MSC: Black Forest Cupcakes

Martha Stewart Cupcake Club is back (at least for me).  After taking last month off, I bring you Black Forest Cupcakes, chosen by Janine at Janine's Crazy World.  When I think of Black Forest Cake, I think of chocolate, cherries and whipped cream.  These had pastry cream instead of the whipped cream.  I was a bit apprehensive about making these cupcakes because I am not a huge fan of Black Forst Cake, but I thought the replacement of pastry cream for whipped cream was really great and I ended up enjoying these.  Don't they look like ice cream sundaes?

These were easier to put together than they looked.  The cupcakes were pretty standard and both the pastry cream and the ganache were straightforward.  I always seem to cook pastry cream about 30 seconds past done and then it gets lumpy, but it didn't matter in this case, since the pastry cream was not the star. I know pastry cream seems scary, but if you follow the directions and watch closely, it is not too bad.  I used flour as a thickener because I didn't have corn starch and it was a totally fine substitute.  The ratio is about 2 tablespoons flour for every 1 tablespoon the recipe called for.  I didn't make any other changes, except that I didn't have cherry liquor, so I just left it out.

I quartered the recipe and got 7 cupcakes.  I didn't turn them all into black forest because there was really no one around to eat such huge cupcakes.  These are something I would make for an event, but they are not exactly your "I think I'll whip up some cupcakes today" cupcakes.  They are more involved than that.  Also, these are best the day they are put together, even though you can make the parts in advance.

Thanks to Janine for a great pick!  The recipe is here.  Next month is my pick, so tune in!

**This blog is going up on the 14th because we don't put up posts on Shabbat.  I look forward to commenting on everyone's blogs on Sunday.**