Chocolate Cupcakes

As much as I like my buttercream recipe, it is not something that can be eaten by itself. It needs the right cake to be spread on. This recipe comes from Cupcake Jemma (of course!!!). Here is the video link to her recipe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eB-Y-G2iyo

I tried out this recipe last week and it worked out pretty well for a first attempt. I really liked the taste and texture of it and was extremely happy with how they turned out. This recipe is a bit different to a usual cupcake recipe which calls for butter, sugar and flower. This recipe calls for vegetable oil which would make me think that it is more closely related to a typical muffin recipe. Nevertheless, it is scrumptious and pairs really well with the buttercream recipe. If you wanted to intensify the chocolate factor of the cupcake you could make chocolate buttercream. This recipe makes 24 large cupcakes.

Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 350 g plain flour

• 370 g caster sugar

• 60 g cocoa powder

• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 150 g dark chocolate (chopped, use chocolate chips if you have them)

• 240 ml coffee (add 1 tbsp of good quality instant coffee to 240 ml boiling water)

• 210 ml vegetable oil

• 240 ml of buttermilk

• 3 eggs

Method

First, preheat the oven to 170 C and sift all the dry ingredients together into a bowl. Then whisk them up so that everything is evenly distributed.

Now mix all the wet ingredients together. If you do not have buttermilk or can not get it easily like me then you can measure out 240 ml of milk, add a generous squeeze of lemon juice to it and put in the fridge to thicken. This will curdle the milk and make homemade buttercream. Even though it wont be as thick as shop bought buttercream it works just fine. The reason that coffee is present in some chocolate cake recipes is because it enhances the chocolate flavour and makes the cake moist. Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and make sure everything is incorporated by scraping down the bowl with a spatula.

As this is not a traditional cupcake recipe it will be quite runny and therefore very hard to spoon into a cupcake tin. The best way to put the mixture in to the cupcake cases is to transfer it to a jug and pour it in. Pour enough mixture in each cupcake so that it is about 4/5 of the way of the cupcake case.

Now transfer the tins to the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe and don’t forget to come back next week for an all new recipe!!