Chocolate cupcakes

This cupcake recipe is  from the 33 gourmet list. It is called Sis's Chocolate Cupcake with Chocolate Frosting.

This time I haven't made the frosting from there. I just thought that it was too ''black'' for my taste. Too much chocolate ( if this can be possible :D ) I just preferred to add some white.

All I can say is that today I had a very busy day.  In my country, we are celebrating St. George tomorrow and this is my hubby's second name. So we will gonna celebrate him!

He asked me if I can make some cupcakes so he can bring to work. Obviously, I said yes.
But not only I said yes, but I decided to go for 3 different cupcake recipes. Me, happy!

This is one of them. You'll see the next ones in the future posts.
This was an excellent idea as we are going on holiday this week, and  I will have recipes to post while I'm gone.

What can I say about this recipe is that is a great one. Very, very easy to make.
You can do whatever frosting you want.  Or you can have it simple, just some icing sugar on top.

I will write here the original frosting. What I did, I went for some vanilla topping and I sprinkled some chocolate chips. 
Just feel free to improvise ;)

And now the recipe.

Ingredients

For cupcakes:
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup buttermilk
3 tsp cocoa
1 stick butter
1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla

For icing:
1 stick butter
5 tsp cocoa
1 lb confectioner’s sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup milk

Directions:

In a small bowl, dissolve baking soda in room-temperature buttermilk.

In a saucepan, melt butter and cocoa together at a low temperature.

When smooth, add water.

In a separate bowl, sift together sugar, flour, and salt.

Add cocoa mixture and egg and mix at low speed.

Add buttermilk mixture and vanilla and beat until smooth.

Bake at 350 F / 180 C for 20 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Preparing the icing from the original recipe:
In a saucepan, melt butter at low temperature.

In a separate bowl, mix together cocoa and sugar.

Add melted butter, vanilla, and milk and beat at low speed until mixed.

Frost cupcakes generously. 

Hope you envoy the cupcakes!

Happy day name to my hubby! 

 

White chocolate cupcakes

I tried a new recipe, but it's been some busy days for me and sadly I didn't had time to post it. 
This time CHOCOLATE was the main ingredient. 
Now, be honest and tell me the truth: Do you love chocolate? Of course you DO.
A better question will be ''Who doesn't?'',  right? 

But most of all, I adore white chocolate. So why not make a cupcake with it?
Look how delicious can look! Yummy! 

Lately I've been searching cupcake recipes with chocolate. The idea came to me after one of my neighbors brought me some chocolate as gratitude for helping her with the internet connection. Because it was chocolate eggs (Easter just passed few days ago) I thought that I could use them inside the cupcakes.

These are the chocolate eggs that I used

After searching a little bit, I found this nice recipe. Chocolate inside, used as filling, and outside, on the frosting. The result is delicious. You should really try it.

The recipe is an adapted version of Lynn's Crawford ''Red Velvet White Chocolate Cupcakes''. 

Ingredients for 12 cupcakes

• 1 and 1/4 cup white flour
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2  eggs
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 12 white chocolate balls, unwrapped and frozen

Icing

• 1 - 8 oz package cream cheese
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 - 3 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
• 3 oz white chocolate, melted

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Line the pan with the cupcake liners or use the silikon ones, as I did.

 In a bowl combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 

In another bowl combine buttermilk, vinegar and vanilla.

In a large bowl or with your mixer, beat together butter and sugar until creamed.

Add eggs and beat to combine. 

Alternate adding the dry ingredients (3 additions)  and buttermilk (2 additions).

Fill cupcakes tins 2/3 full.

Add one chocolate ball to the center of each cupcake, pressing down, then use a spoon to cover it with the mixture. 

Bake for 20 minutes. You can not stick a tooth pick in because of the chocolate, but the top will look set when done.   

After I took them out of the oven

Let cool in pan 10 minutes, then cool on a wire rack.

Icing 

In a large bowl or mixer bowl beat together butter and cream cheese until creamy and smooth.
Add icing sugar and vanilla starting on low, gently moving to high as icing sugar is incorporated.
Add cooled melted white chocolate and beat to combine. 
My icing happened to be a little bit soft and I place it in fridge to cool for 10-15 minutes. I think this happens because of the chocolate. 

To decorate some of my cupcakes, I added some extra white chocolate on top of the icing

 And Voilà! The final result!