Chococcino Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting.

This cake could also be named Possible Death by Salmonella. This recipe should make 22-24 cupcakes but I think I ate about 2 cupcakes worth of batter and ended up with only 20 cupcakes. My kitchen smelled so delicious even as I was mixing the batter, I couldn't help but eat spoonfuls of it. It can also be called The Best Chocolate Cupcake I Have Ever Baked! The kind that made people go OH MY GOD. It was my birthday on the 25th, Friday. I invited people over on Sunday and Saturday. It didn't make sense to bake two cakes, not after I've just managed to squeeze back into my jeans, no sir. So I made cupcakes instead, also known as portion control cakes. They turned out spongy with an intense chocolatey taste with a hint of bitter coffee. Woe me, I don't have cupcake forms, but the batter was thick and it held well in just the cupcake paper shells.  The frosting looked like designer turds, so I poked them with a fork to make them look less turd like.

INGREDIENTS FOR CUPCAKES ( Makes 20)

• 200g unsalted butter, softened
• 1 tsp baking powder.
• 100 grams good-quality cocoa powder
• 125 grams  self-raising flour
• 200 grams golden caster sugar
• 4 eggs 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tbsp milk 
• 4 tbsp instant coffee dissolved in  4 tbsp of boiling water. 

*Tip:  You can substitute half the butter with a neutral vegetable oil. I have made it with 50% butter and 50% canola oil in the past and it tastes just as good with not much difference in the texture.

METHOD

1. Heat oven to 180 C
2. Sift flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into a large bowl, then tip in all the other sponge ingredients (Eggs, milk, coffee mixture and sugar)
3. Using an electric whisk, beat everything together until smooth. 
4. Divide the batter into cupcake forms and bake for 15 minutes. Check by inserting a wooden toothpick, it should come out clean.
5. Leave on rack to cool before frosting.

FOR CHOCOLATE BUTTER-CREAM FROSTING

• 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 2/3 cup powdered caster sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
• Pinch of salt.
  Beat the ingredients together till well blended and creamy but stiff. If you own a frosting cone, lucky you. I put mine in an improvised plastic bag cone and squeezed. *I added extra tablespoons or half of  sugar, milk and cocoa powder at few points to get desired consistency.

* You can also use this recipe for a layered cake: Grease two, 20 cm cake tins, divide batter into tins. Tap tins to release any trapped air. Bake at 180C for 25 minutes or till a tester comes out clean. Allow to cool. Turn one layer upside down and spread frosting evenly. Top with the other layer and frost top.


* Tip - My frosting is a deep brown because I used caster sugar. You could replace it with regular white confectioners sugar for a lighter brown colour. That will give some contrast and make your cupcakes look prettier.