texture, and pour in the butter and milk. Then use a flour strainer (not mandatory) to add the flour, baking powder and vanilla sugar and mix it quickly together. Add in the berries and white chocolate at the end. 

In the cupcake baking tray add the single paper pans, and pour in the cupcake mix 2/3 of the way. Bake in the oven on 200 Celsius degrees until they have a golden color. Allow the cupcakes to cool in the cupcake tray on a rack for 15 minutes, this ensures adequate time for the cupcakes to cool down and wont loose its shape when removed from the baking tray. After you have removed the cupcakes put them on a rack on the bench, and make sure they are fully cooled down before adding the frosting to them.

White Chocolate Frosting:

Whilst the cupcakes are set to cool, start making the frosting. To make the white chocolate frosting melt the white chocolate in a water bath on medium heat, and when fully melted whisk the white chocolate in to the Philadelphia cream cheese. I spent quite some time stirring it together as I wanted it to be as even as possible. I like to add some color to my cupcakes, hence I decided to separate the mix in to three even bowls: one for pink coloring, one for mint green coloring and one for the original color. Food colorings are so easy to add to frostings and icings, and depending on how strong a color you want you adjust the drops of food coloring you add. For the pink color I added 2-3 drops as I wanted it to be a dark shade of pink, and for the mint green color I added only one drop of food coloring to create a lighter shade of green. 

Dark Chocolate Frosting

Dice the dark chocolate in to small pieces and put them in a bowl. Cook up the cream with 2 tablespoons of sugar, and pour the hot cream over the chocolate little by little whilst you stir it around. This will allow for the chocolate to melt and for the mix to be even, and when it is glossy you can mix in one tablespoon of butter and the Philadelphia Cream Cheese. I used a normal whisk for this, but it was quite hard to get the soft cheese to mix evenly with the chocolate, so an alternative can be to use a hand mixer at the end.

The taste of these cupcakes won me a lot of praise, and the recipes were easy to follow and the batch didn’t take long to make (maximum 10 minutes). The challenge for me was the decorating part of it, the frosting was fine to mix and tasted yummy, it just sometimes seem that frosting/icing/ decorating cupcakes and me don’t go that well together. I bought some pre-made flower decorations and some sparkling eatable decoration to brighten up the cupcakes, and I think it made a world of difference to the presentations, and covered up my clumsiness!

I hope this will satisfy your sweet tooth!

Linnemoren