Theme: Cup
Recipe: Black Forest Cupcakes
Cookbook: High Tea at The Victoria Room
When I was younger, my paternal grandmother would bake cupcakes for my family as a treat. These cupcakes came with a fluffy vanilla base and three different types of icing: white, pink, and chocolate (not “brown”, because that sounded icky to my mind). Each cupcake would be garnished with one single walnut half, one single M&M, or one single piece of crystallised ginger.
These cupcakes were subject to a very strict hierarchy in my world. The hierarchy went, from top to bottom, Chocolate with M&M, Chocolate with Walnut, White with M&M, White with Walnut, Chocolate with Ginger if the ginger was whipped off and thrown away instantaneously, Pink with M&M, and then came Pink with Walnut, Vanilla with Ginger, and Pink with Ginger. These last three options were never eaten.
I remember, very distinctly, one afternoon deciding that I was going to be a Big Grown-Up Girl and try one of the cupcake flavours I always passed over. I picked up a Pink Iced Cupcake with Single Walnut Garnish, and skipped merrily outside to my grandmother’s front lawn to eat while I played.
Except I really didn’t want the cupcake. I nibbled the icing, then stood perplexed, frantic, conspiring, in the garden. How could I get rid of it without hurting my grandma’s feelings? Eventually, I tucked the cupcake between the roots of a big tree, trying to ignore the way the pink of the icing shone bright, bright, proudly, amongst the brown wood.
Half an hour later, I got into the back of my parents’ car. I waved goodbye to my grandma, who had walked out to the footpath to farewell us.
As our car pulled away from the kerb, I saw my grandma turn as a flash of pink caught her eye. As our car turned the corner, I saw my grandma stare into the roots of the sole tree in the middle of her front lawn.
I still feel guilty about that day.
What does this story have to do with The Cookbook Challenge? Not much. After all, the Black Forest Cupcakes that I made for its Cup theme are polar opposites to my grandma’s cupcakes. Where the latter were light and fluffy as clouds, the former are dark, dense, and rich; they’re more like mini mudcakes than cupcakes.
Also, there’s no way I would ever have hidden one of these babies in the roots of a tree to avoid eating it. These Black Forest Cupcakes are far, far to delectably delicious for such naughty treatment.
Black Forest Cupcakes
Recipe from High Tea at The Victoria Room, a cookbook I won last year from my darling friend Lorraine
- 425g can pitted cherries in syrup
- 165g butter, roughly chopped, at room temperature
- 100g good quality dark cooking chocolate, roughly chopped
- 100g dark eating chocolate
- 215g (1 1/3 cups) castor sugar
- 75ml cherry brandy (I used kirsch, because that’s all we had)
- 170g (1 cup) plain flour
- 2tb (40ml) self-raising flour
- 2tb (40ml) cocoa powder
- 1 egg
- Preheat oven to 170°C . Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.
- Drain the cherries, reserving the syrup. In a blender or food processor, process 130g cherries with 125ml (1/2 cup) of the reserved syrup until smooth. Slice remaining cherries in half and set aside. Discard the remaining syrup (says the cookbook – I say keep it for drizzling on oatmeal the next morning!)
- Place butter, chocolate, sugar, brandy/kirsch and cherry puree in a medium saucepan over low heat, stirring until chocolate has melted. Leave to cool.
- Once mixture has cooled, lightly whisk in sifted flours and cocoa, then add egg. Divide mixture between muffin tin.
- Bake for 40 minutes. Once cooked and firm to the touch, remove from oven and allow to cool in tin, then on a wire rack until completely cool.
- If you want to follow the cookbook perfectly, whip 165ml thickened cream with 2 tsp of cherry brandy, spread over the cupcakes, the top with cherry halves and grated chocolate. I admit that this makes for a more accurate “black forest” presentation than what I did (which was put cherry halves on the unadorned muffins). However, I was divvying these muffins up for several people and many were likely to be stored in freezers, so I needed to keep the cupcakes plain and freeze-able. Anyway, everyone knows that cream attracts bugs amidst foliage.
