For every chocolate addict who can't get enough
Unofficial rule of life: adding chocolate to almost anything always improves it by miles and I speak from experience. Whether you've had a bad day, failed at something you tried really hard on or just pure lazy… chocolate makes it better. Anyone who has had a craving for chocolate (pretty much most people) and needs a sugar fix (again - literally everyone) must have a crack at baking these cupcakes. The most important ingredient in this bake is the cocoa powder. The quality of the cocoa powder will determine how chocolatey and yummy your cupcakes are. Shopping at a supermarket and seeing loads of different brands can be daunting, especially when you don’t know what you are looking for. Many chocolate cupcakes later, I can confirm that these everyday supermarket brands will not let you down when it comes to a rich, heavenly chocolatey bake:
· Dr Oetker Fine Dark Cocoa Powder 190g tub
· Cadbury Bournville Cocoa 250g tub/125g tub
· Green and Blacks Organic Cocoa Powder 125g tub
To see which brands I like to use for the ingredients please see my ‘Cupcake Basics’ post.
CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES
Makes 12 medium sized cupcakes
Prep: 25 mins
Baking: 16 mins (these are well worth the wait - don't forget to allow 5 mins cooling time)
Serves: 12 people (if you are willing to share)
INGREDIENTS
Cupcakes
40g Unsalted butter, room temperature
140g Caster sugar
1 Egg, medium sized, room temperature
125g Plain flour OR 100g Plain flour and 25g Corn flour (for a fluffy, lighter texture cake)
2 ½ tbsp Unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ tsp Baking powder
⅛ tsp Kosher salt
120ml Whole milk, room temperature
¼ tsp Vanilla extract
Buttercream
300g Icing sugar, sifted
40g unsweetened cocoa powder
⅛ tsp Kosher salt
100g Unsalted butter, room temperature
3 tbsp Whole milk, cold OR heavy cream (for a creamier, smoother icing)
METHOD
Cupcakes
Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3.
Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until pale.
Add the egg into the bowl and mix for one minute.
In a separate dry bowl, mix the flour, corn flour (if you are using it), cocoa powder, baking powder and salt together. Sift half of it into the cake mixture and fold until mixed in.
Pour the milk into a cup and add the vanilla. Mix well and slowly add half of the vanilla milk into the cake mixture.
Sift and fold the rest of the flour mixture in, mix well and add the rest of the milk.
Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases until they are three quarters full. Use a medium ice cream scoop if you have one.
Bake in the oven for 16 minutes. The colour of the cupcakes will remain dark brown throughout the bake so test they are done by poking the cakes with a toothpick which should come out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in the baking tray. Then place on a wire rack until fully cooled.
Buttercream
I highly recommend using an electric whisk or food mixer for this step. The nice thing about buttercream is you cannot over mix it, therefore the more whisking the better. Of course, taste test regularly to ensure it tastes as good as it looks.
Beat the butter until pale and soft. This usually takes a couple of minutes.
In a separate dry bowl, sift the icing sugar, cocoa powder and a pinch of salt. Take care not to do this step too fast otherwise there will be icing sugar everywhere!
Add the sifted icing sugar and cocoa powder to the butter and beat slowly until it is all incorporated.
Add the milk or heavy cream and mix in.
At this point, the mixture should look like a dark brown gloopy mess. Not to worry, this is normal. At this stage you want to whisk for as long as possible. I recommend around 5 minutes for a really smooth luscious buttercream.
Spoon the buttercream into a piping bag and add a piping tip of your choice (I like using the Wilton 1M open star tip). Pipe in a swirl motion and sprinkle with chocolate strands.
If you want to step this up to the next level, melt some dark chocolate and drizzle it on top of the iced cupcakes. Not only does this look great, it tastes amazing and who doesn't love more chocolate?
Serve the cupcakes on a nice plate/tray or eat them by yourself. I won't tell you how to live...
Many people have asked me if using drinking chocolate in place of cocoa powder works. Over the years I have experimented a lot with chocolate and baking and I am definitely guilty of substituting ingredients when I don't have what I need to hand. I have made chocolate cake using drinking chocolate and yes it tastes great (it is still cake after all!) however the chocolate flavour is a bit bland. This is because drinking chocolate usually has sugar and other ingredients added into it. In short, use unsweetened cocoa powder for the best quality chocolate bake. If you only have drinking chocolate and you absolutely NEED to bake chocolate cupcakes, I've been there and I don't regret it.
Please let me know if you tried this recipe and how it went!
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