If you love the maple flavor, you will be thrilled about these Chocolate Maple Cupcakes. They are made with a perfectly moist chocolate cake, a nice hazelnut crunch, a well-balanced maple flavor, and topped with an incredibly delicious Maple Swiss Meringue Buttercream. A cupcake for the books!
Separate the egg whites from the yolks. Add the yolks, shredded hazelnuts, and flour to the melted chocolate mix. Mix until well incorporated.
Place the egg whites and the salt into a large mixing bowl and whisk them with a hand mixer until stiff peaks form.
Carefully fold the stiff egg whites into the chocolate mix. Be careful not to mix too hard, or you will lose all the air in the egg whites, and the batter will get runny.
Use a cookie scoop and add the batter to the lined muffin tin. Fill the liner to about 3/4 full.
Bake for 18-20 minutes, and then let them cool all the way through.
Maple Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Make the Swiss Meringue Buttercream according to my recipe. Instead of adding the vanilla extract, I substituted it with the same amount of maple extract.
Fill the buttercream into a pastry piping bag with a round or a star tip. Hold the bag straight up about half an inch above the surface of the cupcake, then squeeze the pastry bag and start piping around and up the cupcakes to create a spiral. Continue spiraling until you have reached the desired height. End the spiral at the center of the cupcake.
Then, dust the buttercream with chocolate powder and add some chopped hazelnuts and chocolate sprinkles.
Notes
➙ You can substitute the hazelnuts with almonds or pecans.➙ The cupcakes stay good in the fridge for about 3-4 days. Or up to two months in the freezer. If you freeze them, place them in a freezer-safe container to avoid freezer burn!