Chocolate Cupcakes With Chocolate Buttercream

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Hi everyone!  Happy Friday!  I took my first final yesterday 🙌!  What better way to celebrate than with cupcakes?!  But on a more serious note, have you figured out what you're making for Mother's Day?  If not and your mom is a chocolate aficionado, then you've got to make these cupcakes for her!

So there's two main parts to today's recipe:  the cake and the frosting.  Let's start with the cake.

What makes a great chocolate cupcake?  I've found that the trick is adding extra chocolate into the cupcake.  Although unsweetened cocoa powder gives great chocolate flavor, adding more would make the cupcakes bitter, which is not good.  Instead, by adding some semi-sweet chocolate chips, the cupcakes get an extra boost of chocolaty goodness while still being nice and sweet.

If you're worried that your chocolate cupcake is going to have chunks of chocolate in it instead of being light and fluffy, let me assure you that it won't.  How?  By melting the chocolate chips with some butter and oil, the chocolate flavor is translated into the cupcake batter without any unwelcome crunch.

One last note about the cake portion of today's recipe-  be careful not to overfill the liners with batter because it really rises in the oven!

Now, on to the buttercream!  Buttercream is basically just a fancy name for a butter-based frosting.  It's true that almost all frostings have butter, but buttercream frostings are basically butter...and sugar if that makes you feel any better about eating it by the spoonful 😜.

Since today's frosting is super buttery, why not make it even more decadent with chocolate.  Because YOLO!

If you want to pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes, make sure that it's not too runny so that your piping skills will be cleaner and sharper.  Decorating cupcakes is not one of my strengths, but it definitely helps to pipe on frosting that is the correct consistency.

So that's it!  Whether you're in need of a treat for Mother's Day, a weekend project, or a celebratory treat, make these cupcakes; I know you won't regret it 😉.

I slightly tweaked this recipe to bring you the cupcakes for today's recipe.

I slightly tweaked this recipe to bring you the chocolate buttercream for today's recipe.

Chocolate Cupcakes With Chocolate Buttercream

For the cupcakes:

• 3 T. canola oil
• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs + 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup + 2 T. all-purpose flour, not packed
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking pwder
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup full fat sour cream
• 1/2 cup hot water

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2.  Line a 12-cup muffin tin with liners and lightly spray them with non-stick spray.

3.  Melt the oil, butter, and chocolate chips together in the microwave, microwaving in 30 second increments, stirring in between.

4.  Whisk the mixture until totally smooth and set aside to cool.

5.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder, and salt, then set aside.

6.  In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, yolk, sugar, and vanilla extract, beating until smooth.

7.  Add the cooled chocolate and fat mixture to the wet ingredients, whisking until smooth.

8.  Add half of the flour mixture, then half of the sour cream, repeating the process until everything is added and mixing until JUST combined.

9.  Quickly stir in the hot water, being careful not to over mix.

10.  Divide the batter equally between the tins, being careful not to overfill (no more than 1/2 full).  You may need to prepare another muffin tin if you have extra batter.

11.  Bake in preheated oven for 16-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.

12.  Enjoy, cooling completely before frosting and storing for up to 2 days at room temperature and storing in the fridge for up to 5 days.

For the Buttercream:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 2 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• Milk as needed
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

1.  With an electric mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy- about 2 minutes.

2.  Add the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, milk, salt, and vanilla extract and beat them into the butter on low speed.

3.  Increase the speed to high and beat for 3 minutes, adding more milk or powdered sugar until the frosting has reached its desired consistency

4.  Enjoy, covering tightly and storing in the refrigerator for up to a week and up to 3 months in the freezer.

5.  After freezing, thaw in the fridge and then beat the frosting for a few seconds so that it is creamy again.