Recipe: Brownie cupcakes with salted chocolate frosting (Curtis Stone)

Now that they're getting older, the kids love spending more and more time in the kitchen with me. They love it when I give them simple tasks to do, like breaking the eggs into a bowl and beating them, cutting up vegetables (with a scissors), or sifting the flour for a bake. 

I have bookmarked Curtis Stone's brownie cupcakes for a weekend bake, and when I told them we were going to bake after their afternoon nap, they were absolutely ecstatic. The kids were very good helpers and took instructions very well. Baby C now gets to work near the hob too (with supervision, of course), which she loves. 

Weekend baking in the Baby Sumo household :)

Brownies are one of our family's favorite desserts, and I have in the past made it as brownie cupcakes before. For some reason, Curtis Stone's recipe for his brownie cupcakes is incomplete on his website, so I just guessed the last few steps since I have made brownies before, no problem.

This is a great recipe to try with your kids, since they will be able to help you with almost all the tasks. I made a few amendments to the original recipe, such as reducing the sugar in the brownie. After the brownie was ready, I tested it and found it sweet enough hence I decided to omit the golden syrup from the frosting.  I also added a pinch of fleur de sel salt for a hint of saltiness in the frosting.

Pretty brownie cupcakes

Overall, this is an easy bake. The frosting is made from cream cheese and chocolate hence the brownies paired with the  frosting is extremely rich. Usually I would just serve brownie on its own without any frosting with some cream or vanilla ice cream. I would recommend omitting the golden syrup in the frosting or else the cupcake would have been unbearably sweet for me. Garnished with a strawberry and blueberry, the brownie cupcake was very pretty.

Because it was quite rich, we only managed to eat one each and kept the rest in an airtight container in the fridge. The next day, the brownie cupcakes tasted more fudgy but still moist. I like the frosting after it's been in the fridge, tastes so yummy.

Loving my new mini cupcake stand from Marks &Spencer

Mummy's little helpers

Would anyone like one?

Brownie cupcakes with salted chocolate frosting

Recipe by Baby Sumo, adapted from Curtis Stone
Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 25-30 minutes
Makes 10

Ingredients
6 ounces good-quality dark chocolate (60-70% cacao), chopped
6 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp golden syrup or light corn syrup
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2/3 cup coarsely chopped pecan or walnuts

For the frosting:

4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
A pinch of fleur de sel salt

To garnish
5 fresh strawberries, sliced in half
10 fresh blueberries


1. To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C. Line the cupcake mould with 8-10 cupcake liners (depending on size of your liners).

2. Stir the chocolate and butter in a small heavy saucepan over low heat until the chocolate and butter has melted and the mixture is smooth. Stir in the syrup and salt.Remove from the heat and set aside.

3. Using an electric mixer, beat the sugar and eggs in a large bowl for 2 minutes or until the mixture is thick and light.

4. Stir in the chocolate mixture. Add the flour and baking powder and stir just until blended, then stir in the pecan nuts.

5. Divide the batter equally among the prepared cupcake molds, I filled it about 2/3 full.

6. Bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until the cupcakes puff and crack on top and a skewer inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out with fudgy crumbs attached.

7. Remove the cupcakes from the oven and cool completely on a cooling rack.


8. For the frosting: Place the chocolate in a bowl and place it over a small pot of boiling water. Stir constantly until the chocolate melts. Allow the chocolate to cool to room temperature.

9. Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese in a large bowl until light and smooth. Add the chocolate and fleur de sel and mix until well combined.

10. Place the frosting in a piping bag with a star nozzle. Pipe onto the cooled cupcakes and garnish each with a halved strawberry and blueberry.

Note: I reduced the sugar in the cupcakes (from 3/4 cup to 1/2 cup), and also omitted the golden syrup from the frosting, and added a pinch of fleur de sel instead.

All gone!

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I am submitting this to the "Cook Like Curtis Stone" bloghop which I am co-hosting with Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Grace of Life Can Be Simple. To join, simply cook or bake any recipe from any Curtis Stone websites or cookbooks and blog hop with us for the whole month of July 2013.

Your post must be a current post i.e. posted in July 2013 - please do not link older posts.Please mention Cook like a Star in your post and link back to Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Grace of Life Can Be Simple and Baby Sumo of Eat your heart out.

You can get the HTML code here: get the InLinkz code (Click on the link, copy and paste the HTML code into your blog post where you want the blog hop list to appear. Make sure you are in HTML mode when you paste in the code)

Happy cooking! Do check out the other bloggers recipe below:

*This recipe was featured on Asian Food Channel's FB page on 11 July 2013.