My Chocolate Valentine

My Chocolate Valentine cupcake, dark, dark chocolate cupcake with chocolate truffle frosting & sparkly iced chocolate sugar cookies.

With loads of chocolate truffle frosting left from Daniel's cupcake making, I thought I'd make chocolate lovers valentines cupcakes for Valentines Day.

Hope everyone had or is having depending where in the world you are, a HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!

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 Valentines Truffle Pops recipe            

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Vintage Valentine Cupcake Picks       

Update on Monday, February 15, 2010 at 12:26PM by The Lone Baker

Whoever you are—I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.

Tennessee Williams

Wow, two of my cupcakes are on Cupcakes Take The Cake blog the most fabulous place to see all things "cupcake".

I was so excited by this I immediately phoned my husband and as soon as he picked up the phone I blurted out the news, including a bio of Cupcakes Take The Cake, which of my cakes were on it etc. Then I paused for a breath, this is when a strange male voice said "You have the wrong number", I stuttered "I'm so sorry" & he said "But I'm very happy for you". 

Lesson learned;  I should not manually dial my husbands number because I apparently don't know it! 

Valentines Truffle Pops

Valentines Truffle Pop tops a chocolate & raspberry crème fraiche cupcake

The beauty of this truffle recipe is it's versatility, if you don't like raspberry liqueur, feel free to change it to coffee or orange or perhaps rum. Use vanilla, coffee, green tea, ginger or flavouring oils instead of alcohol. If you are using truffles as cupcake toppers adjust the flavours of your cupcakes accordingly.

Try milk or white chocolate instead of dark, a mix of milk and dark chocolate is my favourite.

Simply toss them in *cocoa, or roll in melted chocolate and then in *crushed toasted nuts, crushed hard candy, sprinkles, coconut, grated chocolate, sanding sugar or dip them in chocolate for a smooth coating.

These truffles have a whipped light texture and keep well when refrigerated for up to two weeks. Today I'm using them on lollipop sticks to make cupcake toppers. 

Valentines Truffle Pops

Ingredients

Makes 24

150ml cream (5 fluid oz)

125g dark eating chocolate (4.4oz) grated (use a food processor if desired)

125g milk eating chocolate (4.4oz) grated

3 tsp Raspberry liqueur (optional)

24 lollipop sticks

24 heart shapes, either make yourself from fondant or buy pre-made. 

24 iced, frosted or glazed cupcakes

plus of 375g (13oz) tempered dark chocolate if planning to chocolate coat the truffles

Method

Place the both the grated milk & dark chocolate into the bowl of your stand mixer. In a medium saucepan bring the cream to the boil. Remove from heat, let cool for a minute or two and then tip in grated chocolate.

Beat on medium high speed for 5 minutes, stop the mixer and the let the chocolate mixture become cool. Add the raspberry liqueur if using and beat a further 5 minutes. The mixture will become lighter in colour and texture. 

Refrigerate the mix for 15 minutes or until chocolate is firm enough to handle. 

Line a baking sheet with baking paper & with clean hands roll 2 tsp's of mixture into a ball, place on baking tray and repeat.

               Rolled truffles before coating

Chill for 5 minutes.

Have your cupcakes ready.

Remove truffle mixture from the refrigerator, insert the lollipop sticks, then dip each truffle one by one into the tempered dark chocolate, place each completed truffle pop into position on the cupcakes. When the pops are set, attach heart decorations with a dab of melted chocolate.

*You will need 75g-2.6oz of dutch process cocoa or crushed nuts to coat 25 truffles

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Love heart Sprinkles

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Chocolate Ganache & Truffles

Cupcake Cases, Liners, Papers & Wrappers

Cupcake liners can match your theme, just be pretty or act as an inspiration like these gorgeous cupcake cases from Vestli House.

Haaaa! I just love that the designs carry through to the bottom of the cases!

Vestli House a Scandinavian that produces, top end, high quality cupcake cases, baking moulds & wrapping paper.

