Recipe | Hawaiian-Inspired Chocolate Cupcakes

Posted on 01. Jun, 2009 by Sheila in food

I volunteered to bake cupcakes for a friend’s baby shower and got instantly inspired when I found out her favorite flower is from her home state of Hawaii: the plumeria. Opportunities like these push me to try new recipes and it was also a chance for me to finally play with fondant. I know most people think it’s the most horrible thing ever but you’ve got admit that it can sure make a cake look pretty.

The fondant flowers were easier to make than I thought especially because plumerias have a very basic shape. I bought Wilton’s Flower Making kit and it is the secret to making your cakes look Martha Stewart good. I also purchased their ready-made fondant because really, why would I torture myself with trying to make one of my own? It’s only going to be decoration.

Once I started making the plumerias, you know what I discovered? This is exactly like playing with Play-Doh and it’s just as fun. It’s really easy to make basic flowers that your kid can probably do it. Try it yourself and then watch an episode of Ace of Cakes so you can be appalled that they charge $1000 minimum per cake. You will then proudly say, “Pshh, I could do some of that.”

You can see step-by-step instructions here. I was doing some experimenting which explains the pink fondant. I ended up using the white flowers instead and painted the inside with yellow luster dust using a paintbrush. See, you don’t even have to color the fondant which makes it even easier!

As for the cupcakes, I knew I wanted to try some recipes from CupcakeBlog. I’ve always admired all her cupcakes and it was a sad day when she decided to take a break from it. I wanted to start simple and decided to make a basic chocolate cupcake with cream cheese frosting with just a hint of white chocolate. The cake is sweet on it’s own so I really didn’t want to pile on even more.

This can be labor intensive so I would suggest doing each on separate days if you can get as lazy as I do. You can make the flowers days or even weeks in advance. I made the frosting a couple of days early and stored it in Tupperware in the fridge. Of course the actual cupcakes should be done the day you serve them if possible. In my case, since I was bringing them to the office in the morning I made the cake the night before and assembled everything that night. I placed the cupcakes in a box and tried my best to wrap it in plastic wrap and stored it in the fridge.

Chocolate Cupcakes
Adapted from CupcakeBlog
Makes about 16 cupcakes

1 stick unsalted butter
1-1/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Note: Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature!
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Sift the flour into a bowl and add baking powder, salt and cocoa powder. Gently stir to combine.
3. In another bowl, stir the vanilla extract and milk together.
Now that you’ve finished the prep work, you’re ready to start mixing!
4. With an electric mixer, beat butter until creamy. Add sugar and beat at medium speed for about 3 minutes until light and fluffy.
5. Add eggs one at a time until combined. I like to scrape down the sides of the bowl after each egg.
6. Add in 1/3 third of the dry ingredients (just eyeball it) and beat on low to medium speed. Then add in about half of the wet ingredients. Continue alternating the dry and wet ingredients, ending with the dry. Make sure not to over beat once the dry ingredients are in or you will have a tough cake! Because I get paranoid, I prefer to beat on low speed and stir by hand with a spatula at the end just to make sure everything is combined.
7. Scoop batter a little more than half-full into a muffin pan with cupcake liners. (Don’t fill it up too much or it will overflow! It happened to me and I had to start ALL over again. Sniff.)
8. Place pan in oven, turn the temperature down to 350 degrees and bake for about 20-22 or until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean.
9. When cupcakes are done, keep in pan for 10 minutes and then remove each cupcake and place on cooling rack.

Printable Recipe

White Chocolate Frosting
Adapted from CupcakeBlog

1/3 cup white chocolate chips
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar

1. Melt white chocolate chips in a bowl over a pot of simmering water (double-boiler method) or nuke in the microwave in 10-second bursts. Cool for about 10 minutes.
2. Beat butter with an electric mixer on medium speed until creamy. Add cream cheese and beat until combined.
3. Add the white chocolate and vanilla and beat until combined.
4. Carefully put in the powdered sugar and beat at low speed.
5. Turn off mixer and give it a good stir to make sure everything is combined.

While it’s not necessary, I like to chill my frosting in the fridge for about an hour. It holds its shape better when I pipe it on the cupcake. If the frosting is a little too cold, you can fluff up the frosting using a spatula. Once cupcakes have completely cooled, place a large star tip inside a piping bag or a freezer bag with one corner cut off and pipe the frosting in a swirl motion starting from the outside and working in. Don’t worry if the center looks bad because you will cover it with the flower. You can also spoon the frosting on with a knife if you don’t feel like being fancy. Top each cupcake with a flower and you’re done!

Printable Recipe

Tags: chocolate, desserts, Recipes