One Cupcake to Rule Them All

One Cupcake to rule them all, One cupcake to find them, One Cupcake to bring them all and in their hunger bind them.

So this post is about 3 parts of awesomeness. A. We got a puppy. Her name is Claire and I promise to do an entire post on her soon once I have good pictures. B. I got a haircut for $30 (which compared to what I was paying in Boston was kind of a Valentine's Day Miracle. See? There are AWESOME parts about Alabama).  And … drumroll please…

C. I made awesome cupcakes. Cupcakes to Rule them ALL. Red Velvet Cupcakes with Chocolate Mousse Filling and Cream Cheese Frosting.

Part 1. Make 24 Red Velvet Cupcakes. You can go to the trouble of finding a recipe and getting ingredients. OR you can use Duncan Hines Red Velvet Cake Mix and follow the directions on the box. Also, use those little cupcake paper fillers for easier cleanup. Once the cupcakes were done, I took them out of the tins and left them to cool on a cooling rack. I heard somewhere that allowing cakes and cookies and such to cool on a cooling rack stops them from getting soggy, but also from cooking more from the heat of your pan.

Part 1.5. Once the cupcakes are cool, get a cupcake corer and bore a hole into the middle of the cupcakes. We got ours as a wedding gift, but it is the same kit as here. 

Part 1.75. EAT THE CUPCAKE MIDDLES. They are about as awesome as donut holes.Which are SUPER awesome.

Part 2. Make Chocolate Mousse. This is my mom’s recipe.

Ingredients:

24 oz (either 2 12 oz bags or they sell 24 oz bags) semi sweet chocolate bits

4 Tbsp confectioner sugar

10 Tbsp cold water

2 whole eggs

1 pint heavy cream or heavy whipping cream

1 tsp instant coffee

2 tsp vanilla

4 eggs separated

Directions:

1.     Combine chocolate, confectioner sugar, and water in saucepan or double boiler. Melt over low heat, stirring constantly. Let cool.

2.     In Blender or mixer, combine 2 whole eggs, 4 yolks, 2Tbsp cream, instant coffee and vanilla in large bowl.

3.     Stir cooked chocolate mixture into blended yolk mixture.

4.     Beat 4 egg whites until stiff and fold into chocolate mixture.

5.     Whip remaining cream and fold into rest of the mixture.

6.  (Chill to firm, though some people prefer it to be served left out of the refrigerator for a short while.) To make these cupcakes, SKIP THIS STEP. It is really hard to fill cupcakes with firm mousse. See below.

Part 2.5. Using the squeezing thing with your cupcake corer (or you can use a plastic ziplock bag and a cake tip) fill the cupcakes with Chocolate Mousse.

Part 2.75. Put in refrigerator until the mousse hardens. This makes it easier to frost them. Trust me.

Part 2.76. Also refrigerate the mousse. (See? You get to refrigerate it at this moment!) You will have a LOT left over. You can pour it into decorative bowls, or into miniature gladware containers and give them as gifts. If you are a chocoholic, who doesn’t love getting chocolate mousse for V-day? I personally like my mousse firm and straight out of the fridge, but some other people like theirs served out of the fridge for a short while.

Part 3. Frost the cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting. You can either go to the trouble of finding a recipe and getting ingredients, OR you can buy Duncan Hines Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting.

Part 3.25. Put a sweetheart candy, you know one of the ones that says “love ya” or “text me” on them,  on top of the frosted cupcake.

Part 3.5. ENJOY! And you should probably share. I gave half of my batch to friends and the smiles I got at just the sight of them were pretty big.