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Chocolate cupcakes melt in your mouse with their crumbly texture and heavenly chocolate flavor.
Chocolate cupcakes can be frosted with enhancing flavors like chocolate buttercream.
Chocolate cupcakes can also be frosted with complimentary flavors like cream cheese frosting, raspberry buttercream, or coffee buttercream.
Cream Cheese Frosting
Cream cheese frosting is one of the most popular flavors for frosting chocolate cupcakes.
It’s not as sweet as buttercream, and has the memorable cream cheese and vanilla flavor, which balances out the chocolatey cupcake.
Cream cheese frosting needs to have the right consistency to be piped into shapes using a piping tip. Therefore I recommend using this recipe for cupcakes.
It’s a thick icing and it pipes well on top of cupcakes. You can also color it using gel food coloring or liquid food coloring.
It’s an overwhelming chocolate flavor when you combined both chocolate cupcakes and chocolate frosting.
Chocolate buttercream is made by creaming butter, heavy cream, vanilla extract, salt, and cocoa powder together. The icing is sweetened using icing sugar.
Once the frosting is made, it will be very thick! You can thin it out a little with a bit more heavy cream if needed.
Put a couple sprinkles on top of your freshly frosted chocolate cupcakes for a little pop of color.
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
Vanilla buttercream frosting is a complimentary flavored icing for chocolate cupcakes. It tones down the chocolate flavor, leaving you with an aromatic vanilla flavor.
Vanilla buttercream is a rich and creamy frosting that is flavored with vanilla extract.
It’s a stiff icing, therefore it pipes well on top of of cupcakes for those beautiful rose icing designs.
Vanilla buttercream is made with heavy cream instead of milk to thin it out, therefore it has more of a buttery, velvety flavor.
You can easily color vanilla buttercream frosting using gel food coloring, or liquid food coloring for your themed cupcakes.
Coffee buttercream combined with chocolate cupcakes has a delicious creamy mocha flavor to them.
It’s one of my favorite frostings because it’s FULL of coffee flavor.
It tastes like you’re eating a latte, giving you a little pick-me-up.
Coffee buttercream icing is made by adding instant coffee (I recommend using freshly brewed espresso) to a buttercream icing base.
Raspberry Buttercream
Raspberry buttercream is a succulent frosting for chocolate cupcakes. Raspberry frosting goes particularly well with chocolate cupcakes, making it have burst of fruity flavor.
Raspberry buttercream has a vibrant pink color to it.
To make raspberry buttercream, you’ll be making your own raspberry sauce, and then whipping that with a buttercream based frosting.
How to make a praline feuilletine cake base recipe.
Prep Time1 hourhr30 minutesmins
Total Time1 hourhr30 minutesmins
Course: Dessert
Keyword: dessert
Yield: 112 x 16″ cake base
Materials
Feuilletine
1/4cupegg whites
1/4cupflour
1/4cupicing sugar
1/4cupbuttermelted
Praline Paste
35gwater
100gsugargranulated
100ghazelnutsroasted
pinch salt
Chocolate
210gmilk chocolate
Instructions
Feuilletine
In a medium sized bowl, mix together icing sugar and flour until well combined.
Add egg whites, and whisk together until it's completely mixed through.
Add melted butter to the bowl and whisk together again until it's fully combined.
Line a half sheet sized baking sheet with parchment paper. You can always use 2 – quarter sized baking sheets if you don't have a half sheet.
Place the mixture into the baking pan. Using a brush, spread the mixture out as thin as possible. This creates the crispy texture. If it's too thick it won't crisp up in the oven. It will be more squishy than crispy.
Bake for 10-15 minutes at 325 degrees F. It should golden brown when it's finished.
Let the feuilletine cool fully. Then break up into pieces. Set aside.
Praline Paste
Roasted ~100 g of hazelnuts at 360 °F for 15 minutes. Let the nuts cool to room temperature. Remove the skins by rubbing the cooled down nuts in your hands until most of the skins have come off. Remove as much of the skins as possible off of the hazelnuts.
In a medium saucepan, combine water and sugar over low – medium heat. Stir until sugar dissolves and begins boiling. Stop stirring the saucepan and let it boil on its own. Turn down the heat and let it boil on low (1-2).
The sugar will go through transformations as it becomes caramel. The sugar will begin to form crystals and be completely dry in the saucepan.
The sugar crystals will begin to melt and become a golden brown color. When it's turning a bit darker of a color, it's time to take it off the heat. You don't want to burn the caramel sauce.
Get a baking pan ready with a silicone baking mat lining it. Once your caramel sauce is finished, remove it from heat. Mix the sauce to make the crystals melt all the way through if there's any left in the pot. Pour the hazelnuts and salt into your caramel sauce and mix until they are fully covered.
Pour the hazelnut and caramel sauce onto the silicone baking mat. Let it cool to room temperature, it will solidify.
