Blackberry and chocolate cupcakes
It’s the first time I dedicate myself in making this pretty little cakes so trendy and popolar in the United States and Anglo-Saxon countries, but this blackberry and chocolate cupcakes have won me, so I think other different versions will follow…
Besides being so cute, cupcakes are less laborious to make than traditional filled cakes, as well as you don’t need to cut them into slices.
Instead of usual frosting with butter and sugar as a base, I decided to try with a less sweet topping made with cream cheese and seasonal fruit.
I love how these blackberry and chocolate cupcakes turned out well, I deem that the bittersweet taste of the fairy cakes gives a good contrast with freshness and sourness of their topping cream, which makes them more inviting and tastier but not sickly sweet.
Some tricks before directions
Prepare the topping for your chocolate cupcakes in advance to let it firm up in the fridge for at least 3 hours before you use it.
You can also prepare your blackberry topping the evening before, in this case, if it becomes too hard, mix it with an electric whisk to obtain the right texture again.
You can keep your fairy cakes without topping, when they are cool, for a day or two in a tin box or in plastic bags for food packaging.
If you can, garnish your cupcakes just before eating them, but, if you prefer to do it before, put them in a container and place it in the fridge, so pull cupcakes out half an hour before serving.
Blackberry and chocolate cupcakes recipe
Ingredients
Serves 6- 120 gr pastry flour
- 80 gr sugar
- 60 gr dark chocolate
- 60 gr butter
- 25 gr milk
- 10 gr unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 medium size eggs
- 4 gr baking powder
- A pinch of salt
- 100 gr blackberries (plus more for garnish)
- 175 gr cream cheese (as Philadelphia cheese)
- 30 gr icing sugar
- 2 gr leaf gelatine
- Half a teaspoon of lemon juice
For blackberry topping
Making the little cakes
Melt the chopped chocolate and the butter in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water, mix well and let it cool.
Preheat your oven at 180°C in conventional mood.
In a bowl combine flour, baking powder, sifted cocoa powder, salt, eggs and milk.
Stir well the batter with a spoon until it gets uniform, now add your melted chocolate.
Pour the batter in a muffin tin lightly greased with butter or covered with muffin cases.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until your cupcakes are cooked (use the toothpick test).
Allow cupcakes to cool on a wire rack.
Making blackberry topping
Let soaking the leaf gelatine in some cool water for 5 minutes at least.
Blend well blackberries with lemon juice and filter the mash with a strainer using a spoon to help it pass through, so you can remove seeds and possible residuals chopped.
Warm lightly four tablespoons of your mash and melt in them the leaf gelatine dunked, drained and squeezed before.
Pour the mash combined with the gelatine in the blended blackberries and mix well.
Mix with an electric whisk the cheese, the icing sugar and the blackberry coulis until you get a smooth cream, put it in the fridge at least for 3 hours to let it stiffen.
Before serving your chocolate and blackberry cupcakes, spread your topping using a piping bag with a large nozzle.
