Hot Chocolate Cupcakes!

The latest recipe on the Jane's Patisserie website, these Hot Chocolate Cupcakes, much like the Mulled Wine Cupcakes I wrote about earlier, are up there with the coziest bakes ever! After seeing Jane debut these cupcakes on her Instagram page, I just had to have a go at them for myself! At this point, Jane says jump and I ask how high!

A close up of one of the 
cupcakes!

The sponge for these cakes is wonderfully light, and the flavour of the hot chocolate powder comes through perfectly without providing any excessive sweetness. Extra sweetness isn't usually an issue for me as I have a very sweet tooth, but given the kind of frosting this recipe calls for even I was slightly apprehensive about the flavour. 

What really drew me to these cupcakes was the "marshmallow fluff" frosting! I'll admit to not being a massive marshmallow lover, least of all of those tubs of marshmallow fluff you can buy. I'd make an exception for smores around a bonfire, but generally they just don't do it for me. I was however intrigued by using marshmallow as a frosting, as this was something I'd never seen before and if I'm being honest was struggling to get my head around!

An undecorated cupcake to 
show off the Italian meringue 
frosting!

After reading through the method however I realised that the frosting is actually Italian meringue masquerading as marshmallow fluff! To make marshmallow, sugar and liquid glucose are heated together with water until the syrup reaches 130 degrees C, gelatin is added, and the resulting mixture is added to whisked up egg whites. The method for making this frosting however is more consistent with the way you'd make Italian meringue. A simple syrup of sugar and water is heated to 115 degrees C, before being whisked in to whipped up egg whites. Whilst very similar to marshmallows, the frosting lacks liquid glucose and gelatin.

Whilst French meringue needs to be baked before it is safe to eat, owed to the raw egg white in the mixture, the hot sugar syrup heats the egg whites in Italian meringue to a safe temperature, meaning no extra baking is required. This makes Italian meringue a great choice for this kind of frosting. The overall result is incredibly effective, resembling the squirty cream or a giant marshmallow you'd have on top of a loaded hot chocolate!

To complete the look of these cupcakes, I simply used flakes cut into thirds, mini marshmallows, and a dusting of cocoa powder! I was so proud of the final look of these cupcakes that I felt confident enough to take them to work to share with and show off to my colleagues, where they were very warmly received! 

So I lied at the end of my last post, I said that my next set of bakes would be in the run up to Christmas, which I suppose you could count these as being in fairness. However, with Christmas being next week, my next bakes will likely be Secret Santa presents, and the starter and dessert courses for Christmas Day! I can't wait to show off how they turn out!

Gibby x











 

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