Break the caramel into smaller pieces. Place them into a food processor. It will be LOUD. Prepare yourself! It's best to do this step with ear protection. Blend on low, then on high. Scrape the sides down and blend until it becomes a paste (a couple of minutes). Set praline paste aside.
Praline Feuilletine
Melt 210 g of milk chocolate in the microwave. Using 30 second intervals, mix thoroughly until it's fully melted.
Add praline paste to the chocolate and mix together.
Add 1 cup of the feuilletine pieces to the chocolate-praline paste and mix together.
Pour and press your praline feuilletine into your cake base and let it set in the freezer for a couple of hours prior to using.
Praline feuillentine is made by mixing together melted chocolate, praline paste, and paillete feuilletine.
The mixture is placed into the bottom of a baking pan, and let to set in the fridge until ready to use.
Hazelnut Squares
Hazelnut squares are made by combining praline paste with tempered chocolate.
The hazelnut-chocolate mixture is poured into a pan, and then it sets over the next couple of hours.
The hazelnut squares are cut into pieces, and then you can dip them again into melted chocolate for a rich hazelnut square.
Coffee Buns
Coffee buns are made by preparing a yeast dough and letting it rise.
The buns are baked, and then iced with coffee icing.
The tops of the coffee buns have praline paste spread on top of them to give them a hint of hazelnut flavor.
Pecan Praline Cheesecake
Pecan praline cheesecake is made by grinding up vanilla wafers and pecans to create the crust of the cheesecake.
The wafers and pecans are mixed with butter and pressed into the bottom of the cheesecake pan.
The cheesecake is prepared, and then the praline paste is mixed in to make a marbled praline cheesecake.
After the cheesecake has baked and cooled, melted white chocolate is mixed with a bit more praline paste.
The cheesecakes are topped with the white chocolate praline mixture, and a candied pecan.
Hazelnut Buttercream
Hazelnut buttercream can be used to fill macarons, or on top of cupcakes for a delicious buttery – nut flavored dessert.
Hazelnut buttercream is made by heating egg whites, sugar, and salt in a double boiler.
After the eggs have thickened a bit, the mixture is beaten until glossy with a bit of vanilla extract. Butter is added in with only small pieces at a time, making the buttercream rich and creamy.
At the end, praline paste is beaten into the buttercream.
The hazelnut buttercream is a nutty, buttery icing that goes well with chocolate or vanilla cupcakes.
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Garnishing creme brulee makes this dessert look irresistable with using only a few simple additions.
You can use sprinkles, fruit, chocolate shavings, caramelized sugar pieces, sugar cookies, zest, cocoa powder, and more to garnish creme brulee!
Make your creme brulee eye catching and mesmerizing using these simple garnish ideas for creme brulee.
Sugar Cookies
Sugar cookies can be made into long, narrow cookies that look beautiful as a creme brulee garnish.
You can arrange them delicately on the edge of the creme brulee ramekin in a criss cross.
Caramelized Sugar Pieces
Caramelized sugar pieces look intricate and delicate. They add such an intriging look to the creme brulee.
Caramelized sugar pieces are made by making caramel, and then using a teaspoon to gently spoon the caramel onto a silicone baking mat to create a unique design.
You can make spirals, hearts, circles, jagged, or circular sugar pieces for an incredibly fancy creme brulee garnish.
Dusted Cocoa Powder
Cocoa powder looks beautiful when it is dusted on top of creme brulee.
Cocoa powder goes best with a chocolate, hazelnut, or caramel flavored creme brulee.
You can dust cocoa powder on to of creme brulee by placing a small spoonful in a sifter.
Gently tap the sifter to add the cocoa powder on top of the creme brulee for a simple garnish.
Mint Leaves
You can arrange a mint leaf beside a couple of fresh berries for a colorful creme brulee garnish.
Chocolate Shavings
Chocolate shavings look unique as a garnish for creme brulee.
Chocolate shavings add creamy chocolate notes to rich creme brulee.
You can add chocolate shavings to just about any flavor of creme brulee.
If you’re making a fruit or citrus flavored creme brulee, add white chocolate shavings.
Chocolate shavings can be made using a potato peeler and a chocolate bar.
You need to have enough chocolate to create the scrolled look, therefore a bar of chocolate works best for this.
Hold the chocolate bar over the creme brulee and “peel” the chocolate away from you to create the scroll for the garnish.
Nuts
You can add a sprinkle of your favorite nuts on top of creme brulee for an added crunchy texture to creme brulee.
Chop up your nuts into fine pieces prior to add them to your creme brulee.
Walnuts and pecans work well as a garnish for vanilla or chocolate creme brulee.
Whipped Cream
Whipped cream is a soft, pillow-y rich flavored garnish for creme brulee.
