German Chocolate Cupcakes

This week's cupcake was German Chocolate. I have been looking at the picture in the recipe book for a while now, and am happy to have it completed!

First off, I didn't have any semi-sweet chocolate left since I had made Chocolate Cheesecake with Raspberry Swirl cupcakes previous to these...will post pictures at the bottom. So, I used unsweetened chocolate and then added a bit of icing sugar and butter to get the consistency back, but it was certainly not very sweet - so don't worry...I think it wouldn't have mattered.

The cake part only took 20 minutes to bake which seemed very quick, and the consistency was very light and fluffy...hence the cupcakes are very light and fluffy as well - which I wasn't expecting by looking at the picture in the book. I was thinking a heavier cake would go better with the icing. Anyway, I started preparing the icing, which says it takes about 10 minutes in a saucepan on the stove on medium. This certainly did not take 10 minutes until it became the thickness of sour cream...more like 25 minutes! I was getting excited to be done with this darn icing, as I had to stir it constantly and had been baking for a long time at this point. Then I read the next step...pour through a fine sieve...well let me tell you...this was a PAIN in the butt. Took me about 15 minutes to get it through the sieve as I have a small one (about the size of a cup opening) and the mixture was somewhat textured...I had to push it through with a spoon and then it came out smooth...

So...at this point, you just add the toasted pecans and coconut and such and voila...stir until completely cool...I stirred until it was luke warm and covered and put it in the fridge. It was 1:00 am and I figured I would assemble them in the morning.

Assembling was fine, I placed them in cupcake liners so that when taking them to work or to people's houses it was easier to serve.

Next thing I realized is that they need to be iced and served immediately!! So, into the freezer they will go - these certainly don't have much of a shelf life, so beware.

My husband Landon had the first taste tester and thought they tasted weird...but good. I think it is a different type of cupcake then he is used to...not typical cake or icing...it has a nice nutty flavour and the coconut and icing is sweet, but not super sweet. The cake is light and fluffy, but I think I would like a heavier cake next time I make them.

I also baked some NON Martha cheesecake cupcakes for a friend's birthday. They are Chocolate Raspberry Swirl Cheesecakes. They are quite scrumptious...and I just took a recipe from the Kraft recipebook online for chocolate cheesecake based on similar ingredients to Martha's - and then used Martha's Raspberry sauce from the recipe for Raspberry swirl cupcakes. Landon and Taylor both thoroughly enjoyed these this morning after breakfast...and I am going to have mine very soon!