TWD: Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes

Clara of I Heart Food4Thought has chosen the Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie pick. Clara, I Heart YOU!! No surprise that I've had my eye on this recipe for a while. I mean, seriously. Chocolate. And Chocolate. And Cupcakes. What's not to love? Since it is Halloween this coming Friday, Clara thought it would be fun to decorate our cupcakes for Halloween and I agreed... sort of. So, I was going to try to make some of those little candy pumpkins to go on my cupcakes, but I just ran out of time, had a sick five year old in the house and a migraine to boot. Bottom line, I am just glad I got these made and posted. Anyway, I don't want to whine about the lousy last few days, so let's just focus on the cupcakes shall we? Alrighty then.

Now you may have noticed that my cupcakes don't look like Chocolate-Chocolate since there are Oreos involved. I have been wanting to try making a cookies and cream kind of frosting for a while now. I didn't want to lose the ganache either though, so I decided to fill the cupcakes with the bittersweet ganache Dorie suggests in the sidebar. I then made a cream cheese buttercream with oreo crumbs for the top and an extra oreo treat. This was quite the moist and delicious little combination but...

I actually ate three (yes, I admit, three) of these cupcakes before they had anything done to them at all and they were moist and delicious. I was a bit dubious about how these were going to turn out since there was quite the discussion going on with the P&Q this week on the TWD blog. Lots of dry cupcakes, lots of questioning why. Why? I don't know - but that was the big debate. Mine were fantastic. I decided that where I usually fiddle around with recipes, this time I wouldn't, just so I could see what happened. Here is what I did though, to try to help figure it all out and see if it helps anyone:

- I did the 'scoop and sweep' method Dorie outlines in the back of the book. I then weighed the flour to find out how much it actually was in case worked and the cupcakes were moist. It was a scant 4oz. I used unbleached all-purpose flour.

- I heard/read somewhere once that when making cakes it is always a good idea to let all of your ingredients be at room temperature, so I let them all be pretty close to room temperature. Whether this helped or not I couldn't say for sure, but they were perfect for me, so you be the judge.

- I let the oven preheat and get all the way up to temperature. I set the timer for my cupcakes at 15 minutes. I checked my cupcakes - oven light only at that point - and they still needed time (no surprise) but not too much. I always check a little early because my gas oven runs hot. I didn't bake them more than 20 minutes, which is when a toothpick came out clean for me (clean being, not gooey, but a couple of little crumbs stuck to them).

I think that was pretty much it. They were perfect, moist, chocolately and had a nice and tender crumb. I actually thought it was the best chocolate cake recipe I've had in a while. I really liked the use of both the cocoa and the melted chocolate. It definitely isn't the prettiest picture, but here is a shot of a halved cupcake so you can see the interior crumb. I hope this is helpful to anyone who didn't have such great results.

Cookies & Cream Frosting
5 oz cream cheese, softened
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 Tablespoons heavy cream
5 Oreo cookies, processed to crumbs

Beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth and creamy. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla and cream and beat on low to incorporate. Once mixed together, turn speed to high and beat approximately 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the cookie crumbs on low and just mix in lightly. Pipe as desired and sprinkle with additional cookie crumbs if desired.

Make sure to check out the TWD blogroll to see lots and lots of fun chocolatey cupcakes this week! If you want to join TWD this is your last chance since the group for Baking From My Home To Yours will be ending on Halloween! Don't miss out on the fun and get your book now!

Would You Like A Little Cupcake?
(Adapted from poem by Mary Howitt titled Walk Into My Parlor)

"Would you like a little cupcake?"said the spider to the little boy;
"Tis the prettiest little cupcake - it could be better than a toy."
"This cupcake has your favorite cookie in the frosting piped so high,
and inside you will even find a curious, chocolatey surprise."
"Oh no!" said the little boy," to ask me is in vain;
For when you were not looking with the cupcake I already ran away."
Happy Halloween!