Whole Wheat Hostess Cupcakes

For the chocolate cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 325 F. Line two 12 cup standard size muffin tins with cupcake liners. Recipe makes approximately 24 cupcakes.

In the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment add flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder and sugar. Mix on low until fully incorporated.

Add all wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix on medium low until batter is nice and smooth.

Fill lined muffin tins 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. (A few crumbs are OK.) Allow to cool until room temperature.

We’re going to make homemade Marshmallow Fluff filling for this recipe. It’s composed of a sugar syrup component and an egg white mixture.

For the sugar syrup:

Place sugar and water into a medium/small saucepan with tall sides. Do not stir. Heat over medium heat until sugar registers 240 F (soft ball stage) on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat.

For the egg white mixture:

Place egg whites, sea salt and vanilla into a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Whip on medium-high until soft peaks form. Slowly add 1/4 cup sugar while beating on medium-high. Beat until medium peaks form. Reduce speed to medium and slowly add hot sugar syrup to the egg white mixture while beating. Continue beating the mixture until stiff peaks form. Reduce speed to low and beat until mixture is cool enough to handle. Set aside.

Tip: Keep a bowl full of cold water handy in case any sugar mixture gets on the skin. Also, when you are done make sure to soak the dirty bowl in hot water to loosen any sugar.

For the chocolate glaze:

Place chocolate chips and butter into a microwave safe container. Microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring between heating, until smooth.

For the assembly:

Cut a cone shaped piece out of the center of each cupcake. Cut the cone shaped piece off leaving just the top and set that aside. Repeat with remaining cupcakes.

Fill each cupcake with the homemade Marshmallow Fluff filling. Use either a spoon or a large gallon size Ziploc bag fitted with a large cake tip. Once cupcakes are filled, cover the filling with the remaining cupcake top.

Use glaze and frost each cupcake.

Use remaining homemade Marshmallow Fluff by placing it into a large Ziploc bag fitted with a size 1 cake decorator tip. Make 3 loops across the top of each cupcake. Allow the glaze to set if you like a hard chocolate shell.