Made from high quality Swedish greaseproof paper, packaged in packs of 20 cases.

These are the cases you use for special occasions, they bake beautifully, with deep crisp pleating ensuring they stay put on the cupcake. 

To see their other stunning designs including 'Mary' which I used for the Scotch Whisky Puddle Cakes visit their official site Vestli House. 

Available in Oz from Little Betsy Baker and Cupcake House

Sprung!

Blue Bayou cupcake, pineapple cupcake, ice coconut frosting and blue toffee springs.

Join me on Facebook ... the fastest way to get answers to your questions.

Blue Toffee Springs; whether you colour your toffee blue like I did or leave a natural toffee colour, toffee springs are quick to make with a little practice. They do have that "ooo, ahhh" factor and are glisteningly pretty. 

If you have a butchers steel, you can get a nice shape reducing in size, however I don't have one so I used something I have in abundance a wooden spoon.

A candy thermometer makes testing the temperature easy.

Obvious, but toffee is HOT ... handle with extreme care around kids, pets and yourself!

Toffee spirals last 3 to 4 hours at room temperature, less if it's humid.

This might sound a bit daunting at first, but you will soon get the hang of it and be able to produce them quickly when needed. Perfect finishing touch to a special dessert.

Ingredients

140g (5oz) sugar

140ml (5fl oz) hot water

*2 teaspoons of glucose syrup or corn syrup (optional)

Blue paste food colour

Prepare

Partially fill your sink with iced water.

Oil your wooden spoon/s handles or oil sharpening steel

Place greaseproof paper over your work area.

Method

Put sugar, hot water & the syrup into a small saucepan.

Heat on low heat, stirring until the sugar is fully dissolved. Washing down the inside of saucepan with a wet pastry brush to remove any loose sugar crystals as you go.

Bring the mixture to the boil over high heat, and continue to boil until the sugar registers 155-160°C / 300-318° F on a *candy thermometer. This is hard crack stage. 

Lift your saucepan off the stove and dip base into the iced water bath you have in your sink for 15 seconds to stop the cooking process.

Add your food colour and stir gently with a wooden spoon, first in one direction and then in the other direction to stop air bubbles forming.  Don't over stir. 

Now you wait until the toffee thickens, it doesn't take long, test by lifting a little on a spoon it should slowly drip off. 

Holding your oiled wooden spoon/sharpening steel in one hand, get a spoonful of toffee out of the pot and starting at the lower end rapidly wrap the thread of toffee around and around forming a spring. 

After 20 to 30 seconds remove spring gently from the spoon by pushing upwards from base.  Repeat. 

If toffee hardens before you are finished reheat gently on stovetop. However, if you have used food colour reheating can change the colour pigment. 

*Don't have a candy thermometer? To test toffee manually, drop a small amount into a glass of cold water. The resulting toffee will feel hard between your fingers and make a cracking sound when broken.  

*The glucose/corn syrup stops the risk of crystallisation, you don't have to use it or could replace with a teaspoon of strained lemon for the same result.                                                                                                                              

From one pot of coloured toffee you can produce different shades of colour. Thicker springs have the most intense colour, create thick, thin and medium for varying shades. By adjusting the tension and using a pulling/stretching motion when making a spring will result in a pale ribbon like finish. 

Cupcakes Cases, Liners, Papers & Wrappers

December's Pick

Cupcake liners can act as an inspiration, just be "pretty" or match your theme.

These paper liners from Fancy Flours fill all the above criteria. Imagine your blue, white & sliver Christmas theme with cupcakes baked in the blue liners, add billowing white frosting, a little sparkle... gorgeous! 

Pack size: 45

Colours: blue, red, pink, yellow, brown, white, green & light blue. 

The liners are from Fancy Flours one of the best sources for cupcake cases/liner on the net. 

Ganache

The Devil Made Me Do It Cupcake
Whipped and Piped Ganache Frosting tops a Devils food cake with flakes of Valrhona chocolate.

