Hot Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Filling

 

Are you still searching for an awesome cupcake? Well, look no further...seriously people, this one made me jump for joy. One, because it's chocolate. Two, because it's filled. Three, because it's topped with real whipped hot chocolate frosting. Four, I had all the ingredients on hand...lol. Need I say more?

I don't really want to give away my age, but I'm up there and I've tried a lot of cupcake recipes. While there have been good ones, there hasn't really been one that I loved...until now. Lucky for me, I found this wonderful cupcake recipe on Pinterest from Julianne at Beyond Frosting blog.

Now, I will say that I didn't follow her exact recipe. Heck, I hardly ever follow an entire recipe exactly as it is written because I like to change things to suit our taste. However, the frosting and the cupcake came from Julianne's blog, which I added to my awesome blog board on Pinterest. The cupcake recipe I followed was from her Peppermint Hot Chocolate Cupcake recipe and the frosting from her Hot Chocolate Whipped Cream recipe. The inside filling came from a Cream Filled Cupcake recipe from the allrecipes.com site.

I think the combination of the sweet cream filling and the light whipped cream frosting made the perfect cupcake for us. This is definitely one to try.

 

First step was to bake the cupcakes and core the centers. Just an FYI, I used Reynolds 2in. mini cupcake liners and they made approximately 48 cupcakes. These cups are between the size of the normal mini liners and the regular size liners. These liners produce a cupcake that is about three bites worth of cupcake goodness. Unless you're like my kids, these will produce two overflowing and stuffed mouthfuls of cupcake goodness.

 

 

Next, fill the cored out centers with cream filling. Make sure you let the cupcakes cool completely before filling.

I chose this recipe over the original because I didn't want to make marshmallow fluff :-)

*I used a pastry bag and tip to fill in the centers. If you don't have a pastry bag, fill a ziplock bag with the cream filling, cut the tip off and pipe into the cupcakes.*

 

 

 

Frost cupcakes with Hot Chocolate Whipped Cream.

Refrigerate the cupcakes to let the inside filling harden a bit.

Then enjoy the labors of your hard work.

*Keep uneaten cupcakes in the refrigerator*

 

 

Hot Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Filling

 

Insipired by Julianne @ beyond frosting blog

 

Cupcake

 

1 Box Chocolate cake mix

1/2 cup Hot chocolate mix

1 cup Milk

3 Large eggs

1/2 cup Vegetable oil

3/4 cup Sour Cream

2 tsp. Pure vanilla extract

 

Cream Filling

 

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup shortening                                                    

2 cups confectioners' sugar

1 pinch salt

3 T milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

 

Hot Chocolate Cream Frosting

 

2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup hot chocolate mix (I used Nestle hot chocolate mix)

 

 

Instructions:

Cupcake

 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. (My oven runs hot and I preheat to 325)
2. Combine cake mix and hot chocolate in a large bowl. Add in the milk, eggs, oil, sour cream, and vanilla. Blend on medium speed till well combined.
3. Line cupcake pan with liners and fill 1/2 to 2/3 way full.
4. Place pan in oven and bake for 12 minutes. If you are using the standard size liners, you'll need to increase your bake time to 14-16 minutes.
5. Let cupcakes cool completely.
6. Core center of cupcakes and set aside.

Cream Filling

1. Blend together softened butter, shortening, milk, salt, and vanilla extract.
2. Add in powdered sugar. Blend till smooth and creamy.
3. Pipe  filling into cored cupcakes.

Hot Chocolate Whipped Cream Frosting

1. Take a metal bowl and place in freezer for 15-20 minutes. *If you don't have a metal bowl, you can use two glass nesting bowls as a substitute. Take the larger glass bowl and fill with ice. Place the smaller bowl into the bowl with ice.*
2. Pour heavy whipping cream and hot chocolate into cold mixing bowl.
3. Whip on high until stiff peaks form.
4. Place whipped cream into pastry bag and frost cupcakes.
5. Place cupcakes in refrigerator till ready to eat.

***You can skip the cream filling and just fill or frost with the hot chocolate whipped cream. Although, I really like the sweet filling with the not so sweet frosting. ***