Supernatural Cupcake Wars, Part Two

I enjoyed baking up a Supernatural inspired cupcake for the first installment of Supernatural <lsaker@att.net>Cupcake Wars that I couldn’t wait to try a second. So I started thinking of flavors and themes to match the show. My first not just represented the show, but fit Dean in the form of “Freaking Worth It” Apple Pie Cupcakes. I thought Sam needed something. But what?
 
So I came up with a cupcake I’m titling the “Demon’s Blood Addiction.”
 

Here’s the recipe:
 
Devil’s Food Chocolate Cake:

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1-1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1. Measure out everything but the eggs 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.

Measure out into cupcake pan lined with cupcake papers. A 2? ice cream scoop works great for this. Bake for about 15-20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool slightly in the pan then transfer to a rack to cool completely before frosting.

Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting:
 
Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks or ½ pound), softened (but not melted!)
3 ½ cups confectioners (powdered) sugar
½ cup cocoa powder
½ teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract or 1 teaspoon almond extract
4 tablespoons milk or heavy cream

Cream butter for a few minutes in a mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed. Turn off the mixer. Sift 3 cups powdered sugar and cocoa into the mixing bowl. Turn your mixer on the lowest speed (so the dry ingredients do not blow everywhere) until the sugar and cocoa are absorbed by the butter. Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla extract, salt, and milk/cream and beat for 3 minutes. If your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add a little more sugar. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add additional milk 1 tablespoon at a time.

Raspberry Puree:

1 – 12 ounce bag (340 grams) of frozen unsweetened raspberries
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon of freshly squeezed  juice (optional)

Baking these wasn’t nearly as dramatic as my first cupcake experience. The oven that I used for the apple pie cupcakes is no more—and the new one bakes not only on time but on the minimum instead. The baking process went nice and smooth with the cakes rising and being nice and fluffy and as chocolately as I had wanted. My only change for next time would be to add in a pinch of salt. So far so good.

I set the raspberries in a strainer over a bowl for the night, thawing them out so I could make the puree the next morning. This worked as they said it would, but took an awful lot of elbow grease for a good amount of sauce—more than the cupcakes could take really. It took more time to make the filling than it did to bake the cupcakes! The next time I do these, I’d probably have this sauce go into a buttercream to top the cupcakes rather than the chocolate and swap out the puree for raspberry jam as filling.

Chocolate buttercream is tasty. I’m not going to lie. It’s kinda like a soft and fluffy fudge. And, having well baked cupcakes made all the difference when it came to frosting this time. I did have to be careful not to be messy with the filling getting involved, but otherwise it turned out nice and mostly clean. I do think that I still would switch out the chocolate for raspberry buttercream, however. Combined with the Devil’s Food, it just seemed a bit too much (gasp, I know it’s hard to even think!) chocolate and not nearly enough raspberry.

So what makes these “Demon’s Blood Addiction?” It took me some thinking to come up with these. I thought of Devil’s Food and figured I wanted to fill them with something to represent Sam’s demon blood addiction of season 4 and 5. I originally thought of cherries, but I thought perhaps that would be too sickly sweet for this. I didn’t want these to taste like anything to do with sulfur as we’re all certain demon blood had to taste like—yuck—but I wanted something that could look the part but not be too sweet either. I arrived at raspberries with their nice sharp tartness. It’d be a great counterbalance to the chocolate and have a nice finish. So raspberries it was.

I also didn’t want to do something too processed. I like to do all my baking from scratch, so I wanted to try to make the filling on my own—hence the frozen raspberries turned into puree. It was a gamble, and while it mostly turned out, I think I’d change up that raspberry puree for jam that would be a bit thicker and more representative of the demon blood.

As you can tell by the little raspberry topping it off in the photo, I don’t have any idea how to make decorations. I know, for shame. I wouldn’t win Cupcake Wars with that, but hey, we’re not trying to win that here. But, if I could make a decoration for this, it would definitely have to be something like Ruby’s knife made out of fondant. If not that, perhaps a gallon jug to represent the binge drink Sam does in “Swan Song” to say “Yes.” Or both. If not those, a devil’s trap would be pretty damn cool, too. Any ideas you’ve got in mind would be welcome. Go right ahead, share!

So, despite the changes I have in mind for next time, how did they turn out in the end? Were they “addicting?” They were nice and chocolatey with that nice hint of raspberry. I’ll say if demon blood did taste like this, I’d look the other way about Season 4/5 Sam’s taste for it. I still think that only upping the raspberry flavor will make that even more appealing. More tartness, more raspberries to balance out the richness of the chocolate and I think we’ll have a real “Demon’s Blood Addiction” on our hands—one we’ll all want to have!

I have noticed, however, that as they’ve chilled my puree has saturated the cake, so now it has a nice blend of raspberry and chocolate. They’re rich and decadent, but I’d still consider changing it to see which is better. So chill them before diving in.

I’ve already picked my next cupcake—one I’d like to think Rick Worthy would appreciate. I’ve titled it “Alpha Vampire’s Delight.” It’ll be a Red Velvet cupcake filled with cherries and frosted with either a vanilla buttercream or a cream cheese. I haven’t decided just yet.

Oh, and keep sharing your cupcake ideas. I’d love to hear what you guys might come up with to try making. Let the Supernatural Cupcake Wars keep on baking!

Part one of Supernatural Cupcake Wars, “Freaking Worth It’ Apple Pie Cupcake, can be found here:  

https://www.thewinchesterfamilybusiness.com/articles/35-the-lighter-side/17808-supernatural-cupcake-wars-part-one.html