Bites O' Chocolate Cuppies.

I've been looking for a chocolate cupcake recipe for a while now. I tried one from Chockylit's site. I tried one from a Martha cookbook. I tried one from the Sweet Melissa cookbook.

While they were all 'good enough to eat'...none of them really sang to me. I wasn't quite sure what I was looking for but figured I'd know when I found it.

So I tried one more...originally from Dorie's book, but I modified it. Because I've gotten so lazy lately, I am all about one-bowl cupcakes. I know that most recipes call for creaming butter and sugar into a fluffy crazy mess of yummy goodness. But I'm far too lazy for that some days.

I started experimenting more with melted butter. I'm no scientist so I don't know what it means when it's melted vs creamed etc...something about what, fluffiness? Anyway...I really liked this recipe when it all came together. Definitely better than all of the others, except maybe Chockylit's but I might have to make that one again.

I made these minis last nite for an event and they were a HUGE hit. I also made Gold Cake minis...which were really yummy, I'll post about those next, but funny, people raved about the chocolate ones.


Event Minis

The batter comes out quite thick with the one bowl method...it was amazing, and I wanted to eat it out of the bowl. The cakes are soft and moist and had a wonderful dark chocolate smell in the oven, which all the previous attempts did not have...they come out a bit dense but in a chocolate cupcake I think that's appropriate.


Dark Chocolate Cupcakes
1/2c all purpose flour
1/4c unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted
1/3c sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3c buttermilk
1 ounce dark chocolate, melted

Sift all dry ingredients together, pour the butter in, crack the egg, add vanilla and buttermilk, whisk a few times to combine. Pour chocolate in from double broiler, still warm, mix a bit more.

These do not rise very much probably due to my lazy one bowl method, so I fill the cupcakes to about 3/4 full. Bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes for minis. Remove pan from oven to cool for a few minutes and then remove to cooling rack. Makes 18-20 mini cupcakes.

Random note but if you have a Trader Joe's near you, buy your dark chocolate bars there. I have gotten some awesome dark chocolate bars from there and they are CHEAP. Vahlrona is $9.00 at Sur La Table and like $2.99 at TJ's. The same brand, packaging, everything. This 73% bar I used was $1.99.

For frosting on a previous batch, I just used a ganache of melted 73% dark chocolate and heavy cream over a double broiler. I didn't get a runny thin ganache like I wanted...but it was good enough to frost them a little with some super dark rich chocolate.



I also have been starting to play around with fondant a bit and made some cutout flowers. Not so bad for a first attempt. The first picture is a giant cupcake I made in a black and gold loaf muffin paper, it was awsome...I need to get more of those and make lots of giant super cupcakes. It also has a giant fondant flower.


Mini Flowers

I made another frosting for the ones last nite...a chocolate buttercream. It was divine...and all the little minis were gone within minutes.