fond memories

every friday night during the summer my fiance and i meet friends and family down at the beach. each family brings an item for dinner and we bbq and sit with our feet in the sand eating good food and watching the beautiful sunset...this is truly the meaning of life. anyhow, my point is...this week i brought cupcakes!

i thought i would take a step back in time and try to recreate the chocolate hostess cupake. i found a great recipe from none other than martha stewart. the recipe was for a cream filled chocolate cupcake and it looked like an almost exact match. but it was missing one thing, the yummy chocolate ganache type frosting, which my fiance told me was a must. this is where things went horribly wrong.

after reading the comments on the recipe, most people were saying it was much easier to pipe the filling through the top of the cupcake...i thought great! so i did. however, the chocolate ganache frosting that i made was far to thin to cover up the massive hole that i had created on the top of the cupcake. in order to get the frosting to an acceptable consistancy i had to add two bags of confectioners sugar and a package of cream cheese. i could have frosted our entire house with chocolate frosting....it is still in the fridge, so needless to say my next project will include chocolate frosting. but they were yummy!

Ingredients

FOR THE CUPCAKES
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for muffin tins
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for muffin tins
2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup sour cream, room temperature

FOR THE FILLING
1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme (7.5-ounce jar)
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Butter two 6-cup (each with a 1-cup capacity) jumbo muffin pans; dust with cocoa powder to coat, tapping out excess. In a medium bowl, whisk together cocoa, flour, baking powder, soda, and salt.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. On low speed, add half the flour mixture, followed by sour cream, ending with remaining flour mixture; mix just until incorporated (do not overmix).

Divide batter among prepared muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes, rotating pans halfway through baking. Cool in pans, 5 minutes; remove cupcakes and cool, right side up, on a wire rack.

Meanwhile, prepare filling: In a medium bowl, whisk marshmallow creme and butter until smooth. Chill until slightly firm, 15 to 30 minutes. Transfer mixture to a heavy-duty resealable plastic bag, and seal; cut off one corner of the bag to make a 1/8-inch opening.

Using a small melon baller, scoop out center of each cupcake from the bottom, and reserve (you will use this to plug cupcake after filling). Hollow out each cupcake a bit more, discarding crumbs. Insert tip of plastic bag into each cavity, and squeeze to fill; replace plugs. Using remaining filling in plastic bag, decorate top of cupcakes.