Something Different For Today – I’m Baking

Today is Mrs Scot’s birthday and for once I have been organised and scheduled a post in advance. I must be one of the only personal finance bloggers out there who always writes posts off-the-cuff. Call me disorganised, but it works for me 😀 !!

So instead of writing in my normal time today, I will be baking – or at least attempting to bake – cupcakes for Mrs Scot’s birthday. She absolutely loves cupcakes and on valentines day I ordered her a ‘boucake’ as a surprise! Given that the lady who created them is so talented and skilled (and makes absolutely freaking delicious cupcakes by the way) I see spending £2-odd per cupcake as money well spent. As for the birthday cakes.. Well the nice cupcake lady was unable to deliver so I decided to set myself a challenge to bake them myself… Surely the love and effort is all that matters?!

For those of you who have been reading a while, you will know that I love to cook – but baking is very much Mrs Scot’s domain. That said, I want to share the recipe that I am going to try with you all. I must give credit to the creator – The Alchemist – because there are 54 people who seem to like this one!

The Best Moist Chocolate Cupcake Recipe 

The following recipe will make approximately 30-35 cupcakes. Scale up or down the ingredients accordingly! I have added some comments accordingly:

Ingredients

85 g of semi sweet chocolate – I am going to use Tesco’s cheap chocolate because it works well in other baking (30p a bar)
1 1/2 cups (355 ml) hot brewed coffee – or if you absolutely cannot have coffee, substitute hot water, or decaf coffee – but the coffee does bring a depth of flavor that water alone won’t. I’m going to brew it up and go for it!
3 cups (620 g.) sugar
2 1/2 cups (337 g.) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups (172 g.) unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process).
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup (177 ml) – 1 cup (236 ml) vegetable oil ( I use 1 cup, but the original recipe calls for the lesser amount) the higher amount makes them even more moist, (the lesser amount is also moist)
1 1/2 cups (355 ml) well-shaken full fat buttermilk (if you can find it, if not use low fat buttermilk) Found full-fat :)!
2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions 

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit, 150 degrees Celsius, Gas Mark 2.

Finely chop chocolate (if using chocolate chips you don’t have to chop it) and add it to the hot coffee to let it melt. Meanwhile, Into a large bowl whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat eggs until thickened slightly, and lemon colored, about 3 minutes in a stand mixer, or 5 minutes with a hand mixer. Stir the chocolate mixture until all the chocolate is melted and combined. Slowly add the oil, vanilla, buttermilk and chocolate mixture, beating until combined well. Add a quarter of the dry mixture then blend until incorporated, then add another 1/4 and combine, and repeat until all of the dry ingredients are just incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and blend again just until that is all incorporated. Got all that? I don’t…
 
Mixture will be like a thick liquid. Prepare cupcake tins with liners. Pour batter into a measuring cup with a pouring spout. Pour batter into cupcake liners filling about half to 2/3rds of the way full. Don’t overfill. These rise quite a bit. Bake for about 28-32 minutes. If the center still looks caved in, or wet in the middle, they are not done. The top should look slightly rounded. They are done when they pass a toothpick test. But don’t test them until they look rounded. If you do, they could cave in or fall and never rise again. For this recipe, I don’t open the oven till they have been in for 28 minutes or so, or until they look done. Keep in mind the oven temperature is lower than in most recipes, so they take longer. This is especially true when using the higher amount of oil. Also when you prepare the batter, use it right away. While cupcakes are baking, prepare frosting below.

Cool on wire racks, and frost when they are completely cool. Simple right?

Chocolate Buttercream 

Not going to lie – this is the bit that I am worried about. I contemplated buying frosting from the supermarket, but I have decided to man-up and give this a go!

Ingredients 

20 TBS  (283 g.) unsalted butter – softened
1 cup (115 g.) confectioner’s sugar
3/4 cup (80 g,) dutch-processed or natural cocoa powder
A pinch of fine table salt
3/4 cup (177 ml) light corn syrup or (Lyles Golden Syrup and 1 TBS of water)
1 tsp vanilla extract
227 grams chocolate – milk, semisweet, or bittersweet – melted and cooled to 85-100 degrees Fahrenheit, (29-38 degrees Celsius) or choc-chips – Tesco’s again – Cheap Chocolate works the best!
 

Directions

In a stand mixer: Cut butter into about 5 pieces per stick, and add to bowl of mixer. Add confectioners sugar, cocoa powder, salt and blend on low. Slowly add the corn syrup while mixer is going on low. After it’s all added, turn it up to mix it until it’s incorporated, then add the vanilla and the melted chocolate. Mix well until completely blended. You can make this up to 3 hours in advance. For longer storage, refrigerate the frosting, covered, and let it stand at room temperature for 1 hour before using.

For the original recipe and some pretty pictures – check out this post!

Wish me luck everyone! 🙂 I will let you know how it goes….