Hot Chocolate in the Desert

I love how it is getting extremely close to Christmas, and yet it is still too hot here to wear jeans. I know I complain about this often, but dangit, I want to wear a sweater this year. Just once... I remember last year, standing outside waiting for all of the kids to get off the bus at the school where I worked, and being freezing every morning! But that was Yuma, and El Centro is still just HOT.





But not too hot for Hot Chocolate Cupcakes!! The inspiration for these came from the insanely good hot chocolate that Jay makes for us every year, with cinnamon, nutmeg, milk, and double the chocolate. YUM!!! So of course this had to become a cupcake too. It turned into a sort of tweak-as-I-go-along recipe, as I wanted to get the taste as close as possible to that of the real thing. I think this is pretty close to what I ultimately came up with.







HOT CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES: Makes 12 standard size cupcakes





1/4 cocoa powder


1 packet Nestle rich chocolate hot cocoa mix (dry)


3/4 C all purpose flour


1/2 C sugar


3/4 tsp baking soda


1/2 tsp baking powder



1/2 tsp salt


3/4 tsp cinnamon


1/4 tsp nutmeg



1 large egg



1/4 C plus 2 TBSP warm water




1/4 C plus 2 TBSP buttermilk




2 TBSP canola oil




1/2 tsp vanilla




1 C Kraft mini marshmallows









1/2 C semi sweet chocolate chips (I used Hershey's Special Dark)




2 tbsp light Karo syrup




1 TBSP butter




2 tsp heavy cream









1 C heavy whipping cream




1 - 2 tsp sugar, to taste









1/4 C chocolate shavings
















Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line muffin pan with 12 cupcake liners











In medium bowl, combine cocoa powder, hot cocoa mix, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices.











In a glass measuring cup, whisk together the egg, water, buttermilk, and vanilla.











Add milk mixture to the dry ingredients, and mix on medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes.





Fold in the mini marshmallows.











Divide batter evenly in the cupcake liners.











Bake for 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean (a few crumbs are ok).











let cool for 5 minutes in pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.











Fill cupcakes with fudge filling, and top with sweetened cream and chocolate shavings.













FUDGE FILLING:






Melt chocolate chips, butter, and Karo syrup in small pan over low heat. Stir until completely melted and smooth. Remove from heat and stir in the cream. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before filling the cupcakes.
Note - putting the fudge in the fridge will harden it, if this happens, just reheat to soften.










SWEETENED CREAM:






In large bowl, beat cream on high speed just until soft peaks form. Stop mixer and add sugar. Continue beating on high until thick enough to hold its shape. Dollop or pipe on cooled cupcakes, top with chocolate shavings.
















I wasn't too sure what the marshmallows in this recipe would do, whether they would stay put and create pockets of gooeyness throughout, or just melt into the batter. Turns out it was the latter, which made for an all over gooey moist cupcake. I have to admit I was a little confused though when I bit into the cupcake and all the marshmallows had dissapeared... :)