Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
2 sticks butter (cut into pieces)
12 ounces unsweetened chocolate (finely chopped)
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
Method:
-Preheat over to 350 degrees
-In a mixing bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt
-Heat Butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water
-Remove from heat when melted and then add sugar
-With an electric mixer on medium high, add eggs one at a time until completely mixed
-Add vanilla and beat for three minutes
-Reduce speed to low and add 2/3 of the flour mix. Beat until just combined
-Remove from the electric mixer and fold in the rest of the flour mixture
-Fill cupcake cups 2/3 full
-Once cupcakes have cooled, remove cupcake liners and place aside
For the YUMMY cream filling:
Ingredients:
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup icing sugar
Method:
-whisk heavy cream until soft peaks form
-add icing sugar, whisking until combined
Once you have made the cream filling, put it in a pastry bag with a tip that has a wide hole ad the end. Take the largest tip you have and cut out a hole from the top of the cupcake.
Once you've done that, fill the hole with the yummy cream you've just made. I could eat this stuff like ice cream!
After you've filled the cupcake with the fluffing, it's time to make the marshmallow icing! This is pretty tricky but super fun (it's like making dough).
Ingredients:
8 ounce bag of marshmallows
2 pounds of powdered sugar (1 normal bag)
2 tablespoons of water
1 small can of crisco
Method:
-put the marshmallows and water in a microwave-safe bowl for two minutes
-stir thoroughly until smooth
-add about 1 1/2 pounds of the powdered sugar and stir with a well greased spoon (use the Crisco)
-Thoroughly grease your hands and work surface with the Crisco and knead the icing until it isn’t sticky anymore. If it’s sticky, add more sugar. If it’s dry and tearing, add a teaspoon or two of water and knead it in. The icing is finished when the dough is pliable and stretchy without tearing
After the icing is ready, take a golf ball size amount and flatten it out so it it a large enough circle to cover the entire cupcake (besides the bottom). Once you have a large enough flattened piece of icing, place it on top of the cupcake and press lightly around the bottom edges of the cupcake. Then, cut the excess icing off of the cupcake and gently press the icing under the bottom.
Now it's time for the fun part! I took a bag of sweetened coconut and another bag of unsweetened coconut and mixed it together. I put the coconut mixture on a piece of parchment paper and got ready to have fun! I realized when I was trying to put the coconut on,that it wasn't sticking quite right. I lightly greased the top of the icing with a sliver of butter (you could use water to make the icing sticky again) and then put the coconut all over the icing.
I then had a chance to step back and take a look at my masterpiece :)
And then I got to taste my masterpiece, and boy was it a beautiful symphony of ingredients!
Thanks for this great opportunity Small Town Oven! If I make it to the finals, (fingers crossed) instead of cutting a hole in the top and inserting the icing that way, cut off the top of the cupcake and scoop some cream into the middle, then put the top of the cupcake back on. The marshmallow icing will hold the whole cupcake together. I love coconut and I promise you wil love this yummy yummy homemade snowball!
Make sure you check out the flickr account for Cupcake Hero! You can follow this link: http://flickr.com/groups/cupcakehero!
