Chocolate-Filled Almond Cupcakes

Chocolate-Filled Cupcakes

I didn't have any cocoa powder (WHAT) so I swapped Nutella in as filling for these cupcakes. I actually think that was a mistake, as they were WAY too sweet. I'm going to give the original recipe's chocolate filling, but I'm not sure whether even a bittersweet ganache might have been better.

Cupcakes:

1 1/4 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg + 1 egg white

4 tbsp butter, melted and cooled

1/3 cup plain yogurt

1 tbsp almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.

Cream butter and sugar, then add eggs. Beat until fully mixed in. Stir in yogurt. Add the dry ingredients and beat until just mixed. Stir in extract.

Fill cupcake tins about 3/4 full. Bake 10 minutes, turn, bake 10 minutes.

Let cool.

Makes 12.

Filling:

1 tsp hot water

3 1/2 oz (about half a 7 oz jar) marshmallow fluff

1/4 cup shortening

3 tbsp xxx sugar

2 tbsp cocoa

1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix all the ingredients together and beat until smooth.

Core a hole in the center of each cupcake and fill with a spoonful of the filling. 

Cap cupcakes with reserved cores.

Frosting:

1/2 stick butter

2 tsp vanilla bean paste

2-3 cups xxx sugar

Cream as needed for consistency

Beat butter until soft, then add xxx sugar and cream and beat until you get a soft, pipeable texture. Add vanilla bean paste. The paste has those little black speck-seeds in it, and gives you frosting that great French vanilla look.

Pipe a spiral on top of each cupcake.

Decorate as desired.

Adapted from Evil Shenanigans

Almond-Hazelnut Cupcakes with Secret Fudge Frosting

Almond Hazelnut Cupcakes with Secret Fudge Frosting

I've had some really bad experiences using ground nuts/nut flour in recipes, so I was reluctant to try this recipe at first. I'm glad I did! The use of two other flours takes care, I think, of some of the problems I've had in the past, and the chocolate frosting really pulls it together. Unfortunately, the frosting is one of my mother's old Charleston receipts, and I did not get permission to share it -- in fact, I didn't even make it. After one unsuccessful attempt, I had to ask her to make it for me.

Cupcakes:

1/2 cup toasted almonds

1/2 cup  toasted hazelnuts

3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup cake flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup milk

4 egg whites

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Using a food processor or something roughly equivalent, pulse nuts until they are finely ground. Be careful not to go too long, or the oils in the nuts create a kind of paste. Sift together both flours and baking powder, then whisk in the ground nuts.

Cream butter and sugars. Beat in vanilla. Alternate in flour mixture and milk and beat until well combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites until they reach soft peaks. Gently fold them into the batter, being careful not to over mix. The egg whites lighten the batter because of all the air in them, and if you are too rough with them they'll just flatten out again.

Fill cupcake tins about 3/4 full. Bake for 13 minutes, then turn tins and bake 13 minutes. Let cool.

Makes 18.

Frosting:

Martha Stewart suggests a dark chocolate frosting. Her recipe is just a simple butter cream with cocoa and melted bittersweet chocolate added. You can also do a more complicated cooked frosting (that's what my mother's is). Honestly, simply spreading nutella on these babies would work.

When the cupcakes are cool, gently slice them in half using a serrated knife. Spread the centers generously with your favorite frosting, then press the two halves together and frost on top. Decorate with a toasted hazelnut.

Cupcakes adapted from Martha Stewart.

Frosting recipe a closely-guarded family secret.

Marzipan-Filled Chocolate Almond Cupcakes with Marzipan Frosting

Marzipan-Filled Chocolate Almond Cupcakes with Marzipan Frosting

A few weeks ago, my friend Joyce bought me a cupcake pan specially for baking filled cupcakes! It has spines in the center of each cup to impale something that will then be secured in the middle of the cupcake (rather than sinking to the bottom during baking)! I've been dying to try it out, so this week I decided to do something filled.

Cupcakes:

1 cup blanched almonds (blanching removes the skin; you can blanch regular almonds yourself by pouring boiling water over them and letting them sit for a minute, then slipping off the skins)

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 1/4 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

4 eggs

1 1/2 cup buttermilk

2 tsp vanilla

4 oz marzipan (about 2/3 of a 7 oz stick)

Preheat oven to 350 F.

