Chocolate Madness Dessert Confusion

Hi Guys. I have a bit of a confession to make. I am getting a bit cocky on the baking front. Ever since I figured out I can just make up my own recipe from scratch, I'm under the impression I can just throw a bunch of ingredients together willy nilly and come up with an awesome recipe. When it comes to cupcakes, I can usually manage since I know the dry ingredients to wet ingredients ratio, etc. But this recipe was a bit more complicated. KJ asked for chocolate cupcakes for his birthday but I didn't want to just make plain ol' chocolate cupcakes. I decided to throw in a little twist: COOKIE DOUGH. Chocolate chip cookie dough filled chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting. SO MUCH CHOCOLATE! I had made cookie dough truffles before so I was just going to whip up something like that and drop them in the batter and bake them. Did I have any urge to use a recipe? No. Did I have any right to not use a recipe? No. I don't know anything about cookies or cookie dough. That's why I bake cupcakes. I wound up just adding a little bit of this and that and made the most awful tasting cookie dough to ever grace this lovely planet. So I just kept adding things (SUGAR) until it was acceptable for these cupcakes. So the recipe I'm providing for you today could taste exactly like the cupcakes I made or they could be completely different, but I'm sure they will still taste delicious.

Some semi-candid birthday cupcake love

CHOCOLATE CAKE:

This is just a simple chocolate cake recipe. It is the same one I used in my Mint Chocolate Chip cupcakes.

CHOCOLATE CAKE: (This is just a basic chocolate cake recipe so if you have a favorite, use it!)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 t baking soda
3/4 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 t Vanilla
1/2 cup boiling water

Sift all of the dry ingredient in a large bowl. Add the egg, milk, canola oil, and vanilla and mix until combined. Add the boiling water and stir until there aren't patches of water in the batter. This batter is a bit runny so I used a ladle to spoon it into the lined cupcake tin.

COOKIE DOUGH:

This is a recipe that looked most similarly to what I put in my cookie dough from The Galley Gourmet.

8ounces (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips, plus extra for garnish
3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
pinch of kosher salt

Cream the butter and sugar together for about 2-3 minutes. Add the vanilla, flour, and salt and mix until combined. Fold the chocolate chips into the dough. Roll the dough into balls (1/2 inch in diameter) and freeze for two hours.

Once the cookie dough has been frozen, place one cookie dough ball in each cupcake slot. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. Let these cool completely before frosting them.

CHOCOLATE BUTTER CREAM:

1 1/2 sticks butter (room temperature)

3 Cups powdered sugar

Splash of Vanilla

2 Heaping Tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder

2 T milk or heavy cream

Beat the butter until fluffy. Add the powdered sugar in segments. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until light and fluffy. You could use more or less cocoa depending on your tastes. This frosting was delightfully chocolately. Spoon or pipe onto completely cooled cupcakes.

These cupcakes were delicious. The cookie baked a little more than I was anticipating inside of the cupcake. If you are going for a super doughy filling, I'd add the cookie dough after baking the cake. Just spoon out the center and drop in a gooey ball of dough. If you are using this method, there isn't much need to freeze the dough. I gave them to KJ for his birthday and apparently he was rather unwilling to share with his roommates. He said these were his favorite recipe yet. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED, KJ. Hopefully my next batch of cupcakes will surpass these extremely chocolatey bundles of madness.

It's March! Get out in the sun!

xoxo,

KG