Melted, Shaped, Whipped, Dark, White, Dipped, Spread, Milk, all words associated with what must be one of the most versatile ways to use chocolate... Ganache.

Heated heavy cream is poured over chopped chocolate and stirred until blended. 

Depending on the ratio of chocolate to cream, ganache can be used for
Cupcake fillings; one part cream to two parts chocolate
Pouring glaze; one part cream to three parts chocolate 
Light filling; equal parts cream and chocolate. 

Refrigerated ganache can be whipped until piping consistency to pipe on your cakes. Truffles can be formed from cooled ganache, whipped or not.

The ganache can be flavoured with alcohol; Tia Maria, framboise liqueur and Grand Marnier are some my favourites but coffee and pure vanilla essence come are wonderful too. 

Whilst heavy cream is usually used, try sour cream or crème fraîche. Play around with ratios to come up with something that is right for you.

For cupcakes I make ganache fillings, sometimes with praline mixed through, other times chopped toasted nuts, or white chocolate with a berry liqueur. The possibilities are endless, whether your a classic dark chocolate type or wasabi and white chocolate is more your thing, you'll be tempted by ganache. 

Basic Ganache frosting
Makes 2 cups

1 cup of cream
400g of dark eating chocolate, chopped
Pinch of salt
2 tbs of liqueur (optional)

Bring bring cream to the boil, remove from heat, let stand a few minutes before pouring over chopped chocolate and stir until melted, add liqueur if using. Refrigerate until cold. Beat with an electric mixer until colour lightens, being careful not to over beat as ganache will be become grainy. Pipe as per usual. Leftover ganache can be rolled into small balls to form truffles.

*Alton brown makes ganache frosting with equal parts cream/chocolate, Joy of Baking adds a few tablespoons of unsalted butter, Rose levy Beranbaum uses a food processor to blend the chocolate & the cream. As you work more with ganache you'll develop your own ratios, flavours & techniques to suit your personal taste and baking needs. Enjoy!

*To use ganache as a glaze topping see Midnight Mint Mini Cupcakes

*To use ganache as a filling for cupcakes see Gingerbread Boys & Chocolate Truffle Cupcakes

Falling off

I hadn't seen this before, cases falling totally off the baked cupcakes.

Hmmm, well I've had paper cases separate from the side of cupcakes before, but I've never seen them totally fall off until this week. 

I used red cases to bake a batch of vanilla and a batch of chocolate, then I baked a batch of the same chocolate cake in brown cases. 

An hour after baking all the red cases fell off the chocolate cakes, not a slight lift away from the edge, they totally fell off! No problems with vanilla cakes in the same red cases, or any problems with brown cases. 

There is a few reasons for cupcake cases coming away from the sides of cupcakes, the main culprit is the brand of the cases. Good cases are made from medium weight paper greaseproof paper, not too wide across the top & straighter sides. Sweden and Scandinavia  produce exceptional cases. Fox Run in Australia produces lighter weight papers, but they do stay put. The dark brown cases I use most of time I bulk buy from Earl Craft 'n' Cake inexpensive & reliable, they look great too.

As for the red ones, I guess I'm won't baking chocolate cakes in them ;) 

Scotch Whisky Puddle Cupcake

My Aunty Clare taught me to me "puddle cakes" when I was a little girl staying on her farm. 
Yellow butter cupcake with Scotch Whisky Marmalade. 

Aunty Clare  liked "a wee drop or two" in her cooking, I thought pavlova's were a Creme De Menthe flavoured dessert as a child, apricots & peaches were brandied, there was something in those devilled kidney's that wasn't just Worcestershire sauce and the scotch whisky trifle we had at Christmas time put hairs on your chest! 

Whilst I wouldn't recommend drenching your trifle with scotch whisky, Aunty Clare's Orange Whisky Marmalade that filled her "Puddle cupcakes" are a nice gift for those who are brave at heart. 

