Valentine's Day Devils Food Cupcakes

So I promised the "evil" portion of my valentine's desserts today. Well, I hate to say these are evil, but they are a chocolate lover's weakness, to say the least. This makes about 32 cupcakes. You can always half the recipe if you'd like. But you do get a bunch!

These are Martha Stewarts. She get's all credit here!

Start with your ingredients: cocoa powder, 3/4 cup hot water, 3 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 1/4 tsp salt, 3 sticks of butter, 2 1/4 cups sugar, 4 large eggs, 1 tablespoon plus 1 tsp pure vanilla extract, 1 cup sour cream.

Preheat oven to 350. Combine hot water and cocoa powder, whisk until smooth.

In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Melt butter and sugar over medium-low heat.

 Remove from heat, and pour into a mixing bowl. With an electric mixer on medium-low speed, beat until mixture is cooled, 4 to 5 minutes. Add eggs one at at time (not whole as it looks like I'm doing in photo).

Add chocolate mixture and vanilla, beat until combined.

Then add half of the flour mixture, half of the sour cream, then the remaining flour mixture and the remaining sour cream. 

Mix until just combined.

Fill up cupcake tins about 3/4 full. 

Bake approximately 20 min. Allow to cool.

Here's my marshmallow cream. SOOOOO tasty! All it is: 1 cup of marshmallow fluff and 1 stick of room temp. butter cut into tiny pieces. Beat until butter is well incorporated.

Here's where I wasn't thinking. It really would have been best to fill these guys from the bottom, since I was doing a chocolate ganache. Be smart and don't make this mistake!

Ok, now for the ganache. Place 1 bag of semi sweet or dark chocolate chips in a bowl. Heat 2 cups of heavy cream in a small saucepan just until it starts to boil. Pour over chocolate and let it sit about 5 minutes. Then slowly mix chocolate...

Until it looks like this.

See why it's better to fill cupcakes from the bottom?

Dip cakes into ganache, allow them to drip free of excess chocolate.

Here's what your cupcakes will look like!

Now, if you want to make it v day appropriate, take some white chocolate melts and melt them down. Use a pastry bag with a fine tip to make little hearts. This is sort of difficult, that's why my hearts looks like a first grader did them. It may be easier just to buy heart-shaped candy to go on top.

Here's mine! Yours will look better because you won't make the mistake of filling them from the top. 

The sour cream add a nice tanginess to the flavor, and I LOVE marshmallow cream. Definitely a chocolate lovers dream.

Martha Stewarts Devil's Food Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup hot water
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup sour cream, room temperature
• Chocolate Ganache Frosting
• Chocolate Curls, for decorating (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together cocoa and hot water until smooth. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
2. Melt butter with sugar in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring to combine. Remove from heat, and pour into a mixing bowl. With an electric mixer on medium-low speed, beat until mixture is cooled, 4 to 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add vanilla, then cocoa mixture, and beat until combined. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the sour cream, and beating until just combined after each.
3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three- quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool 15 minutes; turn out cupcakes onto racks and let cool completely. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.
4. To finish, use a small offset spatula to spread cupcakes with frosting.

Marshmallow Cream Filling:

1 Stick of room temperature butter
1-1 1/2 cup marshmallow fluff

Cut butter into 1/2 inch pieces. Combine fluff and butter, beat until butter is well incorporated. Pipe into the bottom of cupcakes, or cut holes in the bottom and add filling.

Here's Martha's Chocolate Ganache recipe. I sort of doubled it.