I’ve been really looking forward to making this recipe. Unfortunately, my rendition didn’t quite live up to my expectations. I am attributing this to my own execution of the recipe and I will probably have to try this recipe again when I have a little more time.
The cake batter is the same batter that we used for the ice cream sandwhich a couple of weeks ago. We really enjoyed that cake so I knew that I wouldn’t be disappointed as far as that went. The batter mixed up easily. I did, however, have the same problem as last time when the cocoa and water turns into a paste rather than a smooth mixture. I am taking comfort with the fact that other people seem to be having the same problem as me and since it doesn’t seem to affect the outcome, I am just not worrying about it. I made what I see as my biggest mistake when I filled my cupcake liners too full. It seemed like I had about 3/4 of an inch left from the top but I only ended up with 9 cupcakes and clearly after they were baked they were not flat like in the picture.
The second step was to take the hot cupcakes and poke about a dozen holes in each one with a skewer. Then we were to pour milk chocolate ganache over the top of the cupcakes and into the holes. I had two sizes of skewers and I opted for the smaller one to poke the holes. I seemed to have problems getting the ganache down inside though, and I would probably use the larger one next time. I did feel like I had filled them pretty well, but after they sat a while I could see that there was still space in a lot of the holes. Because of time, I did not go back and make more ganache and fill them in.
The third and final step is to make the Lacquer Glaze. This is the part that I expected would make these little cakes over-the-top delicious. In the picture it looks so thick and smooth and so I expected a fudge like texture. My glaze, however, turned out pretty thin and runny, even after it cooled a bit. So the million dollar question is — is the glaze in the picture actually thicker than mine, or is it just that the cupcakes are very flat which makes a thicker layer of glaze possible? I think I made the glaze correctly, but I was having problems with my thermometer so maybe I didn’t do it exactly right. I’m not sure.
Anyway, the cupcakes were good, but not exceptionally better than any other chocolate cupcake. Even my son, who is not really a chocoholic like myself, thought the glaze needed to be thicker. So I will have to leave it for now but when I get some extra time, I will be cooking these up again.
6 Comments
They look so good, we eat the last one last night and now seeing your picture I’m craving one!
Totally have the same issue as you with the cocoa and water – mine also turns into a paste instead of “Smooth”. We been having a huge discussion on my post in the comments to figure out the why’s – even if the final product does not suffer.
Looks delicious to me!
They sure look pretty!
I made these cupcakes before, but got too much rise so I changed the decided at the last minute to cover them with buttercream instead of the glaze. think I’ll give it a go again… I’d love to end up with picture perfect cupcakes like the ones in Rose’s book!
🙂 ButterYum
They look great. I think the reason that Rose’s photo looks so flat and shiny and smooth is because the actual cupcake sits well below the rim of the paper. This result is that you get a flat pool of glaze lapping the sides of the paper cup, with the cake buried just under the surface.
The glaze is pretty thin – so what you did sounds right.
I had similar issues with the whole poking/ganache – ended up calling it icing and was happy not to faff about with the glaze!
I love your picture and the cupcakes look luscious. I think it was Butteryum who one time mentioned using a squeeze top bottle to deposit the ganache into the holes in the cupcake tops. I did it on financiers and it worked well.