My sister is getting baptised tomorrow and what goes best with baptisms? CUPCAKES! well, I guess cupcakes are great for any occasion. I just kind of wanted a reason to make them cause the best part of making cupcakes is frosting them, I have this weird obsession with frosting cupcakes...I don't know what it is but I get a huge enjoyment out of it.
It's weird after working at a bakery full-time, I don't see this as a ice cream scoop anymore. It's everything but an ice cream scoop, a cupcake scooper, a cookie scooper...you get my point.
Adapted from Martha Stewart's "CUPCAKES" book.
Ingredients:
3/4 cups cocoa powder
3/4 cups hot water
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream (I used plain yogurt cause that's what I had)
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together cocoa and hot water until smooth. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
2.Melt butter with sugar in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring to combine. Remove from heat, and pour into a mixing bowl. With an electric mixer on medium-low speed, beat until mixture is cooled, 4 to 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add vanilla, then cocoa mixture, and beat until combined. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the sour cream, and beating until just combined after each.
3.Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool 15 minutes; turn out cupcakes onto racks and let cool completely. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.
Frosting time!
Next time when you're beating up some butter, just stand there and smell it. Werid? Nope, it smells like heaven. It's my favourite part of beating butter for frosting or cookies or cake batter etc.
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter
4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Directions
1. With an electric mixer, beat butter on medium-high speed until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes.
2. Reduce speed to medium. Add the confectioners' sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl as needed; after every two additions, raise speed to high and beat 10 seconds to aerate frosting, then return to medium-high. This process should take about 5 minutes. Frosting will be very pale and fluffy.
3. Add vanilla, and beat until frosting is smooth. I added purple food colouring since my sister's favourite colour is purple.
ALL DONE!
Enjoy, this is my go to chocolate cupcake recipe cause it's easy and super moist and chocolate-y.
