Okay I know it’s lame to go on about ‘the best this’ and ‘the best that’, but I truly have discovered the most wonderful chocolate cake recipe. It’s a rich, moist and dark sponge recipe that’s not too sweet, a proper ‘grown up’ flavour that’s a million miles away from the usual sickly sweet chocolate cupcakes. I found this recipe on the very wonderful site bakingdom.com, courtesy of Darla.
Having tested the recipe three times now, I’m sharing it with you!
Chocolate cupcakes
Makes 16 to 18 standard cupcakes
Ingredients
1/2 cup (8 ounces or 250 ml) strong brewed coffee, hot
1/2 cup (8 ounces or 250 ml) hot water *a cup of coffee and water made 400ml not 500ml!
1/2 cup (28 grams) cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups (191 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick or 113 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup (200 grams) sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
In a medium bowl, or a two cup measuring cup, stir the cocoa powder into the hot coffee until dissolved. Set aside until cooled to room temperature, or place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
Once the cocoa/coffee mixture has cooled, preheat oven to 350 degrees (180 C). Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners; set aside.
In a medium bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix until combined; stir in the vanilla. Sprinkle 1/3 of the flour mixture over the bowl and mix until just combined. Add 1/2 of the chocolate mixture, mixing again until just combined. Repeat with reamining flour and chocolate mixtures, ending with flour. Mix only until flour is just incorporated. Do not over mix.
Place 2 tablespoons of batter in each cupcake liner. *i filled them 3/4 full using my ice cream scoop. Bake for 20-23 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few crumbs clinging to it. Allow to cool completely before frosting..
As these cupcakes are not too sweet they work very well with chocolate and vanilla buttercream.
Thanks for reading!
