Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

So I agreed to make cupcakes for my son's school carnival this past weekend. Unfortunately, we had a million other things going on that weekend as well, so I didn't have a lot of time for baking. The night before the carnival I baked the cupcakes, let them cool, and stored them in an airtight container. An hour before the carnival, I made the Buttercream Frosting and slapped it on the cupcakes in order to deliver them on time before the Cake Walk started. Whew!

To tell you the truth, I was a tad embarrassed that I didn't take more time to pipe the frosting on to make the cupcakes look prettier. However, time was not a luxury I had so I chose to just get the job done. Frankly, these cupcakes taste great and therefore once tasted, no one (especially children) cares what they look like.

Since I had about 6 regular sized and a dozen and half or so baby cupcakes left over, I decided to take them to a party at our friends' house immediately following the school carnival. (I told you I had a busy weekend.) I didn't even bother to frost those things – I just put a frosting spreader in the bowl of remaining frosting and told people to frost according to their own preference. My lovely friends seemed to think this was a novel idea and I valiantly refrained from apologizing for not doing the work for them. Needless to say, there was happiness all around because...cupcakes.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 ½ cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup buttermilk

1 cup water

½ cup butter

½ cup vegetable oil (I use a mild olive oil)

1 cup cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place cupcake liners/papers in muffin tins and set aside.

Stir together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a small bowl combine the eggs, vanilla, and buttermilk; set aside. Put some water in a kettle and bring to a boil. In the meantime, melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Remove from the heat and add the oil, cocoa powder, and 1 cup of the boiling water. Whisk until smooth. Put the cocoa covered whisk in the egg/buttermilk mixture and swirl a few times. Pour about a tablespoon of the hot cocoa mixture into the egg/buttermilk mixture, stirring the whole time. Repeat 2 more times. Now pour all of the warmed egg/buttermilk mixture into the saucepan of the cocoa mixture and stir well. (This process is called “tempering.” If you add the hot mixture to the cold mixture too quickly, the egg/buttermilk mixture will curdle.) Combine with the dry ingredients and blend until smooth. Fill lined muffin cups 2/3 of the way full with batter and bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool before frosting.

Alternatively, you can use mini muffin pans and bake for 8 to 10 minutes to make baby cupcakes, or pour the batter into a 9 by 13 inch pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes to make a large cake.

This recipe yields approximately 72 baby cupcakes or 24 regular size cupcakes.

Buttercream Frosting Ingredients:

3 cups powdered sugar, sifted*

1 cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 to 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

*Sifting is important because powdered sugar gets lumpy and will make a lumpy frosting. This is not a big deal if you are simply spreading frosting on a cake because you can usually hide the lumps by covering them with more frosting. However, you can't hide lumps very well in frosting that is being piped.

In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the powdered sugar and butter by mixing on low speed for 30 seconds, then increasing the speed to medium and beating for 3 minutes. Turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the vanilla and heavy whipping cream while the mixer is on low speed, then increase the speed to medium and beat for 1 more minute. Add more heavy whipping cream if you desire a thinner frosting.