These Cake pop Cupcakes are meant for a celebration. Chocolate Cupcakes topped with Swiss Meringue Buttercream and a cake pop on top!
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword cakepops, cupcakes
Prep Time 40 minutesminutes
Cook Time 15 minutesminutes
Total Time 1 hourhour10 minutesminutes
Servings 14cupcakes
Calories 250kcal
Author Camila Hurst
Ingredients
Chocolate Cupcakes
1 1/2cupsall-purpose flour 190 grams 6.75 oz
1/4cupunsweetened cocoa powder 31 grams 1.125 oz
1cupgranulated sugar 200 grams 7 oz.
1teaspoonespresso powder
1teaspoonbaking soda
3/4teaspoonsbaking powder
1/2teaspoonfine sea salt
1cupbrewed coffee*
1tablespoonwhite vinegar
2teaspoonsvanilla extract
1/2cupcanola oil 107 grams 3.8 oz
Swiss Meringue Buttercream
4egg whites160 grams, 5.6 oz
1cupgranulated sugar200 grams, 7 oz
24tablespoonsunsalted butter340 grams,12 oz
2teaspoonsvanilla
Instructions
Chocolate Cupcakes
Pre-heat oven to 350F. Line cupcake tins with cupcake liners or grease them with butter and flour.
Sift flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, espresso powder, and salt together in a large bowl.
In another bowl, mix coffee, vinegar, vanilla and oil. Pour dry mixture over wet ingredients. Whisk briefly, until incorporated. Be careful not to overmix. As soon as you see no more streaks of dry mixture, stop whisking.
Distribute batter evenly in cupcake pans.
Bake for 15-20 minutes.
Remove and let it cool.
Swiss Meringue Buttercream
About 30 minutes before you start to make your buttercream, remove butter from the fridge. Cut it into thin slices, about 1/4 inch thick. Set aside and let it come to room temperature. Depending on the temperature of your kitchen, you might need an hour or so to have the butter soften. Please note that you don’t want your butter to be too hot and melted either.
Place egg whites and sugar in a heat-proof bowl or in a double boiler pan.
Bring a pot of water to a boil, then reduce it to a simmer. Set bowl on top of the pan with simmering water.
Whisk constantly until egg whites and sugar reach 138F temperature. This ensures that the egg whites will have reached a safe temperature. The temperature of pasteurized egg whites is actually 140F, however, if you bring it up to 138F, the temperature will raise a couple degrees even after you take it out of the heat source.
Keep whisking mixture for about 30 seconds after you take it off the heat.
Pour mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer. Be sure to wipe dry the bottom of the bowl to get rid of the condensation that formed before you transfer mixture. Because if a drop of water gets in contact with your egg white/sugar, it will ruin your meringue.
With the whisk attachment, beat meringue on medium-high speed.
You are going to beat the meringue until stiff peaks form. Now, this might take a while. Usually takes me about 10 minutes. The reason for that is that the egg whites have to cool down first and then they will be able to reach stiff peak.
Just let the mixer do its job and cool down the meringue as it whisks it.
Once your meringue has reached stiff peaks, start adding butter, with the mixer on medium-high speed.
Add one slab of butter at a time. Waiting a few seconds before adding the next one.
At times, you will question yourself if your meringue will ever form, the answer is mostly likely: yes it will form. Just be patient. Keep whisking it.
Add vanilla once you’re done adding the butter.
At this point, you should see your meringue having hardened up and formed into a smooth cream.
To assemble
Simply pipe some frosting on top of the cupcakes. Then place the cake top in the center of the cupcakes.
The cake pop might be heavy and make the cupcake tilt over because the cupcake is so light. I had a couple of cupcakes fall over because of it. So next time, I would fill the cupcakes with something, jam, or frosting, or another buttercream, to make the cupcake heavier so this won't happen. If you are careful with it, and place cupcakes in little cupcake holders, you should be fine without a filling in your cupcakes.
Storage
Since I didn't fill these cupcakes with jam, or any type of frosting/filling that needs to be refrigerated, you can keep them at room temperature, in a container, for a couple of days. I would move them into the refrigerator if you desire to keep them longer, to keep cupcakes fresher. Cake pops will usually keep for a long time outside of the fridge, granted you didn't use any frosting that requires refrigeration to make your pops. Some places say they will keep well in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.
Notes
*You can skip the coffee and use hot water instead if that’s your preference. Sometimes I also add some espresso powder to the batter on top of the coffee, about 1/2 teaspoon.