I was craving chocolate, and I was craving to bake. So, I checked out this blog I just found and came across a recipe for the Hostess cream-filled cupcakes.
I had to run to the store for only one ingredient, but had to hurry because I only had 2 hours before our guests were coming to watch the Bears game with us.
These definitely took some time and made a mess, but it was worth it in the end. They are delish! The cream is extremely easy to make and turns out lighter than I thought. I cheated on the frosting because by the time it was time to frost, our guests had already arrived so I didn't want to make a bigger mess by making home-made frosting. (Yes, I used store-bought icing)
Try this out on a day when you have a lot of time. Next time, I"ll probably make the cupcakes a day ahead of time, then do the filling the next day. And, I think I'll stick to buying the frosting instead of ever making it.
Devil’s Food Cupcakes with Cream Filling
½ cup butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
¾ cup sour cream (low fat or full)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup cocoa powder
2-oz dark chocolate
1 cup water, boiling
Preheat the oven to 350F and lightly grease two 12-cup muffin tins.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by sour cream and vanilla extract.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Add half of flour mixture to the butter mixture, followed by the addition of the rest of the flour mix. Stir well between each addition and mix until no streaks of flour remain.
Stir the cocoa powder and the dark chocolate into the boiling water (easiest in a large measuring cup). Pour chocolate water into the rest of the batter and stir until uniform.
Evenly distribute batter into prepared baking cups. Bake for 13-15 minutes, until a tester comes out clean and the cakes spring back when lightly pressed. (It’s fine if you can’t fit both trays into the oven at the same time, just wait until one batch finishes before putting in the second pan)
Turn cupcakes out onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting and filling.
Vanilla Cream Filling
3 tablespoon all purpose flour
½ cup milk (low fat is fine)
½ cup butter (or trans fat-free shortening)
½ cup granulated sugar
½ scraped vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Whisk together the flour and milk and cook in a small saucepan over medium heat until thick. This will only take a few minutes. Sir continuously to prevent the mixture from clumping and do not bring all the way to a boil. When thickened (consistency will be that of a thin pudding or custard), strain with a mesh strainer into a small bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let cool completely to room temperature.
When the milk mixture is cool, cream the butter (or shortening) and sugar together in a medium bowl until lightl. Add in the milk/flour mixture and the scraped vanilla bean seeds (or vanilla extract) and beat at high speed with an electrick mixer for 7 minutes, until light and fluffy. Scrape into a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip, or a large ziplock bag with the corner cut off, and set aside until ready to fill your cupcakes.
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
½ cup butter, room temperature
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2-3 cups powdered sugar
¼ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and beat, with an electric mixer, until frosting is creamy, 3-5 minutes. Add additional powdered sugar as needed to achieve a thick, but not stiff, frosting that is easy to spread. Add additional milk, if necessary, to thin the frosting if it gets too thick.
Assembly
(A photo how-to of the assembly method can be found here.) Take a cooled cupcake and, using a small pairing knife, cut a cone of cake (1-inch across by 1-inch deep) out of the top. Trim off the pointy end of the cone, leaving a flat circle of cake. Set aside and repeat this process for all the cupcakes.
Take the cream filling and squeeze a tablespoon or so into each cupcake cavity, filling the hole up to the top with filling. Top off with a flat circle of cake to plug the hole and keep the filling in place.
Using a butter knife or a small offset spatula, frost each cupcake with a layer of chocolate buttercream frosting. Place a dollop of icing in the center of the cupcake (on top of the cut out circle of cake) and spread from the center to the sides of the cupcake.
If you have leftover filling, transfer it to a fresh ziploc bag and cut a very small opening in one corner. Pipe a swirly line down the center of each cupcake.
Store in an airtight container until ready to serve.
Makes 2-dozen.
