Cake Slice Bakers - December 2012: Mississippi Mud Cupcakes

Happy Thursday, everyone! I can’t believe Christmas is only 4 days away! It’s unbelievable. I have so many more recipes to share with you for the holiday season, but first I will share this month’s Cake Slice Bakers cake.

The wining cake this month was the Mississippi Mud Cupcake. Mud cakes are typical sheet cakes known for their deep chocolate notes, nutty mix-ins, and gooey marshmallow toppings. Julie Richardson takes the sheet cake and turns it into a cute little cupcake.

I wasn’t too exciting about making this recipe only because of the marshmallow frosting. The marshmallow frosting is a combination of stiff egg whites and sugar syrup, something I have never been comfortable with.

I’m terrible at making candy. In February earlier this year I tried making marshmallows, boy was that a disaster. I basically made pink cement; it took about 10 hours of a hot water soak to get the whisk attachment free from the pink gunk. Oh and then there was the honeycomb candy disaster too where I made honey colored tar. Yeah, you can see why I’m a little apprehensive when it comes to anything that involved melting candy.

Despite my apprehension I trucked on and made the frosting anyways. You can take a guess as to how it turned out. If your guess is “horrible-tasting, honey-colored mush” then ding, ding, ding, you are a winner! I wasn’t too disappointed because I knew it wouldn’t turn out the way I wanted. So I went back to the drawing board. I knew I needed marshmallow frosting so I just looked up some marshmallow fluff buttercream from Baked Bree and used that to top the cupcakes.

Theses cupcakes have a lovely dark color, and their texture is light and soft. I had omitted the pecans in the cupcakes, but I loved the added texture and flavor of the semi-sweet chocolate chips. The frosting I used is really airy and delicate and pairs nicely with such a soft cake.

Mississippi Mud Cupcakes

Recipe from Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson

Frosting adapted from Baked Bree

Makes 24 cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes

1 cup hot coffee

¾ cup unsweetened Dutch processed cocoa powder

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. baking soda

1 cup toasted chopped pecans

1 cup, semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 eggs, room temperature

1 cup buttermilk, room temperature

½ cup canola oil

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Frosting

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

1 7 oz. jar marshmallow fluff

1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a cupcake tin with paper liners; set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the hot coffee and cocoa powder. Make sure to get all the clumps dissolved. Set the mixture aside.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Mix in the pecans and chocolate chips, making sure to thoroughly coat the mix-ins in the flour mixture.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla. Pour in the liquid chocolate mixture. Mix until combined. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture. Mix until combined. Fill each cupcake liner about 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Let the cupcakes cool in the cupcake tin for 10-15 minutes before removing. Repeat with the remaining batter if any is left. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before frosting. 

To make the frosting: beat the butter until fluffy. Add the marshmallow fluff and continue to beat for 2 minutes. Add the confectioners’ sugar gradually. Beat for another 2 minutes. Add the vanilla extract and mix to combine. Frost the cupcakes as desired.