Shoofly Cupcakes Recipe
If you forgot about molasses, you're not alone. It's one of those ingredients that often gets pushed to the back of the cabinet and only comes out during gingerbread season. But these shoofly cupcakes might just help you rediscover your grandma's favorite ingredient. It's sweet, but in a subtle sort of way that may remind you of toasted brown sugar and melted caramel. It is the leading ingredient in these shoofly cupcakes that gives them their distinct warm brown color and sweet, old-fashioned flavor. The cupcakes are made with only 6 ingredients, and the simple batter calls for items you most likely have in your pantry. The buttery crumb mixture is part of the cupcake batter and also does double duty as the topping, making this an easy 1-bowl recipe with no equipment needed.
I love these nostalgic cupcakes because they can be eaten any time of day. They are great with a cup of coffee in the morning, they are a satisfying mid-morning or afternoon snack, they are perfect after dinner for dessert, or they travel well for a potluck or hostess gift.
Gather the ingredient for shoofly cupcakes
The beauty of this recipe is that you only need a handful of ingredients. Check your baking cabinet for all-purpose flour, dark brown sugar, salt, and baking soda. If you have light brown sugar on hand, this can be substituted. The cupcakes will be a little lighter in color and will have a bit less depth, but they will still be delicious. You'll also need unsalted butter for this recipe and unsulphured molasses. There are 3 main types of molasses, and unsulphured works best because it has a caramel-rich flavor, and that is what we're looking for in this recipe. Sulphured molasses, also called blackstrap molasses, uses sulphur dioxide and has a bitter taste. Light molasses doesn't have the depth we need for the best taste.
Step 1: Preheat the oven
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Step 2: Line a muffin tin
Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
Step 3: Combine the dry ingredients
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, and salt.
Step 4: Add the butter
Add the cold butter to the bowl.
Step 5: Mix until crumbs form
Mix with your hands or a pastry blender until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.
Step 6: Set aside some for topping
Scoop out ½ cup of the crumb mixture and set it aside for the topping.
Step 7: Add baking soda
Stir the baking soda into the remaining crumb mixture.
Step 8: Combine the water and molasses
In a glass measuring cup, stir the molasses into 1 cup of boiling water until dissolved.
Step 9: Add the mixture to a bowl
Pour the molasses mixture into the crumb mixture and whisk until no dry pockets remain. Don't overmix. (The batter will be very thin.)
Step 10: Fill liners
Divide the batter among the liners, filling each about ¾ full.
Step 11: Add the crumb topping
Sprinkle the reserved crumb topping evenly over each cupcake.
Step 12: Bake the cupcakes
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops are domed and spring back when lightly pressed and a toothpick in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
Step 13: Cool before serving
Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then move to a wire rack to finish cooling before serving.
What can I serve with shoofly cupcakes?
Shoofly Cupcakes Recipe
With only 6-ingredients and 1 bowl, you can bake up a batch of these old-fashioned, molasses-forward shoofly cupcakes: perfect any time of the day.
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, cubed
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup unsulphured molasses
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, and salt.
- Mix with your hands or a pastry blender until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.
- Scoop out ½ cup of the crumb mixture and set it aside for the topping.
- Stir the baking soda into the remaining crumb mixture.
- In a glass measuring cup, stir the molasses into 1 cup of boiling water until dissolved.
- Pour the molasses mixture into the crumb mixture and whisk until no dry pockets remain. Don’t overmix. (The batter will be very thin.)
- Divide the batter among the liners, filling each about ¾ full.
- Sprinkle the reserved crumb topping evenly over each cupcake.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops are domed and spring back when lightly pressed and a toothpick in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
- Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then move to a wire rack to finish cooling before serving.
Where do shoofly cupcakes come from?
Shoofly cupcakes started in the form of simple cakes made of pantry staples, which were baked by German families who migrated to Pennsylvania. They used molasses as the sweetener because refined sugar was a more expensive luxury. The cake was made without eggs because the hens' laying capacity was limited to time periods with shorter daylight hours, and the kitchens were not equipped with large areas for refrigeration to preserve the eggs during less-productive patches.
Shoofly cake was typically eaten as breakfast food in the morning, dunked into coffee. It was baked in bulk and available for days to be enjoyed by the large families. Eventually, the cake was adapted by pouring the batter into a crust to make pies, which were eaten for breakfast as well as dessert. Then, of course, cupcakes followed as a simple way to eat this treat on the run.
There are a couple of stories of how shoofly cake was named. Shoofly was the name of a mule in the late 1800s who was part of a traveling circus act, and a molasses brand in Philadelphia renamed their molasses Shoo Fly to capitalize on the popularity of the favored mule. However, some say the name simply originated from the fact that molasses, like most sweet things, draws flies, and bakers of long ago had to shoo them off.
Why did my cupcakes sink in the middle?
As you will notice when making these cupcakes, the batter is extremely thin and very different from your standard cupcake batter. One of the most common reasons that the cupcakes sink in the middle is if you leave the batter to sit for too long before you add it to the muffin tin. The baking soda and the acidic molasses react quickly with each other and begin the leavening process, which helps the cupcakes rise. If this occurs too early, by the time the cupcakes get into the oven, they are past their prime for rising. This can also occur if you overmix the batter. Stop mixing when the ingredients are just combined and resist the urge to keep mixing.
Another reason the cupcakes might sink is if you pull them out of the oven before they are fully done. The top dome can look done at first glance, but this might not indicate that the batter baked through, and it might still be fairly wet. To make sure the batter is dry in the center, insert a toothpick, and you should see dry crumbs when you pull it out.
You also want to make sure your baking soda is fresh and not over one year old. Using old baking soda can prevent rising. You also need to be careful not to open the oven door within the first 15 minutes of cooking, as this will reduce the rising level of the cupcakes.