Halloween is just a few days away, have you left the treats until the last minute? Don’t worry, I have you covered with these death by chocolate cupcakes – super easy and take next to no time to make.
These cupcakes are the perfect treat to make for halloween as they are very chocolatey (perfect for the chocoholic in your life) and straightforward to make.
I got the idea for these cupcakes from the more traditional death by chocolate cake and elevated the idea to another level because when is too much chocolate really too much? Is that even possible? Let’s be honest…
Well… Starting with a chocolate cupcake, which is filled with a chocolate creme pat, topped with a chocolate Italian buttercream and finished with chocolate chips. Isn’t that great, I mean, if you like chocolate anyway!
Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?
Ingredients:
Cupcakes:
90g Butter.
90g Granulated sugar.
1 Egg.
90g Self raising flour.
Pinch of salt.
20g Cocoa powder.
Chocolate Italian Buttercream:
35ml Water.
125g Granulated sugar.
30g Cocoa powder.
1 Whole egg.
2 Egg yolks.
250g Butter, softened.
Chocolate creme pat/custard:
125ml Milk (I use full fat but feel free to use whatever you’d like).
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract.
30g Egg yolks.
25g Granulated sugar.
10g Plain flour.
10g Cocoa powder.
Methods:
Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Weigh up all of your ingredients, line your muffin tin with cupcake/muffin cases, preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f and grab any equipment you may need, such as a stand mixer and silicon spatula.
To start on the recipe, you’ll want to start on the cupcake, don’t worry it’s super easy. To make the cake batter, grab yourself a clean mixing bowl and place all (except the milk) of the cupcake ingredients into it. Mix on a low speed just until all of the ingredients are combined, then crank the speed up to a high and mix for around a minute or so (the batter should be smooth and glossy).
You may need to add the milk, now would be the ideal time (only if needed).
Once you have the cake batter made, you can go ahead and give the bowl a good scraping down – just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in from earlier on.
Grab your muffin pan that has been line with cake cases and scoop the mixture into them, filling them around 2/3 or 3/4 of the way full. This recipe makes 6 cupcakes (they are fairly rich and may be quite sickly).
Then you can go ahead and place the cupcakes into the oven to bake for 20 minutes (or until a tester comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the cupcake).
While the cupcakes are in the oven baking, you can make your chocolate Italian buttercream. To start, take a small/medium saucepan and place in the water, sugar and cocoa powder and give them all a good mix together. You can then go ahead and place this on the hob over a medium-high heat, until it reaches 121˚c/ 250˚f (keep your eye on it, using a thermometer of course).
Now you can go ahead and grab a mixing bowl and place in the egg and egg yolks and whisk them together until they are very well combined, they should have increased in volume and be lighter in colour and consistency.
Continue whisking the eggs together until your mixture in the saucepan has come up to 121˚c/250˚f. You can then gradually pour the hot mixture over the egg mix while the whisk is running on a low speed – once all of the hot mixture has been added – crank the speed up to the highest you can possibly get it and whisk until you can touch the bottom of the bowl.
You can add your butter in piece by piece. Start adding your butter once you can touch the bottom of the bowl, don’t worry if the buttercream looks like it isn’t thickening – it will, just watch as you add the butter towards the end.
Once your buttercream is made, either place into a bowl, cover with clingfilm and refrigerate or place into a piping bag and use straight away.
Now you can make then chocolate creme pat.
Start by adding the milk and vanilla extract into a saucepan and give it all a good mix together until its well combined – then place onto the hob over a medium-high heat.
While your milk mixture is working its way up to a boil, you can grab a bowl and add in the egg yolks and sugar. Give the two a good whisk together just until they are combined, then you can add in the plain flour and cocoa powder – whisking it all through until fully incorporated.
Once your milk has come to a boil, add around 1/3 of it straight into the chocolate mixture and fully whisk that in until its incorporated. Then you can add in the remaining as you continuously whisk the mixture – then you can place back on the hob and whisk the mixture continuously.
The mixture may not thicken straight away, this is normal. As the mixture warms up, it will thicken up (thats why you need to continuously whisk the mixture, so it doesn’t catch on the bottom and ruin the custard).
Once its fully thickened and the flour and cocoa powder have been cooked out. Transfer the custard into bowl or dish and cover with clingfilm (ensuring the clingfilm touches the surface of the custard to prevent a skin from forming on top of the custard – allow to cool then store in the fridge until needed).
Eventually, once everything has been made and baked, you can think about finishing the cupcakes.
Take a cupcake corer or apple peeler and core the centre of the cupcake out, then fill to the top with the chocolate creme pat. Then on top you can pipe on the Italian buttercream, I used a open star piping tip but the tip you use is up to you. Then finish with some chocolate chips and enjoy!
That’s all for today guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back soon with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my other social’s – Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. The YouTube tutorial will be linked down below.
Leave a Reply