Cupcakes for Becca and Ashleigh

Becca and Ashleigh are two of Alex's best friends and so naturally we're pretty good friends too. They came over on Friday night and they demanded that I bake them something! I'd been wanting to bake these cupcakes for a while and when I asked them if they wanted these ones, they were very enthusiastic! These cupcakes come from the same blog as the last one, I got the Chocolate Banana Cupcakes and it's really cool. You should take a look at Love and Oil because they do some really cool stuff. So these cupcakes are really awesome because I love churros. It's so unfortunate living in New Zealand and not being able to eat them all the time! I know I could just make some, but I kind of avoid deep frying like the plague... Mainly because it would mess up mum's kitchen... And it's kind of dangerous, but you know! So these are a perfect mix of the churro flavour, with no frying, and then the chocolate dipping sauce. On Love and Oil they use a chocolate whipped cream frosting but you can't easily get meringue powder here, so I decided to use a light buttercream instead. With the Mexican chocolate pudding filling, these are truly amazing cupcakes, so gooood! I mixed the leftover icing with the leftover pudding filling and it was yum pudding. Ashleigh and Becca also enjoyed that! So really, this recipe goes far. Just really bad for you far... Just don't think about the amount of sugar and she'll be right!

This took me about twenty photos in many different types of lighting, so I hope you enjoy the very artistic look!

Cinnamon Chocolate Churro Cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups plain flour
2T cornflour
3/4t baking powder
1/2t baking soda
1/2t salt
1t cinnamon
1 cup milk (they use almond milk, but I like real milk)
1t apple cider vinegar (I don't think you used to be able to, but you can get this in New Zealand now, just from average supermarkets)
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup oil
1t vanilla extract

2T cornstarch
1/4 cup sugar
1/8t salt
1/2t cinnamon
1 1/2 cups milk
75-100g chocolate bits
1/2t vanilla extract

175g butter
1 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted
1 1/2T milk
1/4 cup cocoa powder
EITHER
1t vanilla bean paste OR
2t vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 180°C and line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. In a large bowl, sift together flour, cornflour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Stir together milk and vinegar to combine. Whisk in sugar, oil and vanilla. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix until relatively smooth. (The batter will be runnier than usual for cupcakes) Fill cupcake liners with about 2T of batter or until 2/3 full. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until lightly brown and a skewer inserted into the middle of one or two cupcakes comes out clean. 

With a small knife cut out cones from the tops of the cupcakes, approximately 3cm in diameter. Cut off most the bottom, leaving just enough to replace the top.

Spoon a heaping teaspoon of filling into each cupcake. Replace the top and press into place.

Pipe on the chocolate icing, taking care to go over all the seams. Then sprinkle with a bit of cinnamon sugar before serving.

Pudding Filling:
Combine the cornflour, sugar, salt and cinnamon in a heatproof bowl. Slowly whisk in the milk, scraping the bottom and the sides with a spatula to incorporate the dry ingredients. Place the bowl over gently simmering water and stir occasionally, scraping the bottom and sides. Use a whisk when needed as lumps may start to form. After 15-20 minutes, when the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon, add the chocolate. Continue stirring for about 2-4 minutes or until the pudding is smooth and thickened. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Cover with plastic wrap, gently pressing a layer against the surface before refrigerating (this prevents a skin from forming). Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 days.

Chocolate Icing:
In the bowl of an electric mixer, whip butter for 5-7 minutes on medium speed or until pale and creamy. Add the remaining ingredients and mix on low speed for a minute, until combined, then on medium speed for 3-5 minutes. The icing will be very light, creamy and fluffy.