Best Chocolate Mousse Cupcakes Recipes

WHITE CHOCOLATE MOUSSE-FILLED RASPBERRY CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line two 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners.
• Stir cake mix and Jell-O® mix together in a mixing bowl. Add thawed raspberries with syrup, vegetable oil, hot water, and eggs; beat with an electric mixer until well blended. Pour batter into the prepared muffin cups.
• Bake in the preheated oven until tops spring back when lightly pressed, 18 to 20 minutes. Cool in the tins for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely, about 25 more minutes.
• Meanwhile prepare mousse filling: Whisk cold milk and pudding mix in a bowl for 2 minutes. Place in the refrigerator until the cupcakes have finished cooling.
• Remove pudding from the refrigerator and fold in whipped topping. Load into a pastry bag fitted with a plain pastry tip.
• Poke the pastry tip into the center of each cupcake and squeeze until you see the cupcakes expand. Keep refrigerated.

STANDING OVATION: SWEET CHOCOLATE PORT CUPCAKES, PORT WINE REDUCTION SYRUP, RASPBERRY CREME FRAICHE FILLING, FRENCH CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line cupcake tins with 24 cupcake liners.
• Whisk together the buttermilk, oil, vanilla and eggs. Combine the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt and add into the wet mixture. Whisk the batter together until almost all the lumps are gone. Scrape the bowl, then mix again briefly. Add in a small amount of the port wine to help thin the batter. Once it is incorporated, slowly add in the remaining wine, whisking continuously. Scrape the bottom of the bowl and make sure that there are no lumps. Scoop into the prepared cupcake liners using a number 16 scoop. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean, about 25 minutes.
• To assemble: Allow the cupcakes to fully cool. Using an apple corer, remove a piece of the cupcake from the center. Drizzle with 1 teaspoon Port Wine Reduction Syrup. Fill the cupcake with 1 teaspoon Raspberry Creme Fraiche Filling. Using a large star tip, pipe the chilled French Chocolate Mousse onto the cupcake. Garnish with the gold leaf flake.
• Combine the wine, sugar and salt in a saucepan over a low flame. Simmer until reduced to 3 1/2 ounces liquid.;
• Place the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and place over a saucepan containing barely simmering water (or use a double boiler). Melt the chocolate and butter together and stir with a wooden spoon until smooth. Remove from the heat and cool slightly. Add the egg yolks to the chocolate, 1 by 1, beating with a whisk until incorporated. Set aside.
• In another bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue to beat. Gradually whisk in 1/4 cup sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form.
• Beat the heavy cream in a chilled bowl until it begins to foam and thicken up. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and the vanilla. Continue to whip the cream until it holds soft peaks.
• Gradually and gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it. Then, delicately fold in the whipped cream. Take care not over work the mousse.
• Whisk the creme fraiche with the raspberry preserves to combine.

CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER MOUSSE–FILLED CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line 2 cupcake pans with 18 paper liners and fill the empty cups half full of water to prevent scorching.
• To make the cupcakes, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder together in a large bowl. In a food processor, blend the canola oil, agave nectar, soy milk, tofu, vanilla extract, and vinegar, scraping down the bowl often. Blend until very smooth, with no chunks of tofu visible, about 2 to 3 minutes. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients. Stir well and spoon into the prepared cupcake pan, leaving some room at the top of each cup. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Remove the cupcakes from the pan and place on a cooling rack. Cool completely before filling and frosting.
• To prepare the filling, blend the tofu in a food processor until very smooth and creamy, approximately 1 to 2 minutes. Add the agave nectar and blend again. Add the peanut butter, vanilla extract, and salt and blend thoroughly until very light and smooth. Refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours to firm before filling the cupcakes.
• To assemble the cupcakes, you will need a pastry bag fitted with a large, plain smooth tip. Fill the pastry bag with peanut butter mousse and insert the tip halfway into the top of a cupcake. Squeeze filling inside each cupcake just until it starts to expand.
• Next frost the tops. If the frosting is too firm, heat in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it up. Spread the ganache evenly over the tops of the cupcakes. Let the cupcakes sit in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
• Garnish with peanuts if desired.

