Chocolate Soufflé Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Chocolate Soufflé Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

It was Elisa’s cousin,Christy’s birthday last week. Christy and Elisa have been really close since young, attending school and all sorts of classes – painting, baking, tuition, etiquette (you name it they’ve been there) – together. They were like best friends, playing and going everywhere together. Those were the good ol’ days before we started spending more than half our entire day in school . Now, they meet up only during the weekends for lunch, dinner, church and other occasions. Kinda sad ):

As it was her 17th birthday last week, Elisa decided to bake something for Christy, and when she came across a Chocolate Soufflé Cupcake recipe on smittenkitchen.com, she knew she had to do it. NO ONE can say no to a soufflé, especially a chocolate soufflé. How could you? A soufflé is basically a baked cake, sweet or savoury, without flour but includes beaten egg whites which allow the cake to rise and “puff up”. It’s almost pure magic – light and airy yet still rich in flavor all at the same time. It goes perfectly when served warm with a generous scoop of Ice Cream! Once you’ve tasted a real good soufflé, you’ll know that nothing beats the feeling you get when eating it, cause it’s like a taste of heaven in your mouth and you never want to stop eating it even though it’s so huge and … calories be damned! Hmmmm, Elisa wants a soufflé so badly right now…. Whoever created the soufflé is a genius. Peace.

Since Elisa had extra Cream Cheese in the fridge, she decided to replace the Mint Cream with Cream Cheese Frosting, since we’re not that big a fan of mint anyway. It reminds of of toothpaste, no offense meant to the person who created the Mint flavour! Kids nowadays love chocolate, anything chocolate, just chocolate. Wouldn’t you agree? 🙂

Chocolate Soufflé Cupcakes

Chocolate Souffle Cupcakes
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

We used a little less chocolate as Elisa ran out of chocolate. Who would have 510g of chocolate in their fridge anyway (she had to make 30 cupcakes)?! That’s a lot of chocolate, but more chocolate is always better! Fortunately, using less chocolate did not take away any of the rich intense chocolate flavour. The cupcakes were just as gratifying and decadent as they were meant to be. Just make sure you use the best dark chocolate you could ever find.

Yields 9 regular size Cupcakes

130 grams bittersweet chocolate, chopped
86 grams unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Heaping 1/4 teaspoon (1 gram) espresso or instant coffee powder (optional)
3 large eggs, separated
6 tablespoons sugar, divided
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 9 standard-size muffin cups with paper liners. Stir chocolate, butter and espresso powder (if using) together in heavy medium saucepan over low heat mostly melted, then remove from the heat and whisk until it is fully melted and smooth. A piece of advice: put the butter underneath the chocolate in the pan, so that it protects the chocolate from the direct heat. Cool to lukewarm, stirring occasionally.

Using electric mixer (we used a hand mixer), beat egg yolks and 3 tablespoons sugar in medium bowl until mixture is very thick and pale, about 2 minutes. Briefly beat lukewarm chocolate mixture, then vanilla extract, into yolk mixture. Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites in another medium bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining 3 tablespoons sugar and all of the salt, beating until medium-firm peaks form. Fold whites into chocolate mixture in 3 additions. Divide batter among prepared cups, filling each three-fourths of the way.

Bake cakes until tops are puffed and dry to the touch (some may crack, embrace it) and a tester inserted into the centers comes out with some moist crumbs attached, about 15 to 20 minutes. Cool in pan on a cooling rack, where the cupcakes will almost immediately start to fall. It will be all the better to put your frosting on them.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Adapted from Relishing It

Frosts about 16 regular size Cupcakes

1  –  8 ounce package cream cheese, room temperature
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine cream cheese and butter in a bowl for an electric mixer. Beat on high until light and fluffy, a couple of minutes.  Add the sifted confectioners’ sugar and vanilla and beat on low at first, then increase to high.  When frosting is light and airy — it is ready to put on top of the cupcakes.

A piece of heaven, even with melted frosting 🙂

 One thing that you have to take note of if you’re trying out the recipe is that the cupcakes were really really fragile, since it’s so light and airy. Well, it’s a soufflé, and it surely is worth all the trouble you go to when baking it. Good valuable things don’t come easy, so make sure you handle them with great care! The soufflé was moist and not too sweet,  with a rich intense chocolate flavour. It went well with the sweet cool Cream Cheese Frosting. These soufflés are definitely worth a try, and they’re really easy to make too! Soufflé in a cupcake form is the most creative thing ever, who says soufflé can only be served in ramekins? And as cupcakes are usually smaller than those huge soufflés in ramekins served in restaurants, soufflé in a cupcake form controls the portion size too! Christy enjoyed the cupcakes immensely, eating 2 of them that day – 1 in the afternoon, and 1 after an equally exceptional Omakase dinner at Tatsuya @ Goodwood Park Hotel – and she was satisfied 🙂

These decadent chocolate babies make for an easy and delightful dessert that you can have anytime! They’re pretty enough to double up as gifts too, if you’re generous enough to give any of these away. We recommend that you make a batch and keep all for yourself though, because you’d never want to stop eating them once you’ve tried it.