{ 67 comments… read them below or add one }
Ah, I love a good, chocolate-y anecdote. Was the pink icing strawberry- or food coloring-flavored? (That is, was it the same flavor as white, but the pinkness sentenced it to a tree root-y death?)
That first photo has great lighting and composition! I expected it to be from the cookbook.
Lauren, sometimes you amaze me with the way your questions link directly into my mind
I actually originally had a whole ‘nother paragraph about that, but ended up taking it out for brevity’s sake. The funny thing is that, as you guessed and I discovered when I made the cupcakes with Grandma for the first time, the white and pink were the same in flavour. In fact, Grandma would just make the one icing base – first, when it was plain and white, she’d ice a third of the cupcakes, then she’d add pink food colouring and ice another third, then to the leftover icing she’d add cocoa and ice the rest. So, really, when I ate the chocolate cupcakes I was in reality also eating the white and pink ones 
I would’ve sworn, however, that the pink one tasted weird.
Aw, Lauren, thank you!! Still haven’t chosen a new camera for myself, though… I HATE decisions like that!
oh what a cute story to accompany such cute cupcakes!
Aww poor granny, well, you can’t like everything someone bakes, but I’m sure I’d love your little schwarzwald muffins!
Thank you! yes, I had a very hit-and-miss relationship with Grandma Mickey’s goodies – loved her pikelets and the grated apple-and-sugar snack, hated the hedgehog slice with its crystallised ginger :S
They look really rich and decadent, full of chocolate, the way it should be!
Amen, friend. Amen.
gorgeous photos!! i would like these for dinner now please
Swap you for some LuxBite treats?
Hello gorgeous! Oh I’m so delighted that you’ve used the book for your cupcake challenge. And lol that’s the kind of thing I used to do with food I didn’t like. I like to think that we were trying to spare other people’s feelings no?
You hid cake in the garden too?
Here I was thinking I was the only person clever enough for that… The cookbook is gorgeous! So many scone recipes I want to make 
Thank you!
Well, what can I say? I’d feel guilty too.
When my sister and I were kids, my mum used to make us eat tripe soup!! We carefully spat each piece of tripe into a serviette and hid it under the table.
Of course I don’t feel the least bit guilty about that. My mum is the one who should be losing sleep over it until this day!!
And yet another point of wonderful similarity between us, Margaret! My dad once made a tripe soup for us…. suffice to say that my and my brother’s reactions were enough to ensure he didn’t try again. Funnily enough, I wouldn’t mind trying it once more nwo that I’m All Grown Up.
Your childhood cupcake memories made me smile. Perhaps your grandmother thought you were sharing with the tree? Or something
You might appreciate my similar experiences with chocolate chip biscuits at my grandmother’s house. She made a great chocolate chip biscuit – chewy, lots of chocolate chips, sugar sprinkled on top. But sometimes she added ginger. Not always, but you never knew when it would be hiding inside. The horror of biting into a big chunk of crystallised ginger – and not being able to spit it out – stays with me to this day. I like ginger now, but the crystallised variety will forever be Ick!
Kari, I appreciate that story so much that I’m mentally spitting out cookie with you as I read
I, too, used to hate all ginger, and while I like fresh ginger in savoury meals and ground ginger in cakes now, I still feel nauseous when I taste crystallised ginger :S
I can’t handle too much ginger. And not much is too much.
And phony-strawberry flavored cupcakes always made me nervous! Probably because I kept falling for them, lured in time after time by their pretty color. But I never liked the taste. Even thinking about it now, I can taste them. But I hope I wouldn’t fall for them again!
Me too. Except if it’s ground ginger in gingerbread or pain d’epice. Then I can’t get enough
Funny thing was, these cupcakes weren’t even strawberry flavoured, just white icing with pink colouring! However, because I detested fake strawberry flavour and assumed that’s what these cupcakes were, I avoided them like the plague
These look delish! I would prefer your cupcakes to your grandmothers because I prefer dense chocolate cake to fluffy vanilla. The story about the pink cupcake makes me remember why I don’t put too much effort into baking for kids – and I also grimaced at some of my own memories not involving cupcakes but involving a basketball and a rose bush.
