A creamy chocolate cupcake with a dash of mascarpone frosting and cotton candy on top. A treat that throws high eyes at Halloween.
This cupcake recipe is a basic recipe that you can always use when you want to make chocolate cupcakes. And that also applies to the mascarpone frosting. Nice on a vanilla cupcake, but also good to combine with chocolate cupcakes. Two basic recipes in one blog combined.
Halloween style
But to make this cupcake extra special, I topped it with a little cotton candy on top of the mascarpone frosting. I colored the frosting gold for a dramatic effect and I dressed it up with some black (fake) spiders (which you naturally remove before you actually eat it).
For a nice effect I sprinkled some golden sprinkles on the cotton candy, because then it literally really lights up.
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How to store these cupcakes?
You can make the cupcakes with mascarpone frosting well in advance (just leave out the cotton candy, because of the humidity in the air will cause the sugar to melt). After making the cupcakes, keep them in the refrigerator until ready to use. If you keep mascarpone frosting at room temperature, it will run and the shape will be lost. You can keep the cupcakes in the refrigerator for 2 days.
Mascarpone or cream cheese frosting, what is the difference?
When frosting is made, it is often based on cream cheese or mascarpone. But what is the difference and can you replace them?
The difference is mainly in the taste. Mascarpone is a bit softer and less pronounced. There is also a difference in making the recipe. You mix cream cheese with butter and mix until it is lump free. The mascarpone frosting is mixed with cream.
Recipe cream cheese frosting
If you really can't get any mascarpone, make a cream cheese frosting by mixing 50 grams of unsalted butter with 100 grams of cream cheese, ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract, a pinch of salt and 250 grams of icing sugar. Mix everything well. This frosting is sufficient for this recipe.
Help, I've got lumps in my mascarpone. What to do?
Sometimes you get lumps in your mascarpone. Often this is caused by a temperature difference in the added ingredients. But how do you solve it?
Method 1: Put the mascarpone in a bowl and hang it over a pan of hot water (au-bain-marie). Beat the mascarpone until the lumps are gone and allow to cool to room temperature.
Method 2: Heat the mascarpone in the microwave for a few seconds and then whisk well. Repeat until the mascarpone is smooth again. Let it cool to room temperature.
Ingredients chocolate cupcakes with mascarpone frosting
What do you need to prepare these delicious chocolate cupcakes with mascarpone frosting. You can see it here:
How do you make these Halloween spider cupcakes?
A printable recipe in easy steps can be found at the bottom of this blog post.
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius). Line a cupcake tin with paper cases. In a saucepan you melt the butter with sugar. Beat this for 5 minutes with the mixer on medium speed.
After that make a paste of the cocoa with the water and add that along with the eggs and vanilla extract to the butter mixture while mixing. Beat in the flour mixture on a low speed. Mix the sour cream into the batter with a spatula.
Step 2: Spoon the batter in the cupcake forms and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Let it stand for 5 minutes at room temperature and then take them out of the tin and put on a wire rack. Let the cupcakes cool to room temperature.
Step 3: Put the cream in a bowl and mix until stiff. In a second bowl, mix the mascarpone with the icing sugar on a low setting until well blended. Spoon the whipped cream into the mascarpone and mix well.
Step 4: Put the mascarpone frosting in a piping bag. When the cupcakes have cooled to room temperature, spray a nice tuft on the cupcake. Just before serving, drape the cotton candy on the cupcake.
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📖 Recipe
Spider cupcakes with mascarpone frosting and cotton candy
Equipment
Ingredients
Chocolate cupcake
- 4 tablespoons cocoa
- 80 ml hot water
- 150 gram self-rising flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 120 gram butter
- 180 gram sugar
- 2 eggs size M, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 6 tablespoons sour cream
Mascarpone frosting
- 200 ml cream
- 200 ml mascarpone
- 50 gram confectioners sugar
- dye optional
Garnish:
- cotton candy optional
- colored sugar optional
Instructions
Preparations
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius
- Put the cupcake paper forms in the tin.
- Weigh all the ingredients and set them aside.
Chocolate cupcakes
- Mix the cocoa with the hot water until you get a smooth paste.
- Melt the butter with the sugar in a saucepan over low heat.
- In a bowl, mix the butter mixture for about 5 minutes at medium speed.
- Add the egg, vanilla and cocoa paste.
- Set the mixer speed to low.
- Add the flour and mix until just added.
- Finally add the sour cream.
- Divide the batter over the cupcake tins.
- Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, let stand for 5 minutes, and then remove them from the baking tin.
- Allow to cool further to room temperature.
Mascarpone frosting
- Put the cream in a bowl and mix with the mixer until it is stiff.
- Optional: if you want a colored frosting add the desired color to this step. Make it a little more intense than you want, because you will mix the cream with mascarpone and that will soften the color a bit.
- In a second bowl, mix the mascarpone with the powdered sugar until well blended.
- Add the whipped cream to the mascarpone mixture and mix with a spatula until done.
- Put the frosting in a piping bag and pipe a tuft of frosting on each cupcake. I used Wilton tip 1A for this.
Garnish
- Put some cotton candy on the frosting and garnish with a spider (do warn everyone that the spider is not edible).
- Optional: sprinkle some colored sugar on the cotton candy
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