Throughout the entire pregnancy (after the morning sickness was quite through with itself) I've been craving: light and fluffy, creamy, fruity, and chocolate. Every. Day.
And what better to satisfy those cravings than black forest cupcakes?
I used the recipe for chocolate amaretto cupcakes from Love & Olive Oil (one of my all time favorite go-to and read-every-day blogs) because they are always so good; the only problem is that I had no cocoa and I didn't have as much oil as I thought when I started to double the recipe. So, my changes were:
cocoa- 6 squares of semi-sweet baker's chocolate melted with 1 tbsp half and half
1/3 c oil- because I doubled the recipe, I did use 1/3 c oil and then 1/3 c melted butter (about 6 tbsp cold, melted, becomes 1/3 c)
3/4 c sugar- scant 1/2 cup, since I was attempting to make the chocolate cake less sweet than the cherries and cream that were going on top
I also eliminated the vanilla and amaretto. Instead, I used 2 tbsp of the juice from the can of cherries.
So anyway, I bought one can of pitted sweet bing cherries in syrup, ate almost half of them before the cupcakes were even in the oven (teehee) and when the cakes were cooled, I pureed the cherries and piped them into the center of the cakes and then on the top. Topped them with freshly made whipped cream, grated chocolate, and a marachino cherry! So yummy, so satisfying. Sorry for the crumby image quality, it's a little dark in the kitchen right now!
And what better to satisfy those cravings than black forest cupcakes?
I used the recipe for chocolate amaretto cupcakes from Love & Olive Oil (one of my all time favorite go-to and read-every-day blogs) because they are always so good; the only problem is that I had no cocoa and I didn't have as much oil as I thought when I started to double the recipe. So, my changes were:
I also eliminated the vanilla and amaretto. Instead, I used 2 tbsp of the juice from the can of cherries.
So anyway, I bought one can of pitted sweet bing cherries in syrup, ate almost half of them before the cupcakes were even in the oven (teehee) and when the cakes were cooled, I pureed the cherries and piped them into the center of the cakes and then on the top. Topped them with freshly made whipped cream, grated chocolate, and a marachino cherry! So yummy, so satisfying. Sorry for the crumby image quality, it's a little dark in the kitchen right now!
Aren't they beautiful?
Now, I hate to waste things, so I made a cherry curd out of the leftover cherry syrup-juice. I suppose the recipe only really makes sense if you have left over cherry syrup-juice, but it's really good anyway.
Cherry Curd
8 large egg yolks
juice from half a lemon (~4 tbsp)
1/2 c cherry syrup-juice (the juice from a can of bing cherries, not maraschino!)
1/3 c sugar
1/4 tsp very fine salt (I didn't actually measure this, I'm assuming it was around 1/4 tsp, but definitely not more than 1/2 tsp)
10 tbsp cold butter (cut into tablespoons)
-heat all ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly and scraping the sides of the pan, for about 7-8 minutes (until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon). remove from heat and stir in the cold butter 1 tbsp at a time.
-cover with plastic wrap that touches the top of the curd (if you don't lay it directly on top, it will form a skin that is really gross) and cool for at least an hour.
Tomorrow, I'll have it with toast. And an egg white omelette, made from the leftover egg whites from the curd :) Waste not!
No comments:
Post a Comment