devil's food cupcakes w/ salty mascarpone frosting

Is it just me or do you all love to use mascarpone cheese as much as I? Seriously I keep finding new uses for it, good yes, but bad because it's so expensive and I use it a lot in my experiments. Why is it so expensive? Is it hard to make and/or arduous to make? Well, I do love the flavor it brings out in frostings, glazes, and then we have the whole pasta-family too. What other uses am I missing here? Candy? I'm drawing a blank because of my lack of sleep. Well, anywho, it's obvious I love to bake and create with mascarpone cheese. I love that it has a slightly sweet flavor and not an overpowering cheese flavor, hence my latest creation. I came up with this frosting based on my never-ending love for the salty & sweet. This frosting is the show stopper here. It's not that salty, just a hint because the marscapone cheese has a nice delicate sweetness to it so I really didn't want to make it too salty. And the devil's food cake wasn't too chocolately. I wanted a mild chocolate cake base because the frosting has a delicate taste. I used a basic devil's food cupcake recipe from Bobby Flay (Note: when you click on the link you'll see Bobby Flay added in a peanut butter filling, I obviously didn't do that, but let me know if you try it--it sounded good though). If you don't want to use his recipe you can use your own, but I do suggest trying to keep with the devils food theme.

devil's food cupcakes w/ salty mascarpone frosting
cupcakes adapted from Bobby Flay
print recipe

1 1/4 cups cake flour
1/2 cup Dutch processed unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup strong, hot coffee

Set rack in the middle of oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Line a 12 slot muffin pan with large paper or foil cupcake liners.

Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt together 3 times. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together at high speed for 15 seconds until combined. Add the eggs 1 at a time beating until each is incorporated. Continue beating until light and fluffy, about 6 minutes longer. With the mixer at its lowest speed, beat in 1/3 the flour mixture. Beat in the buttermilk and vanilla, then another third of the flour. Beat in the coffee and then the remaining flour. Fill the sections of the muffin tin 1/2 full and bake for 15 minutes or until the centers spring back when lightly pressed. Set pan on a rack to cool.

Salty Mascarpone Frosting
By Dawn

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, very soft/room temp
½ box of confectioners' sugar, sifted (16 oz box, used half)
8 ounces of mascarpone cheese, slightly room temp.
½ TB sea salt
1 TB flour
1 - 1 ½ TB half & half

In a mixing bowl, cream butter until smooth, slowly add in sifted confectioners sugar, the sea salt, the flour and mix; you should add in a touch of the half & half--you might not need all the 1 and ½ TB of half & half. Start with a little at a time, I used “barely” 1 TB, but I like my frosting very thick. So use your own judgment and preference.