It's Just Not Dinner Without Cat Hair: May 2008

Temptation can be a terrible thing.

Yesterday, I baked cream cheese and gluten-filled chocolate cupcakes for one of the people I cook for. The smell that filled this house was amazing; I couldn't even get away from it outside. When whipping up the batter, I got a hint of the olfactory pleasure to come and managed to catch myself a nanosecond before it was too late... I had gotten some of the batter on my finger and without thinking, I had gotten that finger about half a centimeter from my mouth before the rest of my head suddenly flew out of my backside and shrieked HEY!!!It wasn't that I wanted a taste of the gluten-filled cupcake batter. It was all about losing control due to scent. Ever have that happen? The wonderful smell of chocolate (this stuff really should be an illegal drug - it's my crack) controlled my hand and forced it toward my face. Really. It did - I have witnesses.

After I made my delivery, I sat in the living room and chewed on pizza while mindlessly flipping channels, trying to figure out how I was going to make me some cupcakes, too. Because it was after 9 PM, there was no way I was going to start baking again. I had to be able to function at work. I shelved the thought, grabbed the furbabies, and went to bed.

I have an annoying habit (oh, hush - I know there's more than one). I wake up, all by my lonesome, without at alarm clock, by 5 AM every day - and I am immediately wide awake. If I sleep until 5:30, I consider myself to have slept in.

This morning, I woke up with an idea and a drooly pillow.

I ripped through The Vault and figured out which recipes to use when, coming up with temptation. I suffered through my work day, did some running after I closed the office for the day, and then finalized it all in my mind while preparing some din-din.

I seriously had to put these away, on a different floor (the basement fridge) or I was going to EAT. THEM. ALL.

On a side note, watch for big changes ahead (thanks to Natalie at Gluten Free Mommy for her input). I have been working on those big changes for the last two weeks, which is why I haven't been around here. Stay tuned, people. I promise it will be swell.

Note that I bit into it to show the innards- no way was I dinking around with a knife.

Temptation Cupcakes
(or Devils' Food Cupcakes filled with marshmallow and topped with whipped ganache)'
Adapted from The Vault

For the cupcakes:

3/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1/4 cup sweet rice flour
2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 cup skim milk (there's got to be SOMETHING healthy in here)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a standard muffin tin (12) with liners.

In a mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugar until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In another bowl, sift together the brown rice flour, tapioca flour, potato starch, sweet rice flour, xanthan gum, cocoa, and baking powder. Stir in the salt.

Add half of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir until the flour is mostly incorporated. Pour the milk into the butter mixture and stir just until blended. Add the remaining flour mixture and stir until incorporated.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, filling the cups nearly full. Bake for 25 to 28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Allow the cupcakes to cool for 5 minutes before removing them from the pan to a cooling rack. Continue to cool for another 30 minutes before filling.

For the ganache:

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp corn syrup
4 tbsp butter, cut into pieces

In a 2-quart saucepan, whisk together the cream, sugar and corn syrup over medium-low heat until boiling. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate. Whisk briskly until the chocolate melts and the mixture is fairly smooth. Add the butter and continue to whisk until the mixture is smooth.

Pour the ganache into a bowl and cool, stirring occasionally, until very thick. I actually throw it in the fridge and just peek in every 5 minutes to give it a stir because hey, I wasn't waitin' for no chocolate.

When ready to frost what you're going to frost, use the whisk attachment on your mixer to whip some air into that stuff until it gets nice and fluffy.

For the filling (Just so you know, this makes twice as much as you need. I am thinking ice cream topping, maybe. Or more cupcakes.):

2 tbsp hot water
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1-7 oz jar marshmallow fluff
1/2 cup shortening
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine the salt and hot water in a small bowl; set aside.

In a medium bowl, beat together the fluff, shortening, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Add the salt water and continue to beat until combined.

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OK. Now the fun begins.

Remove the liners from the cupcakes and to make life easy, set them on their tops. Using a thin-bladed knife, carefully cut a plug of cake out of the bottom. I try to keep it cone-shaped. KEEP THE PLUG.

Fill a plastic zipper bag with the filling, clip a small section of a bottom corner off the bag, and start squeezing a dollop of filling into each cupcake hole. Break off the tips of the plugs, shovel the tips in your mouth, and then place the shortened plug back into the hole, on top of the filling. Press gently to seat and then flip the cupcake over so it is right side up.

When all of the cupcakes are filled, bring out the whipped ganache. Scoop it into a pastry bag (or plastic zipper bag) fitted with a star tip. Pipe the desired amount of frosting onto the top of each cupcake.

Makes 16 reasons to for me to go to the basement.