I wasn't sure what to make of this week's Baked Sunday Mornings recipe, Red Wine Cupcakes with Chocolate Glaze. I'm not a drinker myself, but it seemed like a strange combination to me. Even my oenophile husband Tom was skeptical, but when I asked him for some "hearty red wine," he gladly contributed a bottle of 2008 Clos Marie from the Languedoc (a grenache blend) to the effort.
Tom's skepticism only grew when I poured the wine into a pan and heated it on the stove. He was incredulous that the recipe requires you to heat the wine to almost boiling, pour it over dark chocolate and cocoa powder, and then whisk everything together until smooth. To make the batter, I beat butter until smooth; added sugar and dark brown sugar and beat until fluffy; added eggs and en egg yolk, followed by vanilla; and alternately added the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt) and the chocolate-red wine mixture. The recipe says it yields 18-20 cupcakes, but I got 23.
The recipe headnote indicates that these cupcakes only have a slight dome. My cupcakes initially rose quite a bit in the oven (I filled the cupcake liners only three-quarters full, as directed), but then the cupcake tops flattened out before they finished baking. This resulted in cupcake tops that resembled the head of nail -- a flat disk that was wider than the body of the cupcake. In retrospect, I wish that I had underfilled the cupcake liners to avoid having the cupcakes rise into this shape. Cupcakes with nail head tops are not just unattractive, but they are also unwieldy -- the bottom side of the cupcake top generally sticks to the top of the cupcake pan, and you have to pry it off.
The glaze for the cupcakes is a mixture of dark chocolate, heavy cream, and a little corn syrup. The finishing touch is a line of white sprinkles, which evokes the traditional Hostess cupcake swirl.
I didn't like these cupcakes at all. While the cake was moist, it tasted strongly of red wine, which completely ruined it for me. Even Tom -- who is an avid wine drinker and moonlights at a wine store -- thought that the combination of red wine and chocolate was not a winner. Both of us agreed that a regular chocolate cupcake is far superior.
Recipe: "Red Wine Cupcakes with Chocolate Glaze" from Baked Occasions by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings.
Previous Post: "A Childhood Treat from a Purloined Page (Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Filling)," September 7, 2008.
Tom's skepticism only grew when I poured the wine into a pan and heated it on the stove. He was incredulous that the recipe requires you to heat the wine to almost boiling, pour it over dark chocolate and cocoa powder, and then whisk everything together until smooth. To make the batter, I beat butter until smooth; added sugar and dark brown sugar and beat until fluffy; added eggs and en egg yolk, followed by vanilla; and alternately added the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt) and the chocolate-red wine mixture. The recipe says it yields 18-20 cupcakes, but I got 23.
The glaze for the cupcakes is a mixture of dark chocolate, heavy cream, and a little corn syrup. The finishing touch is a line of white sprinkles, which evokes the traditional Hostess cupcake swirl.
I didn't like these cupcakes at all. While the cake was moist, it tasted strongly of red wine, which completely ruined it for me. Even Tom -- who is an avid wine drinker and moonlights at a wine store -- thought that the combination of red wine and chocolate was not a winner. Both of us agreed that a regular chocolate cupcake is far superior.
Recipe: "Red Wine Cupcakes with Chocolate Glaze" from Baked Occasions by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings.
Previous Post: "A Childhood Treat from a Purloined Page (Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Filling)," September 7, 2008.
Comments