Bet you thought my cherry obsession was over? I did go on a bit of a cherry bender for a while. I mean, the Grilled Cherry Milkshakes and the Whipped Ricotta Toast with Balsamic Cherries did take care of my cherry cravings, at least for a while. And now they’re back! This time I’m letting them take the form of dessert with this Black Forest Cupcakes recipe. I think this is going to be the best of both worlds: fresh and canned cherries. Yes, I admit my shameful love for the sugary, syrupy canned cherry pie filling. These cupcakes are each filled with a canned cherry and topped with a fresh cherry. Oh, and there’s chocolate. Because chocolate.
Black forest cupcakes – your favorite cake in a petite cupcake size. Amazing and delicious. Get the recipe now.
The Ingredients
There are a dozen ingredients in these Black Forest Cupcakes, and I had to shop for nearly all of them. Nothing was difficult to find, but I did have sticker shock at the price of the fresh cherries. I guess they’re not in season, and all I could find was organic. They were $11.29 for a 1.13 pound back. Eek! But they won’t go to waste.
I also sprung for the cake flour instead of using the all-purpose flour in my pantry. From what I’ve read, cake flour makes a difference in the texture. We shall see.
The rest was a few dollars here and there, with the chocolate being on the higher end at $5.16. I opted for wafers because they melt well, but that also caused me to buy chocolate sprinkles to decorate the cupcakes. I could have saved a few dollars buying a chocolate bar and shaving the extra for decoration, but sometimes convenience is worth a little extra.
The Process
Making these black forest cupcakes can be broken down into 3 sections: making the cupcakes, filling them, and topping them. That might sound complicated, but these cupcakes really weren’t that much work.
There are a few pieces of equipment you’ll need, like a kitchen scale. The measurements for many of the ingredients are given in weights.
A stand mixer will also come in very handy, though you could also use a hand mixer. The beauty of the stand mixer is you can mix up the meringue and whipped cream while you are doing other steps, so it speeds things along. You could technically beat the egg whites and cream by hand, but you will be there for a looooooong time!
Here’s how my time broke down:
- 19 minutes to prep the cupcakes
- 25 minutes to bake
- 16 minutes to fill and top
- 1 hour total (cooling time not included)
The Cupcakes
I started out by adding the meringue ingredients to my stand mixer and turning it on high. Meringue can take ages, and I wanted to get a head start on it. I made the chocolate mixture in the meantime, and it was still ready before the meringue.
Once the meringue is folded into the chocolate mixture, it’s just a matter of filling the cupcake liners and baking them. The 25 minutes listed was the perfect amount of time.
I didn’t time the cooling process, but I’d say it was about an hour. I let them cool in the muffin tin for 10 minutes, then I placed them on wire cooling racks.
The Filling
Filling the cooled cupcakes was very simple. Even though they weren’t as tall/thick as some cupcakes I’ve made in the past, I didn’t have any trouble. The canned cherries were very small and didn’t need a lot of room. I used a teaspoon to make a small divot in the center of each cupcake then added some filling and a cherry.
If you’re into gadgets, you can use a cupcake corer. I’ll admit I’ve been eyeing this one for a while. But I don’t bake filled cupcakes all that often, so I’ve never bought it.
The Toppings
I actually started beating the whipping cream before I filled the cupcakes. I wanted to make sure it was super fluffy, and it did take a while. The recipe doesn’t specify how much heavy whipping cream to use, so I just guessed.
I used 1 cup of whipping cream and added 2 tablespoons of sugar for a little extra sweetness. The recipe notes say the cupcakes aren’t very sweet, so I thought a little extra sweetness here would be nice, and I was right.
Once the whipped cream was nice and thick, I added it to a piping bag and topped the cupcakes. There was just enough, but don’t get crazy or you’ll run out.
Then I topped my beautiful creations with a fresh cherry and some chocolate sprinkles, and voila! Gorgeous black forest cupcakes. I felt like a real baker LOL.
