. Skip to main content

Chocolate and mocha cupcakes

Overhead view of chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting on a bed of chocolate bonbonsSide view of chocolate cupcakes with light blue frosting in a tray with chocolate bonbons
What better way to someone's heart than cupcakes?!  Here are 2 recipes for some delicious chocolate ones that I made for Easter, and delicate mocha cupcakes that I made for a baby shower.

Because it is such a versatile and tasty cream, I used the same buttercream recipe for both, in pastel colors for the occasion.

Coffee table with candles and tray of cupcakes

Chocolate buttermilk cupcakes :

1/2 cup buttermilk (you can also make it from 1/2 cup warm milk and 1 teaspoon vinegar)
1 large egg + 1 yolk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup hot water with 1/2 teaspoon instant coffee 

Mixing cocoa into batterTexture of batter
Preheat oven to 350° F / 180° C. Line a cupcake mold with parchment paper or cupcake liners.  Mix wet ingredients in a bowl (except hot water and coffee, leave that for the end).  Fold in dry ingredients. Then add hot coffee mixture. Mix about 2 minutes. Pour into molds and bake for about 15-18 minutes or until the middle has risen and is cooked.  Check with a toothpick that should come out clean. Set aside to cool. 
Mocha cupcakes, cakepops and more cupcakes on a 3-tier cake trayClose-up of mocha cupcakes with buttercream
Mocha cupcakes (I made these based on a butter cake recipe adding coffee)
3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
3/4 cup milk
5 eggs, separated
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 tablespoon instant coffee in 1/4 cup hot milk
1/2 teaspoon salt

Whipping egg whites until getting stiff peaksFold egg whites into egg yolk mixturePour batter into cupcake liners
Preheat oven to 350° F / 180° C. Line cupcake molds with parchment paper or use silicone molds.  In a bowl, beat egg whites until you get stiff peaks. In another bowl, cream butter and sugar until you get a light yellow color.  Add egg yolks, milk, vanilla.  Sift in flour, baking powder and salt.  Fold in egg whites a spatula at a time. Then fold in hot coffee mixture. Pour into molds and bake for about 15-20 minutes or until the middle has risen is cooked.  Check with a toothpick that should come out clean. Set aside to cool. 
Cream cheese frosting (you can make this the day before):
2 8-oz softened cream cheese
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup confectioners sugar
A couple drops of red gel food coloring to get a light pink color, blue, green, etc.
Chopped candies (I used chopped M&M's or pink white chocolate), fruit or sprinkles (optional)

Pipe buttercream onto cooled cupcakesIn a bowl, whip the cream until you get soft peaks.  Add the confectioners sugar about 1/4 cup at a time, then add the vanilla. Fold in softened cream cheese (soften in the microwave about 20 seconds, allow to cool before folding into whipped cream). Whip another minute or so until the cream has thickened. Refrigerate at least an hour.   
To dress the cupcakes, separate the cream into 3 or 4 bowls according to colors you want to work with.  For example, I made light pink, blue, green and cream (no color added). Then fill 3 or 4 pipings bags with these colors, with different types of tips for a variety of textures.  Then pipe rose swirls or drops of cream and decorate with a topping if you prefer (chopped candies, sprinkles...).  
Enoy, everyone !

Some useful links for baking equipment or similar objects in photos :

Cup cake liners
Non-stick muffin pan
32 piece piping kit
3-tier cake stand porcelaine
Wooden tray 17 inch

*This site contains ads and affiliate links*
See my Disclosure and Privacy statement to learn more



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Victoria Sponge cake revisited (gluten-free)

Here's a version of a Victoria sponge cake that kind of evolved on its own. This is a fairly straightforward layer cake. It involves 2 cake disks, buttercream and strawberry jam, decorated thereafter with some powdered sugar, or more cream and strawberries. I did, however, take liberties... Well, first of all, I didn't have any jam but I did have strawberries so made a quick jam by simmering about a dozen diced strawberries, a couple tablespoons of sugar and a star anise which I love adding lately to all jams (try it with fig jam, awesome combination).  But I digress... use some jam if you have some at home!  I also swirled one of the disks with raspberry reduction, mixed with a bit of the batter to add some color.  (Also, no need to do this except for a bit of fun or if you're always experimenting like me). Here's the rest of the recipe made with 2 eggs, a sign of the times : Batter: 1/2 cup softened butter or margarine 1 cup of sugar 2 eggs 1/2 cup of milk or juice...
Post a Comment
Read more

Checkerboard cake

This was actually another accidental cake!  I had been wanting to make one of these checkerboard cakes for a while, and one day, I realized I had all the ingredients ready to go in my freezer, so in essence it went pretty quickly.  I often make cake disks and use them for cakes I'm making, and freeze extra disks for later use. So I had 2 chocolate cake disks and 2 vanilla cake disks in the freezer.  All that was needed was the cream and that went pretty easily since I also had some chocolate mousse frosting I had made previously. This was my first attempt, and although it was far from perfect (leaning to one side, lol), it turned out much better and easier than I expected. For tips, I would say 1) have some good cake cutters (I used glass cups and it's not ideal) 2) spread the frosting fairly thinly in between the layers in order to see the checkboard pattern 3) if you freeze cake disks or frosting ahead of time, it is a time saver, in a delulu kind of way 4) the wow fact...
Post a Comment
Read more

Clafoutis with cherries

Clafoutis is one of my favorite French words because it can make me feel like I’m cursing or insulting someone, "You club-foot-id i o t. » Ok, only me ?! Never mind... It’s also the most delicious flan, so that’s double the fun, and the best part is it's quite easy to make. I often make different kinds depending on the fruits of the season and here you have pictures of an all cherry version, because our tree was so abundant with cherries just ready to harvest. Here's the recipe : 3 eggs 1/2 cup sugar (100 g) 3/4 cup flour (110 g) 1 cup milk (250 ml) 1 teaspoon vanilla or half teaspoon vanilla bean 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 tablespoons melted butter 1/2 pound of cherries (300 g) Preheat oven to 350° F / 180° C.  Butter a deep dish, pan or ramekin. In a bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until you get a smooth batter. Add milk, flour, vanilla, salt, melted butter. Place the cherries (remove stems, but no need to remove pits) in the pan or ramekin. Pour the batter over the cherries. Bak...
Post a Comment
Read more