These chocolate cupcakes are as easy to make as my vanilla cupcakes and also have pretty much the same method too. There are only a couple of slight differences. Hope you enjoy these ones just as much.
Ingredients
Cupcake batter
150g of self raising flour (sieved)
125g of soft margarine (room temperature)
125g of caster sugar
2 large eggs (room temperature)
2 level tablespoons of cocoa powder (sieved)
2 level tablespoons of cocoa powder (sieved)
Chocolate buttercream
100g of softened butter (room temperature)
225g of icing sugar
50g of melted dark chocolate
Method
Cupcake batter
1. Place all ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat them together on a low speed until just blended.
TIP: Take care not to over mix. You want your ingredients to be well combined but if you beat them for too long you will end up with dense cupcakes instead of light and fluffy
2. Place 12 cupcake cases in a cupcake tray.
3. Spoon your batter into the cases. It is important to try and make sure that your cases all have an equal amount of batter in them so that you don't have some cupcakes under cooked and some over cooked. Around 1 tablespoon should do it. If you are experienced you can do this by eye but if not then try to use an ice cream scoop to ensure uniformity. They should be around two thirds full.
4. Preheat your oven to 190 degrees or 170 degrees for a fan over and bake for 15 minutes on the middle shelf.
TIP: My oven gets what I call 'hotspots' and so after thirteen minutes I tend to open my oven and turn the tray around 180 degrees for the last two minutes for a more even bake.
5. With chocolate cupcakes it is harder to tell by the colour when they are done so when a toothpick comes out from the centre of a cupcake clean, they are ready. Remove them from the oven and do not leave them sitting in the baking tray tray or they will over bake. Take them out and put them on a wire tray.
Icing
Now to ice them.
I have also been asked been asked for this buttercream recipe countless times and it is also so simple to do. All it takes is a little bit of patience.
I have also been asked been asked for this buttercream recipe countless times and it is also so simple to do. All it takes is a little bit of patience.
1. Combine your icing sugar and butter together in your mixing bowl and beat on high for around 10 minutes (yes 10 minutes!)until your mixture is almost white in colour. Less experienced bakers tend to stop beating too soon and you really don't get the same lightness of texture if you do that.
Add your water sparingly. A lot of recipes for buttercream will advise milk or cream to slacken your mixture but milk and cream go off so they shorten the lifespan of your buttercream considerably and they bring very little to the table in terms of flavour in my opinion. Warm water is a much better option.
If you find that you have been a little heavy handed with your water and your buttercream has gone too slack, just pop it into the fridge for half an hour (or longer if needed), take it out and beat it and again and it should be perfect.
2. Now melt your dark chocolate. The safest method of melting chocolate is to put the chocolate in a bowl over a simmering saucepan of boiling water and stir until melted but I find that takes too long so I put my chocolate into a bowl and melt it in the microwave (if you are not a confident baker don't do this). Firstly I put the chocolate in for one minute and then take it out and stir it. Then I keep putting my chocolate back in the microwave for only 20 seconds at a time, stirring each time it comes out and I repeat this step again and again until the chocolate is fully melted.
3. Let your melted chocolate cool and then add it to your buttercream mix and beat it until combined. If you add your chocolate while it is hot or too warm it will cause the fats to separate and give you a curdled appearance.
However, if that does happen all is not lost. You can put your entire mixture in the fridge for around half an hour (longer if needed) which will cause the fats to solidify and then take it out and beat it again and it should fix that problem for you (Add a drop more water if needed).
5. Now I have disposable piping bags which are perfect for icing your cupcakes but really that is all just for appearances. You can take a tablespoon and scoop a dollop of mixture on to your cupcakes and they will taste just as nice. If, like me though, you have the tools then piped buttercream really does look nice so go for it.
The nozzle I use is the Ateco brand and the no is 844. It has a sort of star tip on it but any nozzle with a star tip will do.
6.Cut the tip from at the top of your bag and place your nozzle inside your piping bag.
7. Fill your bag with your buttercream.
8.Now squeeze and twist your bag in a circular motion at the same time to pipe the buttercream onto your cupcake. I will post a video of this at a future date.
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