truffles in the kitchen: sugarless dark chocolate velvet cupcakes
I realised that i still have a box of fresh jordan dates ripening in my fridge, so i decided to take it out and have a look.
Indeed some have already ripen and they taste really yummy!!!
I decided to use some for baking.
I have also decided to try something different this time.
Usually, i just take the annabel karmel's red velvet cupcake recipe and omit the sugar.
The result is scone-like cupcakes but still yummy because of the dark chocolate and cranberries.
This time i use one more egg, add less chocolate and added extra ingredients like vanilla, dates puree and homemade pomegranate syrup (I was actually attempting to use it to dye the cake but it wasn't strong enough!)
In addition i use a different method.
The result is a softer texture but still more dense than normal cake. But it was an improvement. I'll explore more and post my findouts here.
The following Recipe is a result of an experiment to make better sugarless cakes hence it contains mistakes such as the pomegranate syrup which was first intended to use as red colouring but failed:
Ingredients for 12 cupcakes:
3 extra large eggs
puree of 3 stoned dates, pressed through a sift
35g (before melting) of melted dark chocolate (i use Ghirardelli dark 60% cacao)
55g of melted butter
1/2 tsp of vanilla extract (you can afford to use more of this if not adding pomegranate juice of syrup)
2 tsp of pomegranate syrup (mistake)
2 tsp of red food colouring
3/4 cup (100g) of plain flour sifted
2 tbsp of sour cream
1/4 tsp of bicarbonate soda
a handful of dried cranberries coated with a little self-raising flour
Method:
1. Whip the eggs on medium speed until frothy
2. add the dates puree and whip till well combined
3. Add vanilla extract, red food colouring and sour cream and whip till well combined (i should perhaps fold the sour cream into the mixture alternately with the flour)
4. Add the melted chocolate and butter into the egg mixture and blend at low speed. stop to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with rubber spatula.
5. in 2 stages, add the flour and soda mixture to the chocolate mixture, blending well after each addition. Stop to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with spatula.
6. Spoon the cupcake mixture into the muffin tins and bake for 25 mins at 160 degrees fan.
For icing this is not sugarless but you can reduce it!:
1 cup of cream cheese
75g of soften butter
1 tbsp of maple syrup
1/4 cup of icing sugar
1 tsp of vanilla extract
strawberry fruit jam that contains no additional sugar such as St.Dalfour that contains no additional sugar other than naturally present in the fruit (u can use this to mix with the cream cheese to make a pink yogurt like cream for the cakes.
method:
whip the cream cheese and butter till smooth before adding sugar and vanilla and blend thoroughly.
If the mixture is too watery, put in the the fridge to harden a little before piping over the cakes.
Spread the jam over the cup cakes, then pipe the cream on top.
