Decadent Chocolate Cupcakes w/ Tangy Cream Cheese Calamansi Sauce

I baked again tonight for no apparent reason. I just happened to crave for Cookbook Kitchen‘s decadent chocolate cake with warm caramel sauce. With nothing to do but wait for hubby from work, I grabbed my apron and raided our pantry. Nice, I still have the ingredients for a chocolate cupcake recipe! My only problem was that I didn’t have anything for a caramel sauce. I thought I’d go a little adventurous then and pair chocolate with something citrus…

Hmm, not a lemon…

Not a lime either..

But Calamansi (also called Calamondin) 🙂

I have to say that the adventurous pairing of chocolate with calamansi worked well though 🙂

Here are the ingredients:

• 1 cup cake flour
• 1 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/8 cup Hershey powdered cocoa (unsweetened)
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup evaporated milk (or water if you don’t want milk)
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tbsp. white vinegar
• 1 large egg

*can make up to 16 cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a muffin pan and slide in the muffin papers.

In a bowl, add all the dry ingredients together and mix them all up using a mixer on low speed. Add the sour cream and the vegetable oil. When mixed, pour in the water, 1/4 cup at a time. Mix well until the batter is uniform. Add vanilla, vinegar and egg. Turn to medium speed and continue mixing until well combined. Ladle the mixture to muffin cups up to 3/4 full. Bake for less than 25 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean.

For the sauce, you will need the following:

• 1/2 stick unsalted butter
• 4 oz. cream cheese
• 10 pcs. calamansi
• 2 cups confectioner’s sugar

Halve the calamansi and squeeze to get the juice of 10 pcs. In a mixing bowl, add the ingredients together and whisk until smooth and runny.

You can put the sauce on top of the cupcakes just the way I like it. I want the sauce to be messy and dripping because I want to lick it on my hands 😛 But that’s just the playful me. My other style is that I split the cupcake and smother it with the sauce in the middle.

If you don’t like it to be saucy, you can adjust the recipe for a real cupcake icing. And if you plan to do it, let me know how your cupcakes come out 🙂

Here are my decadent chocolate cupcakes with the velvety tangy cream cheese and calamansi sauce 🙂