Black Forest Cupcakes

My sweetie celebrated his birthday the other day, so I decided to celebrate with something sweet. His favourite cake is black forest, but with just two of us at home, I didn't want to make a whole cake -- especially as it's not my fave -- so I opted to make cupcakes instead (because even though it's the same amount of cake, I believe it is less overwhelming).

My girlfriend Lindsey came over to help and we made an assembly line to put these together because there are a couple of more steps than just making the cupcakes and icing them. Not only did we have fun doing it, the cupcakes were delicious! You really can't go wrong with a whip cream icing and chocolate cake. And the cherries? Really good! 

The only thing about these cupcakes, is because of the whip cream, they need to stay near a fridge. As a result, I wasn't able to take them to work because the icing would have just melted on the subway. But straight out of the fridge? Delicious!

Ingredients

Cake:

• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp espresso powder
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Filling:

• 1 can cherry pie filling 
• Maraschino cherry juice or Kirsch

Frosting:

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 8 tbsp sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Garnish:

• Fresh or maraschino cherries
• chocolate shavings

Directions

• To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 16 cupcake wells with paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt and espresso powder. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Mix in the vanilla extract. With the mixer on low speed mix in the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix each addition until just incorporated.

• Divide the batter evenly between the cupcake liners, filling each about 3/4 full. Bake 18-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pan 5-10 minutes, then let cool completely on a wire rack.

• To fill the cupcakes, use the cone method to remove a portion of the centre of each cupcake (feel free to choose your own way to dispose of these!). Spoon in about 2-3 cherries (not too much of the jelly). Drizzle some maraschino juice or Kirsch over the fruit. 

• To make the frosting, add the cream to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Start beating on medium-low speed, slowly increasing as the cream begins to thicken up to medium-high speed. While the cream is being whipped, gradually add the confectioners sugar, a spoonful at a time. Whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Fold in the vanilla extract.

• Frost the filled cupcakes with whipped cream. Garnish as desired. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Adapted from the Cupcake Project