Teen Wolf is back!

To celebrate, I decided to try Nerdache Cake’s Teen-Wolf-themed “wolfsbane” cupcakes, a dark-chocolate brownie with berries and berry frosting.

Japan notes: Blackberries and raspberries, especially fresh, are notoriously hard to find in Japan (outside of Tokyo, anyway). You could use blueberries and strawberries instead, especially since they have similar seasons. If you’re using frozen fruit, keep it frozen and toss it in flour for the cupcakes; if you’re making your own juice for the icing, thaw the fruit and save the juices. If you can’t get baker’s chocolate or chocolate chunks/chips, you can chop up a dark chocolate candy bar (ブラック・チョコレート); you may want to reduce the sugar slightly.

“Wolfsbane” Dark-Chocolate Berry Cupcakes

Adapted from Nerdache Cake’s “Wolfsbane” (Cupcake Version)

Yields 12 cupcakes

General Equipment

Double boiler, or a small pot and a medium pot (with a larger circumference)
A silicon spatula (shirikon hera , シリコンヘラ)
A medium heat-proof bowl
A whisk (awadateki, 泡立て器)
A muffin tin (mafin kata, マフィン型) or silicon muffin cups (mafin kappu, マフィンカップ)
Optional: muffin papers
Optional (for juice): blender
Optional (for juice): fine mesh sieve (me no komakai furui,目の細かいふるい)
A handmixer (hando mikisâ, ハンドミキサー) or stand mixer
Two small bowls for frosting
A pastry bag and tip (shibori bukuro, 絞り袋)

Brownie Cupcake with Berries

Ingredients

6 TBSP (3/4 stick, 85 g) unsalted butter, cut into several pieces (muen batâ, 無塩バター)
1.25 cups (215 g) dark chocolate chunks, divided (ダーク・チョコレート)
3 oz. (85 g) unsweetened baker’s chocolate, finely chopped (chokorêto: seikayô dâku;チョコレート：製菓用ダーク)
1/2 cup (110 g) packed brown sugar (sanontô, 三温糖)
1/4 cup (50 g) sugar (guranyûtô, グラニュー糖)
2 large eggs (tamago, 卵)
1 tsp vanilla extract (banira essensu, バニラエッセンス)
1/2 cup (60 g) all-purpose flour
2/3 cup (~80 mL by volume) fresh berries*
1/4 tsp salt (shio, 塩)

*Berries: I used fresh blackberries (burakkuberi, ブラックベリー), raspberries, and blueberries (burûberî, ブルーベリー). I think cherries and strawberries (ichigo, イチゴ, 苺) would also be nice. Reserve extra berries for decorating.

Procedure
1. Preheat (yonetsu, 予熱) oven to 350°F (180°C).
2. Set the bottom pot of the double boiler to simmer. Combine butter, 1/2 cup (85 g) of chocolate chips, and baker’s chocolate on the top pot/pan of the double boiler. Let melt, then stir until mixture is melted and smooth. Remove from boiler and turn off heat.
3. If your double boiler pot/pan is small, scrap the mixture into a heat-proof bowl before proceeding.
4. Whisk both sugars into the chocolate mixture.
5. Whisk in eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, flour, and salt.
6. Gently fold in the rest of the chocolate chips and the berries.
7. Grease or line the muffin tin (if applicable). Place ~1/4 cup batter in each cup.
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a tester inserted into center comes out with moist crumbs attached.
9. Transfer cupcakes to a rack and let cool completely before frosting.

Bi-Colored Berry Buttercream

The color of this two-toned buttercream will depend on what brand of juice you use. You can make it from scratch with a blender, but the colors won’t be as vivid or distinctive from each other. I added food coloring to the blueberry frosting to make it bluer. This is half of the original recipe–the full recipe frosts about 24 cupcakes, and if you want to make a bigger batch, you could freeze the leftover buttercream to use for another project later, thaw in the fridge, bring to room temperature, and rewhip.

Ingredients
8 TBSP (1 stick, 115 g) of butter at room temperature
2 TBSP raspberry juice**
2 TBSP blueberry juice**
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 TBSP heavy cream (hebî kurîmu, ヘビー・クリーム)
1.5 cups (180 g) powdered sugar (paudâ shugâ, パウダー・シュガー; konazatô, 粉砂糖)
Optional: blue food coloring (shokuyô ao, 食用青)

Procedure
**If making your own berry juice, use about ~1/4 cup (60 mL by volume) each raspberries and blueberries separately. Liquify each separately in blender with 2-4 TBSP water, then press through a fine mesh sieve. Set aside.
1. Whip the butter on high for about 2-3 minutes until very fluffy.
2. Continuing to whip, add about half of the powdered sugar. Slowly add the heavy cream.
3. Add the rest of the powdered sugar and vanilla, and whip.
4. Separate the buttercream into two bowls. Add the raspberry juice to one and the blueberry to the other.
5. Put half of each frosting in your piping bag, half in each “side.” Do a test squeeze to get both colors out. Frost cupcakes and decorate with leftover fresh berries.