Mini Chocolate Cupcakes with Meringue & Raspberry
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Serves: 24
 
Dark chocolate mini cupcakes, topped with the fluffiest Swiss meringue, and filled with raspberry jam. Makes 24.
Ingredients
For the mini chocolate cupcakes:
  • 140g (or ½ cup + 3 tablespoons + ½ teaspoon) granulated sugar
  • 30ml (or 23g, or 2 tablespoons) sunflower oil
  • ½ large egg*
  • 60ml (or ¼ cup) hot water**
  • ¼ teaspoon instant coffee powder
  • 65ml (or ¼ cup + 1 teaspoon) buttermilk***
  • ⅛ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 50g (or ⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon) all-purpose flour
  • 40g (or ⅓ cup + ½ teaspoon) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
  • ⅜ teaspoon baking soda
  • ⅛ teaspoon baking powder
  • big pinch of salt
For the Swiss meringue:
  • 2 large egg whites (about
  • 75g (or ⅓ cup + 2 teaspoons) granulated sugar
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Filling:
  • 110g (or about ⅓ cup) raspberry jam
To make them pretty:
  • Big sugar hearts
Instructions
Start with the mini cupcakes:
  1. Preheat oven to 175°C/350°F (standard oven setting) and line a 24-cup mini muffin pan with mini cupcake liners.
  2. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together sugar, oil and egg (so ½ large egg).
  3. In a glass, combine hot water and coffee powder and stir until the coffee has dissolved. Add the buttermilk and the vanilla extract and stir until combined. Add the buttermilk mixture to the sugar mixture. Whisk until combined.
  4. Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt and whisk until smooth.
  5. Divide the batter evenly over the 24 mini muffin cups. Gently rap the pan on the counter once to remove any air bubbles, then bake in the middle of the oven for 10-12 minutes, or until a tester inserted into one of the cupcakes comes out clean.
  6. Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature. Once cool, the cupcakes can be frosted.
In the meantime, make the Swiss meringue:
  1. In a medium-sized, heatproof bowl, and using a rubber spatula, stir together the egg whites and sugar. Place the bowl over a small pan with simmering water, making sure the water doesn't touch the bowl.
  2. Keep stirring the mixture (scraping the sides of the bowl as you go) until the sugar has dissolved. You can easily check whether the sugar has dissolved by rubbing a bit of the mixture between your fingers; the mixture shouldn't feel grainy. If you're not worried about salmonella, you can take the mixture off the heat at this point.
  3. If you want to pasteurize the meringue, keep whisking until the mixture reaches a temperature of 71°C/160°F. Once the meringue reaches the desired temperature, take it off the heat.
  4. Using a hand held or a stand mixer, beat the warm mixture until the meringue holds the desired peak (soft, medium or stiff) and has cooled to room temperature.
Assemble once cupcakes are cool:
  1. Combine the jam with a teaspoon of water in a small saucepan and place over low heat. Heat, stirring continuously, until combined and the jam is runny. Transfer runny jam to a small piping bag and allow to cool for a few minutes.
  2. Using a chopstick, poke a hole in the middle of each cupcake, wiggle the chopstick around to widen the hole, then snip a tiny bit off the end of the piping bag and fill each cupcake with a squeeze of jam.
  3. Fill a larger piping bag fitted with an large open tip with meringue. Decorate each mini cupcake with a large blob of meringue and top with a sugar heart.
  4. Cupcakes are best served right away or a few hours after you made them, but they are also very good the day after. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.
Recipe by The Tough Cookie at https://thetoughcookie.com/2017/02/10/mini-chocolate-cupcakes-meringue-raspberry/