A basketball and a rosebush? Is this a story that ends with a poor scratched-up Johanna? Oh no!
P.S. I don’t believe the rest of your comment, though – I’ve seen how amazing your birthday cakes for kids are!
Awww… poor granny! But yum on your cupcakes! The next time, bring some down.. black forest is the Boy’s absolute favourite!!
Look there she goes that girl is so peculiar, she’s rather strange, why, can’t you tell? With a dreamy far-off look, and her nose stuck in a book… there’s no denying….
… she’s a funny girl that Belle…
But do you know I think it’s time for? A progression further into the story, no?
Soup du jour! Hot hor d’oeuvres! Why, we only live to serve….
Mmm, these look delicious. I kind of like the idea of them without icing though – you get to focus on the flavour and texture of the cupcake itself.
That’s how I feel about most cakes, particularly the American-style cupcakes with miles-high thick butter frosting. Too much for me, thanks all the same!
Hannah, I have to give it to you – that’s one immensely creative way of ridding yourself of an unwanted cupcake! I have to remember that should I ever find myself in a similar situation, but maybe improve a bit upon the technique.
Your poor grandma was probably perplexed beyond belief, but I’m sure she has since forgiven you. Your black forest cupcakes on the other hand deserve nothing but to be eaten, by the dozen if possible! They look wonderful. 
*bows* I’m sure that you, with all your worldly wisdom, could manage to hide an unwanted cupcake far more inconspicuously than I! My hopes is that grandma has not only forgiven but forgotten this episode… she was supposed to get some of these cupcakes, actually, but I think my dad might’ve eaten all hers…
Yum, those look wonderful! How did you know that I’ve been craving chocolate cake like nothing else lately? Ah, this doesn’t ease the temptation, you know…
I think I probably knew because you’re a Hannah, and craving chocolate is what Hannahs do
Very pretty with the delicate little cherries yoga-balancing on top! I love that they’re sans frosting, the cake is always the best part.
Yoga-balancing – love it!!
these look amazing hannah! what a unique combo of ingredients here! easily veganizable too
.
Absolutely! All you’d really need to do is use a flax egg – I considered doing that myself, actually, but am meant to stick to teh cookbook recipe in this Challenge…
I may be forced to make these and do a cost breakdown just as a excuse! They look lovely!
Sounds like a plan to me!
For a moment, I thought the cherries on top were OLIVES! That would’ve been unique indeed…but not nearly so enticing as these are.
Is it bad that I now really want to make sweet olive muffins? Or maybe just savoury olive bread. Olive beer bread! Yes. Yes, that’s my plan. Except I’m going away this weekend and have no time to bake. Darnit. Olive dreams foiled.
Olive beer bread! Yes! Do it do it do it! As much as I like liquor and wine, pretty much the only way I will ingest beer is in bread. In fact, I haven’t made beer bread in forever. Hmm, how to fit it in amongst the 150+ raw recipes I’m testing this next month…
Aha! At least we have one point of difference in our tastes – I’m quite a fan of beer, I must admit. Y’know, on the one time every four months when I decide I’m in the mood to drink alcohol
Remind me to do the olive beer bread in a week or so, when I have time to breathe and therefore bake? And oh, it is a hard life you lead!
I love that they have cherry puree in them, they sound absolutely gorgeous. I also love that you had a cupcake heirarchy – I know exactly what you mean by that, while I never had many cupcakes in my youth I definitely had food heirarchies of what was preferable to eat out of given options. Did your grandmother ever bring it up with you again? Or just let it hang over you forevermore…
She never, ever mentioned it. It was the elephant-cupcake in the room… Thankfully, I was such an enormous fan of her pikelets that I think I made up for my naughtiness by eating insane amounts of later afternoon teas
Blackforest and cherry cake is very popular over here – it has alternating layers of chocolate dough and cream filling with cherries.
http://www.firstbreeze.com/TI-Privatordner/Blogs/Koch-Banausen/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Schwarzw%C3%A4lder-Kirschtorte.jpg
Teehee, I kinda love that you thought I didn’t know what a real Black Forest cake was!
