Baked Devils Food Cake with Angel Frosting

Another hit from the guys at Baked! These great Devil's Food Cake with Angel Frosting are from Baked Explorations, which I have sadly had to recently return to the library. I opted to make these nuggets of goodness in a cupcake form, because that is just cuter. :)

This cake is moist, chocolaty, and just a little dense. The frosting is amazing - it is marshmallow cream. I've made marshmallows plenty of times before (I'll do a post on that in the next week or so), and always wondered how they make the marshmallow cream in the jars. Now I know!

This recipe made 20 or so cupcakes, or the recipe can make a double layer 8 inch cake. The frosting recipe could easily be taken down, I had a bunch of extra frosting, which isn't all that bad since you can eat by the spoonful if needed. :)

Ingredients

For the Devil's Food Cake
1 ounce good quality dark chocolate (60-72%) broken into a few pieces
1/2 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder (like Valhrona)
2/3 cup hot coffee
1/3 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons (1 1/14 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes, softened
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the Angel Frosting
5 large egg whites, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla paste (or 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract)

Make the Devil's Food Cake

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line the cupcake pan with liners. If you are making a cake, butter two 8 inch round cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment paper, and butter the parchment. Dust the parchment with flour and knock out the excess flour.

Place the chocolate and cocoa powder in a medium heatproof bowl. Pour the hot coffee directly over them and whisk until combined.

In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, then add the vanilla and beat until incorporated. Scrape down the bowl and mix again for 30 seconds.

Add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with chocolate mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes (35-40 for cake) or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Make the Angel Frosting

Place the egg whites in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan over low heat, stir together 1 1/4 cups of the sugar, the corn syrup, and 1/4 cup water. Once the sugar is dissolved, increase the heat to medium high, and clip a candy thermometer onto the side of the pot. Heat the mixture, without stirring, to almost soft ball stage ( about 235 degrees F) do not let it go above 235 degrees F.

While you wait for the syrup to reach soft ball stage, whip the egg whites on medium speed until soft peaks form-do not beat beyond this.

As soon as the sugar mixture reaches the soft-ball stage, remove the pan from the heat.

Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup sugar over the soft peaks of the egg whites and turn the mixer to low. Slowly stream in the hot sugar syrup. Once all the syrup has been added, increase the speed to medium high and beat the icing for about 7 minutes until it is thick and shiny. Add the vanilla and beat again for 10 seconds.

I think that this frosting would pipe very well, but it came out very well just swirling it with a knife. It is super shiny. They recommend serving in within 4 hours of making the frosting, but we actually didn't eat ours for a day and half, and the frosting was still yummy, delicious, and still had it's fluff to it.

Cupcake Crafts

Each year the Girl Scout council I work for hosts an large fundraiser, called Urban Campout. One part of the event is a silent auction that is held, and the team I work on donates a basket to the silent auction. Last year we did a cupcake theme for the basket, and it was a blast to put together. This year, since I was getting married the next day, I opted out of coordinating the basket for our team. :) Here is the cupcake creation we made last year, and a bit about the crafts that I put together for it.

The first thing I put together were these cupcake stands. I'm a believer in presentation of food. When you get that first impression that is looks great, you do into it expecting the best. I am a fan of cake stands (and just got this one that I love, but haven't been able to get it since I still have wedding explosion all over our 400 sq feet of apartment.) When I saw these adorable DIY cupcake stands in Crafts & Things magazine, I knew I had to make them. They are fairly simple and can be decorated up more or coordinated to match a party theme. 

You need:

2 inch pots

3 inch saucers

acrylic paint

one button for each holder

string

super glue

Start by painting the pots and saucers. Do a double coat to be sure to get it all covered and looking nice.

You are then going to cut a piece of string long enough to attach the button around the pot. I also put a dab of glue behind the button so it was sure to stay in place.

Then glue the saucer to the pot

and you are done! Just place a cupcake in the top for ultra cute presentation!  Be creative with the color combos and buttons. You could also add some rick or ribbon around the saucer.

We were also including sprinkles and cake mixes in the basket, and I wanted to display them in something other than the box or container they cam in, so I did some decorating of jars for them. 

I drew some basic cupcake shapes on white paper for a pattern, and then cut them out of some cute dotted paper.

I then just took some glue and put them on the jars and they were good to go! (and even cuter once they were all full.

And here is our finished product with all kinds of cupcake fun!

Linked up at:

Fish Cupcakes

It was a co-workers birthday this weekend, and Hayley made these adorable fish cupcakes to celebrate on Monday!

A picture of these was originally found on pintrest, and she took it and did an amazing job recreating these adorable little masterpieces!

Cupcakes Galore

Recently, a wonderful co-worker, Mia, hosted a cupcake decorating party at her house. We headed up after work one evening and spent a few hours decorating cupcakes with every topping, frosting, color, and candy imaginable!

Some of them were very cute or creative, some were just silly, but all of them were delicious!
This is such a great party idea for kids or adults, just bake a few dozen cupcakes, and get some basic decorating supplies and let people go at it!