Whipped cream is generally cold, so it has ability to melt if you add it too soon after the sugar is burnt.
Wait a few minutes for the sugar to cool down before adding the whipped cream garnish.
White chocolate scrolls work well with most cupcake flavors.
Fresh Fruit
Fresh fruit can be used as a cupcake garnish using a small piece of fruit or a single berry. You can place it directly on top of the icing peak, or off to the side. Push it into the icing so it stays.
blackberry
blueberry
raspberry
kiwi slice
slice of strawberry
Chocolate Garnish
Chocolate garnishes can be made into countless designs, using your own imagination! You can pipe chocolate hearts, words, stars, butterflies, etc.
Once you’ve piped your chocolate into your beautiful garnish, place it in the freezer to hard up.
Then gently place it into the icing on your cupcake for a stunning garnish to your cupcakes.
Writing
You can write a chocolate garnish with a saying or word using handwriting. This way, word will stay all one piece.
After you’ve completed the word, trace a line underneath the word to make the letters reinforced, or have something that will be easily stuck into your cupcake.
Chocolate Leaf
You can paint melted chocolate onto a fresh leaf from the garden using a food safe paintbrush.
Let the chocolate leaf dry fully in the freezer. Then, peel off the leaf from the chocolate and place the chocolate leaf onto your cupcake.
Melt your chocolate in 30 second intervals until it’s fully melted. Use a spoon to mix your chocolate in between intervals. You’ll only need 1/4-1/3 cup of chocolate to make your chocolate garnish.
Place your piping tip into a piping bag. Put the piping bag over the edges of a tall glass.
Pour the melted chocolate into the piping bag.
Cut the piping bag tip and twist the end of the piping bag to get it ready for piping.
Place your parchment paper or silicone mat on a baking sheet. This will make it easier to transfer it to the freezer later. Any plate would work for this as well depending on how much freezer space you have.
Begin piping your chocolate garnish.
Place chocolate into the freezer for 20 minutes to set them.
Do not hold the chocolate garnish decoration for a very long time in your hand or it will start to melt.
Place your chocolate garnish gently into your cupcake.
Champagne buttercream frosting can be made using a sweet sparkling wine infused into a vanilla buttercream frosting. You could even use a strawberry sparkling wine for a little extra fruity flavor.
Champagne buttercream frosting is perfect for a wedding shower, NYE party, or birthday party celebration.
Banana buttercream icing is made with banana extract to buttercream frosting. You can add a little yellow liquid food coloring as well for a pop of color.
Banana buttercream icing can be piped onto banana cake or vanilla cake.
Cinnamon buttercream is made by creaming together shortening, butter, and powdered sugar.
Heavy cream is used to thin out the icing.
Vanilla extract and cinnamon are added to the frosting at the end, so you can taste test and make sure the flavor is just right before icing your cake.
Mocha Icing
Mocha icing has a coffee-chocolate flavor to it. It’s rich and decadent.
Mocha buttercream icing is made by adding freshly brewed coffee or espresso, and cocoa powder to a vanilla buttercream icing.
Mocha icing can be piped on top of chocolate or vanilla cake.
Coffee glaze is flavored using freshly brewed coffee, infused into a icing base. You can add a couple of toasted hazelnuts on top of the glaze for a crunchy texture to the donut.
Coffee glaze can be used with vanilla donuts, or chocolate donuts.
Chocolate Glaze
Chocolate glaze is a rich, chocolatey glaze you can make using only 2 ingredients.
Chocolate glaze is made using a little coconut oil, and melted dark chocolate mixed together.
Chocolate donuts can be dipped into the glaze, and set to dry. You can add a couple of sprinkles on top for a pop of color if desired.
Vanilla Glaze
Vanilla glaze is a classic flavored glaze you can use on almost any flavor of donut.
Vanilla glaze is made using vanilla extract with icing to create this deliciously sweet glaze.
It’s not as sweet as buttercream, and has the memorable cream cheese and vanilla flavor.
Cream cheese frosting needs to have the right consistency to be piped into shapes using a piping tip. Therefore I recommend using this recipe for cupcakes.
It’s a thick icing and it pipes well on top of cupcakes. You can also color it using gel food coloring or liquid food coloring.
Champagne buttercream frosting can be made using a sweet sparkling wine infused into a vanilla buttercream frosting. You could even use a strawberry sparkling wine for a little extra fruity flavor.
Champagne buttercream frosting is perfect for a wedding shower, NYE party, or birthday party celebration.
Banana buttercream icing is made with banana extract to buttercream frosting. You can add a little yellow liquid food coloring as well for a pop of color.
Banana buttercream icing can be piped onto banana cupcakes or vanilla cupcakes.
Irish cream buttercream is made by adding Irish cream to a buttercream frosting.
Irish cream frosting goes well on top of vanilla cupcakes.
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