When I’m celebrating a special occasion, I love to offer beautiful and delicious dessert recipes such as a strawberry lemon cake, pink cake, Nutella cake, heart cake, berry chantilly cake, red velvet brownies and these decadent chocolate cherry cupcakes. I love the flavors of black forest cake, but I don’t always have the time to put together a fancy layer cake. That’s where these black forest cupcakes come in – they have the same great flavor combination of chocolate and cherry, but they’re also easy to make!
Black Forest Cupcakes Ingredients
To make this recipe, you will need boiling water, instant coffee, vegetable oil, buttermilk, Dutch process cocoa powder, all purpose flour, eggs, vanilla extract, baking powder, baking soda, salt, granulated sugar, butter, cherry pie filling, powdered sugar, cherry jam or preserves, cream and fresh cherries.
How Do You Make Black Forest Cupcakes?
Start by preheating the oven and placing paper cupcake liners into a muffin pan. For the cupcake batter, whisk together the boiling water, coffee and cocoa powder. In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk, vegetable oil, eggs, granulated sugar and vanilla extract. Add the chocolate mixture to the bowl of wet ingredients, then place a sieve over the bowl. Sift in the dry ingredients of flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix the batter until everything is just combined, then divide the batter into the cups of the muffin tin. Be sure not to over stir the batter or the cupcakes could come out tough! Bake until the cupcakes are set and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove the cakes from the cupcake pan and let them cool. While the cupcakes are cooling, prepare the frosting. Place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer, and beat until fluffy. Gradually add the powdered sugar, beating until you have a smooth mixture. Next, mix in the cherry jam. Add the cream and almond extract, and beat until you have a fluffy frosting. Place the frosting in a piping bag fitted with a large open star tip. Press the larger side of a piping tip into the center of each cupcake to cut a hole in the middle. Fill the hole with cherry filling. Cut a slice off of each cupcake core that you removed, and use the slice to plug the hole in the top of the cupcake. Pipe the frosting onto each cake. Add a drizzle of cherry syrup from your pie filling. Garnish each cupcake with a fresh cherry, then serve.
Tips For The Perfect Cupcakes
Black forest cupcakes will stay fresh in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Let them stand at room temperature for 20 minutes before serving if they’re cold from the fridge. Most varieties of cherry jam and cherry preserves contain pieces of fruit, which means your frosting will not be completely smooth. If you prefer an ultra smooth frosting, you can strain the pieces of fruit out of the jam before you add it to the sugar and butter. If fresh cherries are not in season near you, feel free to garnish the cupcakes with a cherry from the cherry pie filling can, a maraschino cherry, a jarred Italian amarena cherry or a luxardo cherry. You can use homemade cherry pie filling, or a can of store bought filling. I find it easiest to cut a core out of the center of each cake with the large round end of a piping tip. You can also purchase a cupcake corer kitchen tool, or simply use a paring knife.
Flavor Variations
These cupcakes are delicious as written, but you can easily customize the recipe to suit your tastes.
Frosting: Traditional black forest cakes typically contain whipped cream frosting. I love the extra richness that the buttercream adds to these cupcakes, but you can pipe on sweetened whipped cream if you prefer. Place 2 cups of heavy whipping cream, 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Whip until stiff peaks form. At this point you can use the whipped cream as-is, or fold in the cherry jam before you pipe the cupcakes. Garnishes: You can add extra garnishes to the top of your cupcakes. Some great options include chocolate shavings or mini chocolate chips. You can also swap out the cherry syrup for a drizzle of fudge sauce or chocolate ganache. Filling: You can mix 1 tablespoon of cherry liqueur such as kirsch into the cherry pie filling.
This black forest cupcake recipe is one of my all time favorite desserts. The combination of cherry and chocolate flavors is a classic for good reason!