My dad’s dessert claim to fame is his Black Forest Cake, which takes him five hours to make and is something he learned when living in Germany in his twenties. Sadly, though, I’ve never liked it myself… I actually don’t much like fruit with chocolate, or cream, or cake for that matter…
Me neither.
Hahah oh no! Your poor grandma! Isn’t it funny how we hold on to and still feel so bad about those stories? I remember once my dad bought me a pack of Fruit Striped Gum and I was mad at him for some reason and when he offered it to me as a peace offering I threw it on the floor and said I didn’t want it. I can STILL see how hurt his face looked and I still feel SO guilty whenever I think about it!
Those cupcakes however, look amazing and I wouldn’t mind going for one right about now
What abotu poor me? I had an unwanted cupcake stressing me out!
Oh, your story! That breaks my heart a little! We’ve all done things like that though… at least we know our family will always love us anyway
poor grandma…
i love black forest, making me hungry too early!
oh those cupcakes look perfect!
Mmmmm scrumptious!!! LOVE black forest cake
Great story Hannah, and great cupcakes. Brought back memories of how, as a child, I would ask for some wine with dinner at my grandparents place, to feel like a grown-up. It would taste disgusting to me so I’d dilute it with water. Still disgusting. So I would somehow manage to leave the table with the glass in hand and tip it down the sink in the bathroom. Given that I quite like wine now, I’ve decided that it offended my superior wine tasting palette, which was clearly evident as a child
Teehee! I love hearing everyone else’s stories like this! Your story has, in turn, reminded me of another of mine – I used to order natural oysters for the same reason, to feel like a grown-up. I think it only took a few dozen before I switched from having to swallow them quickly to really and truly loving them
Black Forest Cupcakes sound amazing, I will have to try these, I absolutely love the chocolate and cherry combination, amazing!!
It’s pretty good, I must admit!
I tried a black forest cake once and it was SHOCKING! But the cupcakes look a lot more manageable, thanks for sharing!
Shocking in a bad way? That’s unfortunate! You should make these to rectify the bad associations in your mind
Mmmm… these look so tasty, girl!
When I first came to America, I thought icing was so pretty…until I ate it. Blergh! Cannot stand icing or frosting of any kind. I wasn’t as kind as you though. Even when I was young, if someone served me bad food, I would refuse to eat it. I thought they deserved it for making me eat crappy food.
Bahaha! I’m sure they did, Sophia, I’m sure they did.
(P.S. I’m with you on being anti-icing and frosting. Particularly in America, where there’s always so much of it and it’s always insanely sweet!)
Sounds like a great recipe that could be done gluten free. (And, I do like this blog. I find out all sorts of naughty childhood secrets. Keep ‘em coming!)
Oh, I’ve got some real corkers that you probably never knew, but I might have to keep a few properly secret
I think you’re right, this could easily be gluten-free! Because they’re quite dense, the Ogran would work well. Actually, if you want to know a real secret, I *did* use gluten-free self-raising here!
Mm delicious! I made black forest cupcakes a while ago too. The flavor combination is just so winning.
I bet yours looked about a hundred thousand times cuter than mine
Funny the things we remember and feel guilty about, or laugh about when we”re older. I have stories like that from back in the day.
Share, share! I like hearing others’ funny embarrassing childhood stories
Oh your poor grandma! And what is it about grandparents and their fetish for ginger right? This sound delish girl xx
Thanks love
Though, you know, I think I know of at least one new mum who has a fetish for ginger in her smoothies too 
I would have been way to scared to hide anything in the garden from my grandmother. She was soooooooooo strict. I still shudder when I think of peas. But go you hiding the pink top cupcake darlin, why didnt you dig a hole and bury it???
Your cuppies look delish. I love blackforest, yummy.
Ew, dig a hole and get dirt under my fingernails?! EW! (This is me trying to cover up the fact that I was clearly too stupid to think of a better hiding place than RIGHT OUT IN THE OPEN.
)
If you want, you can adopt my grandmas and get big comforting hugs from both, right here in Canberra – they’re both utterly lovely
P.S. Note to self: don’t serve bestie peas.
I’ll take a dozen of these cupcakes, please and thank you
{ 3 trackbacks }