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE CUPCAKES

Steps:

• FOR CHOCOLATE GANACHE FROSTING (Makes about 1 & 2/3 cup and the extra can be used for fudge sauce over ice-cream because it will keep in the fridge for up to two weeks):.
• In a medium sauce pan, heat the cream and the butter over low heat until the butter has melted, but do not let simmer or boil.
• Remove pan from heat and stir in the chocolate chips.
• Let the chocolate chips sit in the hot cream to soften.
• Stir in the vanilla extract until the chocolate has melted.
• FOR MOCHA MOUSSE FILLING:.
• In a large bowl, beat the whipping cream, sugar, and instant coffee with a hand mixer until the the coffee dissolves, and then up the speed to medium-high and beat until stiff peaks form.
• Fold the 3/4 cup chocolate ganache filling into the whipping cream mixture a little at a time .
• Chill the mousse filling in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, as it needs to be really cold when you fill the cooled cupcake bottoms (otherwise the filling will run).
• FOR CUPCAKES:.
• Melt chocolate over simmering water in a double-boiler or heat proof bowl. Once melted and smooth, let it cool slightly.
• Sift flour, baking powder, salt & soda into a bowl.
• In a large bowl or stand mixer, beat butter and sugar together until creamy (about 2 minute with stand mixer on high).
• On low speed, add in the melted chocolate until combined.
• On medium speed add the eggs one at a time until smooth.
• Add in the vanilla and beat until the mixture is creamy (color should be slightly lighter).
• Mix in the sour cream until no white streaks remain, but don't over mix.
• On low speed, add half of the flour mixture until it is incorporated--don't over mix.
• Add in the water and mix it until incorporated.
• Scrape bowl and add in the rest of the flour and mix on low until flour is incorporated and batter looks pretty smooth (again, don't mix too much or the cupcakes lose lightness).
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and put rack in the center of oven.
• Fill each liner up to the top of liner.
• Bake 22-24 minutes.
• Cupcake tops should feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.
• Cool the cupcakes for 10 minutes in the pan on a wire rack.
• Remove the cupcakes from the pan onto a wire rack and let cool completely.
• Once cupcakes are fully cooled, use a sharp knife to slice the top off each cupcake (this is so you can fill them).
• Place cupcake tops right side up on a wire rack, and set aside cupcake bottoms on a serving platter.
• To frost cupcake tops, spread one tablespoons of the chocolate ganache frosting over the top of each cupcake top.
• Let cupcake tops cool until the ganache frosting is firm.
• Next, place a dollop of mocha mousse filling on each cupcake bottom. Using a wide metal spatula, carefully place the cupcake tops w/ cooled frosted ganache topping on top of the mousse filled cupcake bottoms.
• It may help to refrigerate the assembled cupcakes for about 30 minutes to an hour before serving so that everything firms up.

CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER MOUSSE?FILLED CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line 2 cupcake pans with 18 paper liners and fill the empty cups half full of water to prevent scorching.
• To make the cupcakes, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder together in a large bowl. In a food processor, blend the canola oil, agave nectar, soy milk, tofu, vanilla extract, and vinegar, scraping down the bowl often. Blend until very smooth, with no chunks of tofu visible, about 2 to 3 minutes. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients. Stir well and spoon into the prepared cupcake pan, leaving some room at the top of each cup. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Remove the cupcakes from the pan and place on a cooling rack. Cool completely before filling and frosting.
• To prepare the filling, blend the tofu in a food processor until very smooth and creamy, approximately 1 to 2 minutes. Add the agave nectar and blend again. Add the peanut butter, vanilla extract, and salt and blend thoroughly until very light and smooth. Refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours to firm before filling the cupcakes.
• To assemble the cupcakes, you will need a pastry bag fitted with a large, plain smooth tip. Fill the pastry bag with peanut butter mousse and insert the tip halfway into the top of a cupcake. Squeeze filling inside each cupcake just until it starts to expand.
• Next frost the tops. If the frosting is too firm, heat in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it up. Spread the ganache evenly over the tops of the cupcakes. Let the cupcakes sit in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
• Garnish with peanuts if desired.
• Reprinted with permission from Baking with Agave Nectar: Over 100 Recipes Using Nature's Ultimate Sweetener by Ania Catalano. Copyright © 2008 by Ania Catalano; photography © 2008 by Lara Hata. Published by Celestial Arts, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
• Ania Catalano is a graduate of the Natural Gourmet School of Cooking in New York and the owner of the Gourmet Whole Foods Catering and Cooking School in Milford, Connecticut.