Dark Chocolate Cupcakes

Last weekend, I was able to buy "The Ghirardelli Chocolate Cookbook", at a discount, and decided to try their Dark Chocolate Cupcakes recipe, with a few adjustments.  I can still recall the Ghirardelli Chocolate Fruit Cup Delight I had in Miami.

Since we don't have Ghirardelli's readily available here in the Philippines, I used Hershey's instead.  And since I prefer to weigh my ingredients, I'm stating them in grams.  

This recipe makes 12 cupcakes.

Cupcakes:

158 grams all purpose flour

20 grams unsweetened cocoa powder

1-1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

125 grams light brown sugar

100 grams granulated sugar

150 ml whole milk

80 ml strong brewed coffee or espresso

110 grams unsalted butter, melted

- Preheat oven 350c.  Line 12 cupcake molds or muffin tin with paper liner.  Set aside.

- Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.

- Whisk egg, brown sugar and granulated sugar.

- Whisk in milk, coffee and melted butter.  Sip remaining coffee with or without milk.

- Whisk in dry ingredients.

- Divide batter evenly among cupcake molds, filling them about 3/4 full.  I used an ice cream scoop size 55ml to fill molds evenly.

- Bake for 15 minutes or until tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.

- Cool for 10 minutes.  Remove cupcakes from pan and cool completely on a wire rack at room temperature.

Frosting:

170 grams semi-sweet chocolate baking bar or chocolate chips

190 ml heavy cream

45 grams unsalted butter

chocolate chips, mini marshmallows or sprinkles for garnishing

- Melt chocolate, on top of double boiler, over barely simmering water until smooth.

- Heat heavy cream until hot.  Remove from heat and whisk in chocolate.

- Transfer to a bowl and cool to just warm.  Whisk in butter until smooth.

- Let sit until it reaches spreading consistency, about 1 hour.  Watch TV, read a book or just do nothing.

- Spread frosting on top of cupcakes and garnish with chocolate chip pieces, mini marshmallows or sprinkles.

These cupcakes were by far the best Dark Chocolate Cupcakes I've ever made.  According to my tasters, these babies were fluffy, moist and delicious.  Just the right combination of sugar, chocolate and coffee.  Two tasters ran off with two cupcakes each, sans frosting, right out of the oven.