Lightened up chocolate cupcakes that taste even better than their more fatty competitor? Sign me up! These cupcakes melt in your mouth! You honestly would never know that applesauce was added to lighten them up in place of butter or oil. And the penuche frosting, where do I begin? Let’s just say this stuff is worth gold to me =).
If you have never tried penuche, it’s basically an insanely delicious, caramel like brown sugar fudge, and here it is in frosting form. The cupcake recipe is my own and the frosting recipe was adapted from allrecipes.com, thank you allrecipes love that site!
Review Recipe
Chocolate Cupcakes with Penuche Frosting
Deliciously soft and moist chocolate cupcakes with a tempting, sweet penuche frosting!
Servings: 24
Prep30 minutesCook30 minutesReady in: 1 hour
Ingredients1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour2 cups granulated sugar3/4 cup cocoa powder2 tsp baking soda1 tsp baking baking powder1 tsp salt2 large eggs1/4 cup sour cream6 Tbsp applesauce1/4 cup butter , melted1 cup buttermilk2 Tbsp unsulphured molasses2 tsp vanilla extract3/4 cup hot waterPenuche Frosting1/2 cup butter1 cup packed dark brown sugar*1/4 cup half-and-half1 pinch salt1 tsp vanilla extract2 cups powdered sugar1-2 Tbsp hot water
InstructionsPreheat oven to 350 degrees. Fill two muffin tins with paper liners and butter top of muffin tin. In a large mixing bowl whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add in eggs, sour cream, applesauce, melted butter, buttermilk, molasses and vanilla and mix until blended. Stir in hot water and mix with an electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour about 1/4 cup mixture (or fill cups 3/4 full) into 24 paper lined muffin cups (there should be just a bit left over) and bake for 17-18 minutes until a toothpick inserted into center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Allow cupcakes to cool before frosting.Penuche FrostingMelt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in brown sugar and salt and bring mixture just to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in half-and-half and bring mixture just to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove mixture from heat and stir in vanilla. Allow mixture to cool to warm (original recipe states “lukewarm” but I found warm worked better) then beat in powdered sugar. Add hot water as needed to thin frosting out 1 tablespoon at a time. Immediately spread frosting over cooled cake/cupcakes before it sets.Penuche Frosting Recipe adapted from allrecipes.comCupcake Recipe Source: Cooking Classy
Notes*I usually only have light brown sugar on hand so I just add 1 tsp molasses to this recipe along with the light brown sugar (rather than using dark brown).
Course: DessertCuisine: AmericanKeyword: Penuche Frosting Author: Jaclyn
Review Recipe
Course: DessertCuisine: AmericanKeyword: Penuche Frosting
Author: Jaclyn
