Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Cupcakes

If you have seen my last post, I did a cake with cream cheese frosting for my little one's birthday. Followed the original recipe's measurements and came out with extra cream cheese frosting. So I was having a headache thinking of what I can do with the cream cheese frosting and I made some dark chocolate drink (bought from Value Shop) to help me think when an idea hit me - combine the dark chocolate mix and cream cheese frosting and make cupcakes!

Results - a yummy and rich cupcake that is not too sweet that is soft on the inside. (Pardon me on the ugly looking cupcakes though, did this in a rush before sending little one to school.)

Best thing, my leftover cream cheese frosting gets "recycled" and don't go to waste. :)

Here's the recipe...

Dark Chocolate and Cream Cheese Cupcakes (makes 6 cupcakes)

1/2 cup all-purpose flour (plain flour also ok)
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 packet of dark chocolate drink mix
1/2 cup cream cheese frosting


Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 180 Degree Celcius. Line a 6-pc muffin pan with papper muffin cups.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and dark chocolate mix together.

Make a well in the centre and add egg, oil and milk and mix until well incorporated.

Add in the cream cheese frosting and mix well.

Scoop the mixture into the muffin cups and bake for 15 mins or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

This is a very simple recipe and I hope you will enjoy it. I am contemplating to try this again using steam method, but that will be another post.

Happy baking!

Cream Cheese Frosting

I wanted to do something special for my little one's birthday and in the end decided that doing a birthday cake would be just perfect.

Nothing too complicated and time-consuming, this lazy mummy decided to use cake mix for the cake and got a Devil's Food cake mix. With a chocolate cake, cream cheese frosting came to the mind. Feeling lazy still, I stepped into Phoon Huat, thinking of getting a can of ready-made cream cheese frosting and was blankly told by the staff that they do not sell canned frosting. I was like "What do I do then?" and the staff promptly suggested I do my own frosting. This set me thinking and I bought the cream cheese home and started researching for cream cheese frosting recipes online.

There were tons of recipes that called for different ingredients and amount. In the end, I settled for a recipe that I was comfortable with and the end results was heavenly! My elder son stood beside me when I was doing the frosting and kept stealing mouthfuls from my mixing bowl.

This is one frosting recipe that I definitely will keep and use it again. Though I shall warn that my version is not as sweet as the original recipe because my family do not like sweet stuff. It has a nice velvety feel that scream cheesecake all over. So if you are one cheesecake lover, this frosting will go perfectly well with your chocolate cake, carrot cake, banana cake, pumpkin cake, on cookies or between cookies.

No regrets from this mummy to spend slightly more time prepare the frosting, definitely better than those that comes from the can!

Here's the recipe...

Cream Cheese Frosting (Makes 3 cups)
Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com

500g cream cheese, softened
120g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (125g) sifted caster sugar
1 tsp (5ml) vanilla extract


Directions

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter with a electric mixer. Start on low speed for approx. 30 seconds and increase to medium and mix until creamy. Mix in the vanilla and gradually add in the caster sugar. Continue mixing until sugar fully incorporated into the frosting.

Store in fridge after use.


Note: 
Amount of sweetness can be adjusted according to your taste. However, please note that the frosting may become more "watery" when more caster sugar is added. 

If you find the frosting too thick, you can add some full-cream milk (2 tsp at a time) and incorporate it in with the mixer.