Black Forest Cupcakes

I absolutely love black forest cake, Randal not so much, so when I told him I was planning on trying out some black forest cupcakes he was less than thrilled. I have made lots of new cupcakes recently when I was testing recipes for the bake sale, nothing surprised me more though, than Randal saying that these were his favourite.

I made my favourite chocolate cake recipe, and filled the center with a cherry filling I found at specialty baking store in Houston (regular cherry pie filling would work just the same) and for frosting I went with a sweetened whipped cream that Randal made for me, I took half of the cream and added some of the cherry filling to create a swirled frosting.

Chocolate Cake:
¾ cup plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
6 tbsp. valrhona cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
½ cup black coffee
½ cup buttermilk
1½ tsp. vanilla extract
Cherry filling

Frosting:
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
4 tbsp icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

To make the cupcakes, in a small bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt, whisk to blend and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the sugar, vegetable oil and egg. Beat on medium speed until smooth, about 1-2 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, blend in half of the dry ingredients, beating just until incorporated. Blend in the coffee, buttermilk and vanilla just until smooth. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated. Divide between baking cups and bake at 350 for 22-24 minutes.

Once the cupcakes have cooled remove the center of each cupcake, fill with cherry filling and cut the bottom off the cone of cake and place the top back on the cupcake.

To make the frosting, in the bowl of an electric mixer whisk the cream, tartar, vanilla and icing sugar until stiff.  remove half the cream to a large bowl and fold in 1/4 cup of the cherry filling. Fill a piping bag with the frosting, filling one side with the cherry cream and one side with the plain.  Frost each cupcake and top with some grated 72% valrhona chocolate.

The first time I made these cupcakes I tried using those split piping bags that are specifically made for swirled frosting.  I do not know what I was doing wrong but they just did not work for me.  Filling a standard bag a spoon at a time on each side works so much better!