Scotch Whisky Puddle Cakes

12 to 24 baked yellow butter cakes

Aunty Clare's Scotch Whisky Marmalade

Ingredients
750g (1.6lb) of washed bitter (Seville) oranges
750g (1.6lb) of sugar
1 tbs of Treacle
2 tbs of Scotch Whisky

Method
Put your oranges in a pot and cover with just over a litre of water (1.5 pints), cover your pot and simmer for an hour until fruit is soft. Remove the fruit from the pan with slotted spoon and put aside to cool. 

Measure the liquid from the pot to make 3 cups (use water to make up the volume if you are a bit short). Stir in the sugar. 

Halve your cooled oranges, scoop the flesh and the pips into a piece of muslin and tie to make a bag. Cut the peel coarsely. 

Put your sugar liquid, and muslin bag in a clean pot and stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. 

Increase the heat and cook at a rolling boil for 10 minutes until the marmalade has reached setting point. Cool for 10 minutes, stir in whisky and pour into sterilised jars or make puddle cupcakes.

To make a puddle cupcakes; Use a cookie cutter (Aunty Claire used a scone cutter) to mark out a circle on top of your cupcakes. With a small knife take away a shallow circle of cake within the circle you marked.

Pour or spoon warm Scotch Whisky Marmalade into circle.

Notes: Changes I made... I used sweet oranges and only used a little bit of peel cut the peel into a fine shred. 

Setting point; Remove pan from heat when testing. Everyone is using different sized pots, so use setting time as a guide only and test early, otherwise you might end up with rubbery marmalade.  Aunty Clare wasn't using a sugar thermometer, she used the cold saucer method... put a teaspoon of hot jam on the sauce if after a minute you can push the marmalade with your finger and it wrinkles/holds it's ready. 

Tool Time

                         Lemon & Lime Meringue Cupcake 

Tool Time the kitchen tools and gadgets I love.

Cutters; aspic cutters, cookie cutters & icing cutters. Love them! I use the small aspic cutters a lot, though my favourites are my tin of round cookie cutters, for cookies, cutting the centre out of cupcakes ready for filling, cutting fondant, savoury applications & they can also double as food rings. 

Plastic cutters do the job, tin cutters are less expensive & give cleaner lines, but if you're a regular baker I'd recommend investing in a set of rust proof stainless steel cutters.

Round cutter set; available kitchenware & cake decorating stores

Ready for filling, leave filled cake without the cake "plug" or put a teaspoon of filling in the hole and reinsert the cake "plug", ice/frost as usual.

Aspic cutter set

Cranberry curd fills a vanilla sponge cake

Is Bacon Optional? Cupcake

Maple Pumpkin spiced cupcake with Maple Buttercream and Bacon Toffee Topper

My Step-son Daniel looking dubious asked when I was about to make pumpkin cupcakes with bacon toffee topper "is the bacon optional?"

Ha! This comes from someone who made "Bitchin Chocolate Bacon" this year for his high school cooking portfolio. Not only did he make it, but I dutifully tried it... my first meat in 25 years! 

Photography & food styling Daniel Paxton-Zahra

Daniel's Bitchin' Chocolate Bacon

INGREDIENTS

4 slices of bacon, rind removed, finely diced

450g (1lb) milk chocolate

100g (4oz) dark 70% chocolate

I cup of slivered toasted almonds

PREPARATION

1. Preheat oven to 190c - 375 degrees F.
2. Place bacon on a baking tray and bake until crisp, about 15-20 minutes, stirring once. Melt chocolate in double boiler over low heat. Stir crisp bacon bits into chocolate and place back on the baking tray. Sprinkle with almonds and refrigerate for 30 minutes or until ready to serve. Cut into wedges. 

Surprisingly moreish. 

Adapted from Iron Chef Michael Symons Chocolate-Covered Bacon with Almonds

Daniel sits his final ever High School exam today, Food Tech. Good Luck Dan!