Fudge Cupcakes by Joanne Fluke

Submitted by Chef #232627

"These are delicious deep chocolate cupcakes with a hint of raspberry flavor."

 

• Ready In: 45mins
• Ingredients: 10
• Yields: 18 cupcakes
• Serves: 18

ingredients

• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate squares (1 oz each)
• 1⁄4 cup white sugar
• 1⁄2 cup raspberry flavored syrup (for pancakes- I used Knott's red raspberry)
• 1 2⁄3 cups flour
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 cup butter, room temperature (one stick, 1/4 pound, I use sweet butter)
• 1 1⁄2 cups white sugar (you use 1 3/4 cups sugar in all)
• 3 large eggs
• 1⁄3 cup milk

directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350°F Position rack in the middle of oven.
2. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with double papers. Since this recipe makes 18 cupcakes, you can use an additional 6-cup muffin pan lined with double papers, or you can butter and flour an 8-inch square cake pan or the equivalent.
3. Microwave the chocolate, raspberry syrup and 1/4 sugar in a microwave-safe bowl on high for 1 minute. Stir. Microwave again for another minute. At this point, the chocolate will be almost melted, but it will maintain its shape. Stir the mixture until smooth and let cool to lukewarm. (You can also do this in a double boiler on the stove.).
4. Measure flour, mix in baking powder and salt, and set aside.
5. In an electric mixer (or with a VERY strong arm), beat the butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. (About 3 minutes with a mixer--an additional 2 minutes if you're doing it by hand.) Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition to make sure they're thoroughly incorporated.
6. Add approximately a third of the flour mixture and a third of the milk. (You don't have to be exact--adding the flour and milk in increments makes the batter smoother.) When that's all mixed in, add another third of the flour and another third of the milk. Thwn that's incorporated, add the remainder of the flour and the remainder of the milk. Mix thoroughly.
7. Test your chocolate mixture to make sure it's cool enough to add. (You don't want to cook the eggs!) If it's fairly warm to the touch but not so hot you have to pull you hand away, you can add it at this point. Stir thoroughly and you're done.
8. Let the batter rest for five minutes. Then stir it again by hand and fill each cupcake paper three-quarters full. If you decided to use the 8-inch cake pan instead of the 6-cup muffin tin, fill it with the remining batter.
9. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes. The 8-inch cake should bake an additional 5 minutes.
10. Fudge Frosting -
11. 18 cupcake, or 12 cupcakes and 1 small cake, cooled to room temperature and ready to frost.
12. 2 cups chocolate chips (12-ounce package).
13. 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk.
14. If you use a double-boiler for this frosting, it's foolproof. You can also make it in a heavy saucepan over low to medium heat on the stovetop, but you'll have to stir it constantly with a spatula to keep it from scorching.
15. Fill the bottom; part of the double boiler with water. Make sure it doesn't touch the underside ot the top.
16. Put the chocolate chips in the top of the double-boiler, set it over the bottom, and place the double boiler on the stovetop at medium heat. Stir occasionall ntil the chocolate chips are melted.
17. Stir in the can of sweetened condensed milk and cook approximately two minutes, stirring constantly, until the frosting is shiny and of spreading consistency.
18. Spread on cupcakes, making sure to fill in the "frosting pocked.".
19. Give the frosting pan to your favorite person to scrape.
20. These cupcakes are even better if you cool them, cover them and let ehem sit for several hours before frosting them.

Reviews

[852942]

I have an intensely strong feeling that the previous reviewer used flavored ice cream syrup. You CANNOT do this! It will make your batter too think and it will definitely overflow. Also, you MUST let the batter rest to let excess air out! Please only, only use the flavored PANCAKE syrup that comes in the glass bottle with the screw top! It is much thicker than ice cream syrup and you can't get the right texture for the batter without it. I have only used raspberry, but I know that it also comes in blueberry, boysenberry, and probably strawberry and maybe some others! :)

 

[KimberlyWSowers]

My cupcakes overflowed profusely, dirtying the oven and not leaving much in the cupcake paper. I used Smucker's strawberry syrup instead of the raspberry (just because that's what I found at the store). I also failed to let the batter rest for 5 minutes as the recipe stated. Maybe that was the problem. Good flavor. We are going to put the remnants into bowls, plop some frosting on top, and eat them with a spoon.

 

[Ani K.]

Like most people trying to make this recipe, I could not find Knott's Red Raspberry Pancake Syrup. I used Oregon Growers Raspberry Fruit Syrup. This syrup is very tasty and the resulting baked product - hard to call it a cupcake - was delicious, but misshapen. Until the last 5 minutes of baking, the cupcakes puffed up like a soufflé. Toward the end of the baking time (25 minutes), they started to collapse to create the frosting pocket. The problem was that in addition to rising, they also spread out, with each cupcake touching the other. The "secret ingredient" in this recipe appears to be critical. If you use anything but the called-for pancake syrup, it appears your batter will not rise correctly. I am going to keep trying to find Knott's pancake syrup (wonder if they still make it?) and then I will try the recipe again.

 

[Dawn M.]

I made these yesterday and I am quite pleased with how they turned out. I had to make a small bit of substitution regarding the raspberry pancake syrup. I just cannot find it in my area, so I used seedless raspberry jam and they turned out great. After I baked the first cupcake tester it seemed that the chocolate was a little weak so I added a TBSP of espresso powder to the mix and it perked the chocolate flavor right up. Once I had frosted the cupcakes I had roughly half the frosting left so I made a butter bundt cake and used the frosting on top and it was delicious. I even still had a little left over and it may have been used as a pancake topper. I've never seen a 7 oz. sweetened condensed milk before but if you can get one use it and just make a half batch of frosting.

 

[Cooky 50]

These were delicious! I did substitute DaVinci's sugar-free raspberry syrup because that's what I had but I backed off on the milk a little and they came out fine. Very good flavor. The frosting was a little too runny, maybe I did something wrong. It makes a huge batch so be prepared to put it on something else if you don't want it really thick on your cupcakes/cake. I'd make this again.