Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Chocolatey with hints of cherry and the whipped cream is perfect!
Texture: Soft and light and the cherry filling is a fun surprise!
Ease: These cupcakes are a little time consuming, but definitely worth it.
Appearance: The whipped cream, chocolate, and cherry on top of these cupcakes makes them so cute!
Pros: They taste amazing!
Cons: A little time consuming.
Would I make this again? Definitely!
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Please welcome Danielle from Live Well Bake Often as she shares this Black Forest Cupcake recipe! Be sure to check out her delicious blog for me! -Tessa
When I was growing up, my grandmother used to always bake a black forest cake for birthdays. Although my family tends to celebrate birthdays with a cheesecake now days, black forest cakes have always held a special place in my heart. So, I decided to transform her favorite cake into these adorable Black Forest Cupcakes.
I’ve made a lot of cupcakes, from lemon raspberry to pumpkin, but these Black Forest Cupcakes are one of my favorite creations so far. Everything is made completely from scratch, even the cherry pie filling in the middle!
The base of these Black Forest Cupcakes starts with my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe. Not only are the cupcakes soft and light, but they stay moist for days. Can you tell from the picture how moist the cupcakes turn out? Seriously, so good. Once they’re baked and cooled, you’ll cut out the center and fill each one with some cherry filling.
Speaking of that cherry filling? Making your own cherry pie filling at home is easy and it tastes a million times better than anything you can get out of a can. In fact, I had my husband taste test the filling and he absolutely despises cherry filling from a can. The verdict? He actually really liked it! I think you will too.
I used sweet red cherries in the filling, since I wanted to top the cupcakes with them as well. You can easily use another type of cherry in this recipe, just adjust the amount of sugar to your personal preference.
One thing to note is that you’ll need to slice the cherries in half before measuring them out and making the filling. I felt like the smaller pieces of cherries worked much better to fill the cupcakes, since some cherries can be kind of large.
Also, you will need to pit the cherries. Does anyone else absolutely hate pitting cherries? I don’t own a cherry pitter, but I actually use a sturdy plastic straw. Just push the straw up through the center of the bottom of each cherry and it will remove the pit and stem. So easy!
Lastly, there’s the homemade whipped cream. There is some unflavored gelatin in the whipped cream recipe, but it’s just there to stabilize the whipped cream. Have you ever noticed that whipped cream can sometimes fall flat after so long? The gelatin helps to prevent that and keeps the piped whipped cream on top of your cupcakes perfectly in place for days.
If you don’t have any unflavored gelatin or prefer not to use it, you can simply leave it and the water out of the whipped cream recipe. The whipped cream won’t hold up as long, but it will still taste just as good. Enjoy!
Black Forest Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the chocolate cupcakes:
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup oil
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup boiling water
- 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
For the cherry filling:
- 2 cups pitted and halved sweet cherries
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the whipped cream:
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
- 1 and 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
To make the chocolate cupcakes:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two 12-count cupcake pans with 16 cupcake liners and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk in the granulated sugar and brown sugar until well combined. Add in the oil, egg, vanilla extract, and buttermilk and mix until just combined.
- Add the instant espresso powder into the boiling water and mix until dissolved, then add to the mixing bowl. Mix with the rest of the ingredients until well combined, making sure not to over mix the batter. The batter will be thin, this is okay.
- Evenly distribute the batter between all 16 cupcakes liners, making sure to only fill them a little over half way full. Bake at 350°F for 18-20 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the cupcakes comes out clean. Remove from the oven and carefully remove the cupcakes from the pan. Transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool.
To make the cherry filling:
- Add the cherries, granulated sugar, lemon juice, water, and corn starch to a saucepan and mix until well combined. Heat over medium heat, stirring often, until the mixture has thickened. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract, then set aside to cool.
To make the whipped cream:
- Pour the water in a small bowl and sprinkle the unflavored gelatin on top. Allow to sit for a few minutes. Transfer to the microwave and microwave for a few seconds until the gelatin has dissolved. Stir well and set aside to cool for a few minutes.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, or in a large mixing bowl using a hand-held mixer, add the heavy whipped cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla and mix on medium speed until it starts to thicken. Turn the mixer to low, slowly pour in the gelatin, then continue mixing at medium-high speed until stiff peaks form.
To make the cupcakes:
- Once the cupcakes and cherry filling have cooled, use a knife to cut out a hole in the center of each cupcake. Scoop about 1-1.5 tablespoons of the cherry filling into each cupcake. Then pipe the whipped cream on top. Garnish with chocolate shavings and a cherry on top!
Can the cheery filling be made ahead of time eg: the day before
i love it
So I just made these for a friends birthday, he loves Black Forest cake and they were really good! I’ll definitely make them again.
I had quite a bit of cherry filling left so I pimped up the cream by adding some of the cherry mix to it once whipped and it was delicious. I also used agar agar instead of gelatine and that worked well too.
These are so delicious. I just made them for a second time this week. They are very rich and will definitely satisfy the chocoholic in the group.
Hi Danielle!
What kind of oil do you use for your recipe?
Thank you!
Julie
Literally perfect recipe!! I used canned cherry pie filling instead of the mix for the filling here and it was incredible! Cherries arent in season so I went the easy route. I ended up making the cupcakes without the espresso powder and they still came out extremely moist and delicious! Thanks for the amazing recipe!♡
Excellent!! Best chocolate cupcake I’ve made in 40 years of baking! Thank you!
You can buy Dr. Oetker’s Whip It (Stabilizer for Whipping Cream) at the grocery store. In my store it is near the jello and puddings. I have been using it for years. I usually bake a 3 layer cake and use cherry pie filling. Since it is the holiday I have limited space to store a large cake in the fridge so cupcakes are perfect. I am going to have a piping bag with whipped cream and the pie filling available and let people top their own cupcakes (grandkids are not fans of the cherries).
This was a super easy, and delicious, recipe to make!! Everyone loved them! The cupcake itself was so moist, and the filling was just right.
Hi there! I am planning on mkaing about 50 of these for my bestie’s wedding in August. Gonna do a test-run this coming weekend. I wondered if any of it could be made ahead of time and/or frozen… Do you think the filling can be made 2 dys ahead nd kept in the fridge? and the cupcakes baked ahead and frozen, then filled and frosted on the day before the wedding?
Thanks,
V
Hi!
How to change the amount of soda and baking powder if using alkalized cacao instead of natural?
Thanks!
I just made these and they are so good! Next time I’ll cut the cherry filling in half, I had a lot of leftovers. But the cupcakes had such amazing texture, definitely one of the best textures of cupcakes I’ve ever made, and great flavor. Thank you for the great recipe!