Friday, September 28, 2007

Hazelnut Cupcakes with Hazelnut Mocha Mousse

My friend Amy commissioned these after she told me she likes "hazelnut... and mocha" desserts. Although they were the most unbelievably expensive cupcakes you'd ever want to make, these were definitely a rung up the fancy baking ladder from the exploded Oreo cupcakes a couple of posts back. The hazelnut meal and Frangelico went a long way to deliver an amazing depth of hazelnutty flavor, and the meal in particular gave them a great texture. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to inject the filling without totally destroying the structure of the cupcake, but practice makes perfect.

I did finally figure out how to make sure the tops stayed nice and bulbous (be really, really gentle with them as you take them out of the oven and let them cool completely), which made the ganache-ing much less messy this time around. The mousse filling was great (I mixed some extra into some soymilk last night... mmmmm) but honestly it would have been a lot richer with some heavy cream. Vegans!


I overbaked them a little (paranoid about the tops falling) but they were still delicious. 9 Ankh necklaces out of 10.

2 comments:

Amy Mariaskin said...

They were delicious as expected! The richness and creaminess of the mousse was a nice contrast to the nutty texture of the cake part. I feel personally responsible for the financial hit of the cupcakes - I hope that you agree it was worth it!

Amy Mariaskin said...

um, that was me, Amy, btw.