Best Chocolate Cupcakes

Honestly one of the best chocolate cupcakes i've made. They aren't too sweet, kind of dark and gooey and pack a full punch of chocolate flavour. It is moist and soft and just perfect. The great part of it is also that it doesn't call for electric beaters! A whisk is all you need for mixing the ingredients.

Ingredients:

Dark chocolate cupcakes:
115 grams unsalted butter
56 grams semi-sweet baking chocolate (I used Hershey's semi-sweet chocolate chips)
64 grams unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey's)
95 grams all-purpose flour ([plain flour)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, at room temperature
100 grams granulated white sugar
50 grams light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (120ml) buttermilk

Swiss meringue buttercream for frosting. Get recipe here.

I like to use as few bowls as possible, so i weight out ingredients that will be mixed together eventually in the same bowl (less bowls to wash later!). 

• Put the unsalted butter and semisweet baking chocolate in a microwavable bowl. 
• Cocoa powder, all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a big bowl
• Eggs, white sugar, light brown sugar, vanilla extract in a medium bowl
• Buttermilk in a separate jug (1/2 cup buttermilk can be substituted by 1/2 cup milk + 2 teaspoon white vinegar, mixed and left to stand for 5 minutes)

1. After preparing the ingredients, preheat the oven to 176 degree Celsius (350 degree Fahrenheit).

2. Melt the unsalted butter and semi-sweet baking chocolate in a microwave or over a small flame.

3. Using a whisk, whisk together the dry ingredients.

4. Using the same whisk, whisk the wet ingredients till combined. 

3. Add in the melted butter-chocolate mixture into the bowl with the wet ingredients.

4. Fold in the dry ingredients and buttermilk alternatively, starting and ending with the dry ingredient mix. (i.e. mix in this sequence - dry mix, buttermilk, dry mix, buttermilk, dry mix). When called to mix in dry and wet ingredients alternatively always end with the dry ingredients because it lets you know that you have evenly/thoroughly mixed in what you want to. Be careful not to over mix this mixture, just mix till it is just combined. 

5. Use an ice-cream scoop to scoop out the batter into 12 to 13 cupcake cups (I made 12 but i feel they are a bit too full). If you do not have an ice-cream scoop using 2 spoons is fine too, but using an ice-cream scoop for filling cupcakes really saves lots of time and is much neater and cleaner. It is a must have if you are a regular baker.

6. Bake them for about 18 minutes or till a cake tester/toothpick comes out clean when it is run through the center of a cupcake. A lazy way of checking if the cupcakes is done is by shaking the cupcake pan a little, if the cupcakes jiggle, it definitely needs more time. Allow the cupcakes to cool before frosting!

While they are baking, you can prepare the swiss meringue buttercream to frost it. This is how they look out of the oven. They are great even without frosting!

The original recipe is taken from Sally's Baking Addiction blog.

Enjoy :)