As this was my first time baking chocolate cupcakes, I had no idea how chocolate cupcakes should look when ready. The cupcakes had to spend 30 mins in the oven, which is much longer than the 15 - 20 mins for regular cupcakes, and I was concerned about over-cooking them. Because of the chocolate content, the cupcakes came out of the oven looking rather scarily black. It was hard to tell if they were over-cooked. Or under-cooked! But I needn't have worried. Miss Nigella is right. The cupcakes turned out beautifully. They were wonderfully moist and chocolatey, and had the most amazing aroma. The critical ingredient for this recipe, I believe, must be the dark muscovado sugar, which I had much difficulty sourcing, so much so that when I stumbled upon it, I bought a stash for my cupboard. (If any of you need any in Singapore, they can be found at Tanglin Marketplace.) The sugar imparts a beautiful depth to the flavour of the cupcake. And unlike Nigella's other recipes, I was able to use the recommended amount of sugar, without having the end-product tasting too cloyingly sweet (a consistent weakness I find in Nigella's recipes). I will try the cupcakes with other types of brown sugar next time to see how it affects the flavour. I would definitely not use white sugar.
But this is not all. I decided that since these cupcakes are for sale, they deserved some prettifying. So, icing was needed. And Nigella provided a wonderful chocolate ganache icing accompaniment. I am pleased to report that this time round, I melted my chocolate perfectly. (Read my previous post describing my disastrous chocolate melting experience.) I took up Katong Gal's suggestion, and melted the chocolate and cream in a bowl above simmering water. Once about a third of the chocolate started to melt, I turned off the heat, not allowing the chocolate to overheat at all.
I had a treat icing the cupcakes, and topped them off with sugar rosebud I bought from a specialty baking shop (Bake it Yourself). Apart from tasting damn good, the cupcakes looked real good too. My husband, who doesn't usually bother with cupcakes, enjoyed them thoroughly.
The decorating must have been a good idea, as the cupcakes sold out at the bake sale. :-)
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3 comments:
Yeah! I'm actually in the category of people who can make suggestions now!
Following my attempts at chocolate lava cake, I've been doing a little more baking. Nothing too difficult - a tarte tatin (upside down apple pie), some lemon cookies and scones. Really liked the tarte tatin coz of the baked apples which were oh so sweet. In case you'd like to give it a try, here's the recipe (from a rather charming cooking blog):
http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2005/01/tarte_tatin_with_salted_butter_caramel.php
My only comment was that the pastry was a bit too sweet - could cut down on the sugar though.
Ooh, suggestions most welcome! The tarte tatin sounds great. What kind of apples did you use? I tried making an apple pie once, and it was really enjoyable. Cooked apples have a lovely quality to them. I'm waiting for a good apple crumble recipe so I can go on custard overload.
I *think* it was Royal Gala. Should of course be Bramleys...
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