Cathy's Cream Filled Cupcakes

The BakeSpace Challenge for September was to cook something from someone else's kitchen.

Everyone who wanted to participate signed up and Shane picked names for everyone.

I ended up with Cathy (The Dutch Baker's Daughter).

On my first browse through Cathy's recipes, I thought I wanted to make her Worstebroodjes. Dutch food. Definitely a challenge for me.

But time got away from me and I didn't think I'd have a good chance to do it. I didn't want to try working with dough on a week night and didn't have much weekend time left.

So after another browse through, I decided to go with her Cream Filled Cupcakes.

These are Cathy's.

They look like Hostess Cupcakes!


Yeah... mine don't look anything like that!

Cathy's Cream Filled Cupcakes
Filling Ingredients:
3 tablespoons flour
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 t. vanilla

Cupcake Ingredients:
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 cups water
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa

Chocolate Glaze Ingredients:
1 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Line (2) 12 cup cupcake pans with cupcake liners.

In large bowl, combine all of the cupcake ingredients and mix until well-blended. Fill each cupcake liner 3/4 full and bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until cupcakes spring back to touch. Remove cupcakes from pans and allow to cool on wire racks.

In small pan, whisk 3 tablespoons flour with 3/4 cup milk. Heat over medium heat, whisking constantly, until mixture is thick. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.

Combine 3/4 cup butter and 3/4 cup sugar in large mixing bowl. Fit mixer with paddle and beat butter and sugar several minutes until fluffy. Add cooled flour/milk mixture and continue to beat until mixture is creamy. Add vanilla and mix until just combined.

Fit a pastry bag with a #5 tip and fill with buttercream filling. Insert tip about 1/2 inch deep into the top of each cupcake and fill cupcake with buttercream. Set aside any unused filling.

In small saucepan, combine chocolate chips and 1/4 cup butter. Over low heat, melt chocolate and butter, mixing together until melted and smooth.

Swirl the top of each cupcake into chocolate glaze, coating the top of each cake. Then, using leftover filling, pipe a swirl of buttercream on top of each cupcake.

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Ok, so cake from scratch... I don't have much experience with it.

This is the only cake I can remember making from scratch.


It turned out fine (if you like chocolate), but I didn't have to 'fill' it! Just a layer of frosting in the middle, which I can totally do.

So anyway....

I followed Cathy's directions and mixed the cupcake ingredients well.

(those are bubbles, not lumps)

The thing I'm noticing about cake from scratch, well, chocolate cake from scratch anyway, is that the batter is wicked thin.

I made a huge mess!


I don't think it had anything to do with the margarita. I'm pretty experienced with those! Just not thin cake batter from scratch!

I won't show what a mess I made on the floor! But somehow there were lots of little drips there too!

Ok... so baked those for about 18 minutes.


So far so good!

Now on to the filling.

Perhaps I didn't get it thick enough.


Combined the butter and sugar.


Added the thickened (not thick enough??) milk and flour.


Hmmm... I guess it's not looking very thick, is it?

So that seemed way too thin.

It was a gazillion degrees in my kitchen, so that didn't help matters I'm sure!

I kept adding powdered sugar to try to thicken up.


Still didn't seem thick enough, but I had already added a ton of powdered sugar, so I decided to just go with what I had.

Melted the chocolate chips with butter in my double boiler.


Then dug out my cake decorating kit.


Pretty cool kit for someone who doesn't decorate cakes huh?

When my Uncle Joe passed away, my mom was cleaning out his apartment and gave me a lot of his kitchen stuff.

I have to say, even though I don't use it often, I really love this!

Now to find the #5 tip.

Hmmm... there doesn't seem to be one. There's a #4 and a #6, but no #5.

Maybe it ended up in here.


I dunno. But I used the #6.

And I made a HUGE mess.

My filling was too thin. I don't know if it was the heat in my kitchen or just an error on my part (probably the latter!), but it was thin.

Then I filled the bag too full and ended up like this.


That pic compliments of my little sous chef, Bob. He was a huge help!

Stuff was oozing everywhere... Bob kept running for bowls and towels to try to contain my mess. He can be such a great help when he wants to be!

Anyway... no 'action' filling shots.

But I pushed the tip into the top of the cupcakes and squeezed.

How long? How much? So soupy! So messy!

But I got it done.




Then to dip them in the chocolate.

I can totally do that!


A coating of chocolate hides a mess nicely!


But my filling was WAY too thin for the cute decorative design.







Look! I actually got some filling in there!

Anyway... everyone really liked these!

And they weren't hard to make, at least I don't think they would have been if I hadn't messed up the frosting!

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ETA!

I totally forgot!!!

Cathy this is for you!!


I know this recipe isn't on your blog. And even though I had a hard time filling these... everyone really loved them!!