Toasted Cherry Pie Cupcakes! Easy Rage-Baking as Meditation.

Yum

Are you enjoying the cooking videos, like this new one showing you how to make these little toasted cherry pie cupcakes? Let me know in the comments if there’s anything you hate about them. Except my countertops. Don’t worry, I hate those too. Oh, to be a millionaire. I would have solid-surface countertops, a house in the middle of Disney World, and a refrigerator that has an ice maker in the door.

Hey, a girl can dream.

Please notice that the video now includes the word FAHRENHEIT after the baking temperature. I was informed by my dear friend Ian that I was “disenfranchising non-American bakers,” by not including this information, so I have now included it. *Cue eye roll.* (Just kidding I love you Ian.)

Quick side-note about Katie, Ian’s wife. Katie is an avid reader, and she has a youtube (booktube?) channel where she chronicles her literary adventures, and her February video is super inspiring. She is reading only books by black authors in February, which is pretty cool and is helping me to seek out a broader range of voices in my own reading choices. Check her out here because she is awesome and you might learn something.

Baking with a purpose…

I love baking and cooking for the people close to me. My Man-husband, an awesome person with many practical skills and talents, cannot cook anything, (although he does make a mean frozen pizza), so he pretty much lets me have free run of the kitchen. I know he sometimes feels guilty that I do all the cooking, but I actually secretly like it that way. I like that only I know where everything is, exactly how much brown sugar is in the pantry, whether I have the right ingredients to make chicken parmesan, and I like feeling like I can take care of him with cooking. We all have different love languages, and mine might be cheese.

I also love hosting dinner parties and cooking or baking for social events. Sometimes it can be hard to tell the people that you care about that you love them, but nothing says you care like something homemade, at least for me. I like that I spent time in the kitchen creating, and then get to share it with people. Sometimes I just bake something for myself. It helps me to remember that I am also worth the time in the kitchen. Self-love can be a challenge.

Baking is also a way for me to transform negative experiences or help me reframe my thinking. This weekend some news broke that was a shock and a revelation for me and for many people in my life, and it left me feeling angry, betrayed, and lost. So, what to do? I meandered into my kitchen and tried to turn those feelings into love, because I just couldn’t bring myself to dwell on it one second longer. And, voila, these cupcakes were created.

Toasted Cherry Pie Cupcakes: the elements.

These are really easy, you guys. So easy I feel a little guilty sharing them here. But please, try them. They are perfect for Valentine’s Day, and are the perfect sweet treat to help keep you warm during the polar vortex.

If you aren’t a coffee person, don’t be alarmed at the hot coffee in the recipe, because I promise that you really can’t taste it. I’m not sure why this is true, but coffee with chocolate just makes the chocolate taste more like… chocolate? I don’t know, it’s science or something.

Don’t be ashamed at buying that can of pre-made cherry pie filling. That stuff is good. It is not shown in the video, but rest assured that I ate a mouthful between every cupcake while filling these bad boys. If you have some extra (which you will,) you can use them in this hand pie recipe so that you don’t have any waste.

This recipe is definitely perfect for taking shortcuts. I thought about making some chocolate-covered cherries as a garnish, but I was way too lazy and far more interested in watching GBBO instead. Feel free to give that a shot and let me know how it goes.

Go to town with FIRE.

This marshmallow frosting is really easy to make and work with, AND you get to pull out your blowtorch and burn away your anger. If you don’t have a blowtorch, just pop them under the broiler while STANDING THERE AND STARING AT THEM. The second you walk away, they will burn, I promise. You must watch them.

Side note: For some reason I went through a phase where I really stocked up on piping bags, so I have a million of them, but they are ALL 12 inch piping bags. That is small. Very small. The marshmallow frosting leaked out the back of the piping bag while I was piping and got all over my hands, my apron, my shoes, my fancy light ring, and my cat. The whole world seems sticky. My house may need to be condemned.

Toasted Cherry Pie Cupcakes

For the cupcakes:

• 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate , chopped fine
• 35 g cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup hot coffee
• 100 grams AP flour
• 150 grams granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 can cherry pie filling

For the marshmallow frosting:

• Four large egg whites
• 150 grams sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• A few drops of almond extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees FAHRENHEIT (take that, Ian) and prepare a 12-cup muffin tin with liners and baking spray.

Chop up your chocolate and put it in a large bowl with the cocoa powder. Pour on the HOT coffee (zap it in the microwave if you need to) and whisky whisky until it is all melty and combined. Add the oil and eggs, whisk, then add the sugar, salt, extracts, and vinegar, whisk. Add the dry ingredients in two batches, and fold together until just combined.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, filling each cup about 2/3 full. Add a spoonful of canned cherry pie filling to the center of each cupcake, about 3 cherries each.

Bake for 15-17 minutes or until domed and set. Pop them out of the tin and set aside to cool.

Now, the fun part. Put your egg whites and sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer, and place over a pan of simmering water on the stove. Cook, whisking occasionally, for about 4 minutes, or until the sugar is dissolved completely and the egg whites are warm to the touch. To test this, rub a little between your fingers to check for sugar granules.

When you have reached this stage, transfer the bowl of the mixture to your stand fitted with the whisk attachment, add the cream of tartar, and whisk until you have very stiff peaks and the marshmallow frosting is thick and glossy. Add the almond extract for just the last twenty seconds of mixing.

Transfer the frosting to a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle, and pipe onto your cooled cupcakes. Toast the cupcakes with a blow torch or under the broiler if desired. Share with someone you love. That person can be you.