Who doesn’t like Cherry Garcia? Not that I’ve taken a formal survey or anything, but it seems like everyone I know champions Cherry Garcia as their favorite Ben & Jerry’s flavor. There’s just something about cherry ice cream; for my mom, black cherry was second only to vanilla. Her penchant for black cherry ice cream rubbed off on me early on, and i also came to appreciate the flavor which was unlike any other, the purplish-pink hue, and the “black” cherries pebbled throughout. ” This eventually led to my fondness for Cherry Garcia, though it is cherry ice cream made more sophisticated with the addition of chocolate chunks, and is not as artificially flavored as the ice cream of my childhood.
With that, I present to you the not so gratefully dead Cherry Garcia cupcake. But not as originally planned (chocolate cake with cherry buttercream). It was chocolates-in-heart-shaped-boxes day, for goodness’ sake. I had to make it extra special — to express my love for everyone, if you will. :P So I made the chocolate cake more dense by adding melted chocolate (although in the end I learned that this compromised the cake’s moistness) and planted a cherry truffle inside.
Dense Chocolate Cupcake
24 cupcakes / 350 degree oven
2 cups flour
1-1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1. Measure out everything but the eggs and melted chocolate directly into your mixer bowl.
2. Mix on low speed just until incorporated.
3. Beat on high speed for 2 minutes.
4. Add eggs, beat on high speed again for 2 minutes.
5. Add melted chocolate and beat to mix.
Fill lined cupcake tins 3/4 full. Bake for about 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool slightly in the pan then transfer to a rack to cool.
Chocolate Cherry Truffles
(adapted from a truffle recipe by Ina Garten, with some changes)
1/4 pound bittersweet chocolate (I used Trader Joe’s 72% cacao)
1/4 pound semi-sweet chocolate (Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp brewed coffee
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (the flavor didn’t come out as much as I had hoped for)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
24 dark sweet cherries (canned, in heavy syrup)
First, drain the cherries and allow them to dry on a couple sheets of paper towel on top of a shallow tray. Replace the sheets if necessary.
Chop the chocolate into small pieces and place in a heat-proof mixing bowl. Heat the cream in a small saucepan until it just boils. Turn off the heat and allow the cream to sit for 20 seconds. Pour the cream through a fine-meshed sieve into the bowl with chocolate. With a wire whisk, slowly stir the cream and chocolates together until the chocolate is completely melted. Let the chocolate partially set at room temperature for about 20 minutes. When the chocolate is somewhere in-between liquid and solid phases, use your fingers to dip the cherries into the chocolate one by one. Coat cherries by rolling them in the ganache a few times. Allow chocolate cherry truffles to set at room temperature for at least one hour, or if you want to speed things up, stick them in the freezer for about 20 minutes. If you want a thicker chocolate coating, make more ganache and repeat the dipping process with already solidified truffles.
Dark Cherry Buttercream
1 stick butter
3-1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
~2 tsp milk
cherry reduction (8 dark sweet frozen cherries, thawed and each torn to several pieces, plus 1/4 cup of the excess cherry juice. Cook on high heat, with the addition of juice from half of a lemon, until the liquid has evaporated significantly and you’re left with a thick cherry syrup with cherry bits.)
1. Beat butter on high for about 30 seconds until soft.
2. Add 3 cups sugar and beat until incorporated
3. Add the milk and the remainder of sugar and beat until incorporated.
4. Add cherry reduction and mix.
Assembly
Hollow out the tops of the cupcakes with a knife; make each hole wide and deep enough to fit one chocolate cherry truffle (you can always press down on the insides of the cupcake, too, to help with the size adjustments). Keep the tops for snacking purposes only. Insert truffles into cupcakes, pipe on cherry buttercream, and sprinkle each cupcake with bits of chopped bittersweet chocolate.
mmm… looks delicious. since i didn’t see the lab guy comment in your blog, i’ll see if i can comment in the same way (without tasting the cupcake, of course). “when you bite into it, you can taste the light creaminess of the cherry cream and then you get a nice chewy surprise in the middle that you can squish in between your molars to reveal a chocolate covered cherry. the chocolate is intense and rich – a chocolate lover’s dream!”
how’d i do? tehehehehe
hey lianne! hope this posts since my last attempt didn’t work for some reason. these look decadent! and if you think cherry garcia is good, you have to try the cherry and chocolate ice cream by dove. it puts b & j to shame.