It was my birthday several weeks ago which I decided to use as an excuse to throw a party and get all my friends together. The theme of the party was to be Portuguese/Spanish because I was in Lisbon on my birthday last year (on a trip while studying abroad in Spain) and I wanted to replicate the awesomeness of that birthday. The theme was twofold also because of my inability to find many Portuguese foods. So some of the things I offered were Spanish. The menu for the party had 3 sections, tapas, drinks, and desserts. The tapas consisted of toasted baguette slices, Spanish cheese triangles, stuffed olives, and Spanish bar nut mix. The drinks were varied but stayed mostly within the theme only varying with regards to the homemade limoncello (which my coworker gave me). Other than that it was all port wine, Portuguese vinho verde, and Spanish wine. The desserts strayed from the theme entirely, however. They consisted of flourless chocolate cake with ganache frosting (which my parents ordered me for my birthday), Ferrer Roche chocolates in 3 flavors (which my aunt had given me as a birthday gift), fresh strawberries, fresh blackberries, and these Port Wine and Cherry Chocolate Cupcakes with Mascarpone Frosting.
After seeing these on Ming Makes Cupcakes (aka the link that ruined my life for a week because of my desire to make these Chocolate Chambord Cupcakes instead of doing work) I knew that I had to make them at some point. However, I wasn't quite ready to randomly splurge on the specialty ingredients required such as, port wine, cherries, and mascarpone. Then my birthday rolled around and I decided to ignore costs (for the most part) and make these cupcakes. The response to them was well worth it. Though I made around 22 cupcakes (and there were not that many people at my party), I still ended up with just a few cupcakes leftover and tons of compliments.
As good as these were, it took a bit of tweaking the original recipe to produce the exact cupcakes I wanted. Instead of making chocolate cupcakes with chunks of cherries inside (I didn't like the idea of having chunky cupcakes) I decided to make plain chocolate cupcakes and soak them in cherry port wine sauce before frosting them. Next time, I also think I'll add more cream to the frosting recipe and double it because I ran out, and I hate skimping on frosting!
Chocolate Cupcakes (adapted from Nosh With Me)
Yield: About 30 cupcakes (but I ended up with just 22 because I made enormous cupcakes)
2 cups sugar
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
½ cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
Directions:
1) Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350 F.
2) Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl.
3) Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin).
4) Fill muffin tins about 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22-25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
5) Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.
Cherry and Port Wine Reduction Sauce (adapted from Ming Makes Cupcakes)
Ingredients:
1 cup port wine
¾ cup jarred Morello cherries (I couldn't find these so I just used jarred bing cherries)
Directions:
1) While the cupcakes are baking, simmer port and drained cherries in a saucepan for 5 to 10 minutes.
2) Using a toothpick, poke holes into each cupcake before carefully spooning port wine liquid over top. 3) Reserve cherries to use as decoration after frosting with Mascarpone Frosting.
Mascarpone Frosting (adapted from Ming Makes Cupcakes)
Ingredients:
8 oz. mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
½ - ¾ cup heavy cream
½ cup confectioners sugar
Directions:
1) Beat ingredients together at high speed for 2-3 minutes or until soft peaks form.
2) Spread on cupcakes and top with port wine soaked cherries.
