Don't Be Scared

Yesterday I made cupcakes.

Thrilling, I know. But these weren't just any cupcakes. These were filled cupcakes, and an experiment, to boot.  I've never made filled cupcakes before, so I had to do a little research on the interwebs. I had though about filling them prior to cooking, but apparently that's not what typically happens. I found several different ways to fill them, including sticking the tip of a piping bag into a baked cupcake and forcing the stuffing in. I didn't think that sounded very appealing, so I went a different route.

I had made boxed yellow cake, which I know isn't very sophisticated, but there is just something about it I love. I knew I wanted to make chocolate frosting from a recipe my mom used to use, so I needed a filling that would work with the two. I decided on a jar of homemade blackberry jam from last year that had been slightly over-cooked and turned out really thick - thicker than honey, even. Instead of just using it as it, I mixed it in a pot with a couple tablespoons of water and heated it to boiling. I may have added too much water, but it worked pretty dang good.

To fill my cupcakes, I used a paring knife to cut out a cone shape from the center of the cupcake. To make space of the filling, cup off the tip of the cone. My jam was still warm when I put it in the cupcakes, so I probably could have skipped this step.  Fill the hole with filling, and plop on the cut out piece.  Frost as usual.

I tried to pipe my frosting because I didn't want cupcake crumbs to mess up the smooth top.  Turns out I should have let it cool a bit longer, or used less water, because there was no evidence of the star tip I used once the frosting oozed together into a solid fudgy mass.  Not that I'm complaining. It's still a delicious solid fudgy mass.

But it turns out that when you bite into my cupcakes, not knowing they are filled, and it being halloween and all, it looks like the cupcake is bleeding.

Now that I've filled cupcakes once I can't stop imagining the options.  Lemon curd filled rainbow chip cakes with strawberry frosting? YUM.

 

Fast Fudge Frosting

From Mom's Recipe Box

Ingredients:

1 lb powdered sugar (~4 ¾ cups)

½ cup cocoa

¼ tsp salt

1/3 cup boiling water

1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted

1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Combine sugar, cocoa and salt.  Add water and butter, blend.  Add vanilla.

Will frost tops and sides of two 8- or 9-inch layers. Leftovers, if you have any, will keep in the fridge indefinitely.