Monday Menu ~ Death by Chocolate Cupcakes

In following through with my cupcake theme around here this week I have something that just about everyone will love and if you don’t then …. well, we’ll have to talk later.

Chocolate. That is the theme this week.

Lots and lots of delicious chocolate.

I’ve been watching the Food Network and Cooking Channel for a while now and they both seem to feature bakeries and and more specifically ones that feature cupcakes. I’ve never seen so many amazing desserts and I’ve been inspired to create some of my own tasty treats.

Death by Chocolate! This recipe was one that I came up with after thinking what could I combine together to make the best ever cupcake. Well, cupcakes and truffles. Pure genius, right?

The recipe is really simple but is a bit more time consuming than your regular cupcake, but it’s really worth it. So lets get to it.

Ingredients

Truffles

  • 10 oz bag of Toll House dark chocolate chips
  • 5 Tbsp butter
  • 3 Tbsp heavy cream

Melt the chocolate chips and the butter together until smooth and then stir in the heavy cream. Let cool for about an hour in the fridge.

truffle chocolate

Cake

  • Chocolate cake mix – any flavor you like is fine
  • Ingredients for the cake
  • Instant chocolate pudding mix

Make the cake per the recipe on the box and then stir in the pudding mix.

Frosting

  • 1/2 cup shortening – I used Crisco
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 3/4 cocoa powder – I used Hershey’s Special Dark
  • 4 cups of powdered sugar
  • 3 – 4 tbsp heavy cream – I used close to half of a pint

Whip the butter & shortening together and then add in the cocoa powder and vanilla and mix till combined. Add in the powdered sugar one cup at a time and mix well then add in the cream until it’s light and fluffy.

Method

Once the truffle mixture is ready prepare your cupcake pan with papers or cooking spray.

ready for truffles

Fill the cupcake paper about halfway and make a little dent in the middle.

truffle in the middle

Scoop up a truffle and place it in the middle of the cupcake and then fill the remainder with batter, making sure that it’s fully covered.

ready for the oven

I made mine using a large cupcake pan (ignore how yucky it looks) and they took about 30 minutes to bake. But I think that if you used a regular pan then it’d take closer to 20 minutes. Just a note… using the toothpick method to test these won’t work because of the truffle in the middle.

Once they’re cool you are ready to frost them!

Finished cupcakes

I have to say that these were pretty good, but not exactly perfect. I was expecting the truffle filling to be softer than it was, but it still tasted really good! Next time I will add more heavy cream to the mixture so it’s softer.

They do require a tall glass of milk and a fork to eat! But it’s worth every single bite!

tasty cupcakes

Hope you enjoy the cupcakes!

Do you have suggestions for a flavor of cupcakes to be features here? I’d love your suggestions.