There are two methods you can use to prepare tins with spikes. The first dozen I did butter and flour, which is the best and most reliable method of getting cake to come out of the pan in one nice piece. Cooking sprays are never as good. The second dozen I didn't have the patience to do this way, so I just poked holes in the bottom of cupcake liners and used those.

In a food processor, process the almonds and 1/2 cup of sugar until fine ground. Transfer to bowl and sift in flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.

Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in eggs, one at a time. Add in chocolate. Alternate in milk and flour mixture and mix until just combined. Add vanilla and mix briefly.

Roll the marzipan into small, marble-sized balls.

I tried adding the batter to the cups in two different ways. The first time I made the marzipan balls first and poured the batter around them. 

The second time I poured the batter in first and poked the marzipan balls on top.

I think the second method worked best; the first way caused the batter to weight to marzipan down to the bottom of the cupcake, even with the spike to sit on.

Bake for 12 minutes, turn tins, bake for 13 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Makes 24.

One more note: the original recipe I used called for coconut milk instead of buttermilk, but I didn't want that extra flavor competing with the marzipan. However, coconut milk is more oily that buttermilk and I think the cupcakes came out a bit dry as a result. I would recommend substituting 1/2 cup of buttermilk with 1/2 cup oil, or using the original measure of coconut milk to get a more moist texture.

Frosting:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

4 oz. marzipan

2 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

3-4 cups xxx sugar

2-3 tbsp cream

1 tsp almond extract

Beat butter until fluffy; add marzipan and xxx sugar. The result will resemble a thick, white paste. Add chocolate and cream and beat until the frosting reaches the desired consistency. Add the almond extract and beat until mixed.

I more or less invented this frosting for the recipe; I included the 2 oz of chocolate because nice chocolate like Ghirardelli typically comes in 4 oz bars, so this will use up the extra chocolate left over from making the cupcakes. However, if that's a bit too much chocolate for you, you can definitely leave it out. The marzipan adds more texture and body to the icing, but the almond extract is where the flavor really comes from.

Frost your cupcakes generously.

Use any leftover marzipan to make decorations. Marzipan is easy to dye using regular food dyes, and you can roll and shape it like modeling clay. I used pie crust cutters to make colored leaves for decorations.

Cupcake recipe (considerably modified) from Epicurious.com

Frosting recipe by me.

Chocolate-Almond Cupcakes with Chocolate Almond Ganache

Chocolate-Almond Cupcakes with Chocolate Almond Ganache

Cupcakes:
2/3 cup finely ground bittersweet chocolate
1/2 cup finely ground almonds
3/4 cup self-rising flour, sifted
4 eggs, separated
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp warm milk

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Mix together chocolate, almonds, and flour. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar under thick and pale. Stir in the chocolate mixture, then the milk. The mixture will be incredibly thick at this point. I did not thin it, but in retrospect I think I would add a little more milk to make the batter thinner and more liquid.

Beat the egg whites in a separate bowl until soft peaks form. Fold them into the batter until just combined (and this is why I think you could stand to thin the batter; I was not able to fold the egg whites because the batter was so thick, I had to beat them in with an electric mixer).

Bake for 6 minutes, turn, and bake for another 6 minutes. Let cool.

Ganache:
2/3 cup dark chocolate
1/3 cup (5 1/2 tbsp, or about 3/4 of the stick) butter
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp almond extract

Create your own double boiler using a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Melt together chocolate, butter, and cream, and stir until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in almond extract. Chill in the fridge until set.

Take the finished cupcakes and cut a small divot out of the top of each. Spoon in the chilled ganache (or pipe, if desired). If you wish, you can save the part of the cupcake that you scooped out and use it to top the ganache. Decorate with sprinkles.




I found that these cupcakes have a really interesting texture. Because of the bittersweet chocolate, they are not overly sweet, and the nut flour makes them very dense. I made some both mini and regular sized cupcakes, and I found that the mini ones were better because of the denseness.


Cupcake recipe from Cupcakes by Anneka Manning.
Ganache recipe by me.