Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream

Sounds bland after all the fancy ones, doesn't it? Let me reassure you early on, these are good.

Yum.

The cake is light, and the buttercream is too. Unlike all the others we've made to date, this buttercream has far less icing sugar compared to butter, so it's not as sweet (the melted chocolate doesn't hurt that either), and not as dense.

On the downside, I gave one to a friend to taste, and neglected to tell her what it was she was trying... I also forgot to tell her to keep it at room temperature, and I suspect the resulting chilled chocolate butter was not as satisfying as one would hope. But she's a good friend and didn't complain, so she might get to be a cupcake taster again soon.

The other learning moment was when I realised that a light cake requires far less buttercream.



For this type of cake, this is too much icing. In fact 1:1 cake to icing is probably too much for most cakes.

I couldn't even finish a whole cupcake before being totally overwhelmed by buttery chocolate goodness, and had to reduce the icing quantity on the rest in case I gave someone butter poisoning (that's a thing, right?).

I knew these were good when M agreed to take one to work every day (when they're not good, he usually has a day or two break from taking them for lunch). And they didn't last nearly as long as the cupcakes of disappointment from last week, which was lucky because then I got to make something else as well. I think I need to start donating the cupcakes somewhere... my rule about not making a new batch till the last one is finished is killing me. It means I spend all week planning what I'm going to make next, then one day baking/icing, then the planning starts all over again. Tough life, I know.

It turns out that all the cookbooks I have in the cupboard, four of which are specifically cupcake related, are good for something. This recipe actually came from a book. I know. They still exist, and people still refer to them. Amazing. Actually, flicking through the pages gave me heaps of ideas for other flavours (time to steer away from the chocolate again I think).

Overall, a delicious cake, with yum icing. Definitely good to do again, maybe with slightly less icing next time. Or with ice cream.

Credit where credit's due: recipe is from cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans.