Chocolate Five Spice Cupcakes

We had some friends over on Sunday night for a somewhat impromptu pot-luck Chinese New Year dinner. I say impromptu when what I really mean is that we are just a bunch of white folks who know nothing at all but will pounce on any excuse to get together and eat. I’m sure we broke more than a few rules of cultural and culinary authenticity, but the food was good and we had fun welcoming in the Year of the Golden Pig in our own way.

On the menu was wonton soup, ma po tofu, cold sesame noodles, a wok-braised whole striped bass (props to Blake at The Paupered Chef for giving me the courage to try cooking a whole fish), and these very happy endings:

The recipe is based on a Chocolate Five Spice Cake recipe from Epicurious.com but I’ve added a little bit of flour and baking powder to give the cupcakes a lighter and slightly loftier texture. The baking method in this recipe may seem a bit unorthodox but it works.

Chocolate Five Spice Cupcakes with Ginger Buttercream Frosting

makes 24 cupcakes

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
13 oz. fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (at least 60%), finely chopped
1/2 cup water
1 1/4 cups sugar
4 teaspoons Chinese five-spice powder
2 1/4 sticks unsalted butter, cut into pieces and softened
6 large eggs, room temperature

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line two muffin pans with cupcake papers and set aside.

Sift together the flour and baking powder in a small bowl and set aside.

Place chocolate in a large shallow bowl set over a pan of hot water so that the chocolate begins to melt (you could use a double-boiler, but you may need to transfer the chocolate to a larger bowl later).

In a small sauce pan bring water, 1/2 cup sugar, and spice to a boil, stirring until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add the sugar syrup to the chocolate and stir until smooth (if you don’t want any grit from the spice in the cupcakes you can pass the sugar syrup through a fine mesh seive but the final flavor will not be as pronounced).

Add the butter and stir until smooth. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate and stir until completely incorporated into the chocolate. There should be no lumps.

Beat the eggs with the remaining 3/4 cup sugar until the mixture is light and pale and has more than doubled in volume. Stir one-quarter of the eggs into the chocolate mixture to lighten and then gently fold in the remainder of the eggs until thoroughly combined.

Use an ice cream scoop to divide the batter evenly between each of the cupcake cups, filling each almost to the top. Place each muffin pan on a half-sheet pan and stagger the pans on separate shelves in the oven. Carefully add hot water to the sheet pans and fill half-way to create a shallow water bath.

Bake 40 to 45 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from water bath and cool at least one hour in the pan on a rack before frosting.

Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting

12 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon ground ginger
pinch of salt
5 cups powdered sugar, sifted

Combine cream cheese and butter in the bowl of your mixer and whip on medium-high speed until smooth. Add grated fresh ginger and ground ginger and stir to combine. Add powdered sugar and stir on low speed to moisten the sugar. Increase speed to high and whip until the frosting is light and smooth.

Spread or pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes and decorate as desired.