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.

Chocolate Madness Cake

The past few days saw me in a fit of chocolate craving and baking frenzy.  It was a mad combination.  I have not baked a cake in ages and I managed to bake 8 chocolate cakes, culled from 3 different chocolate cake recipes and bakers, which I switched around and finally came up with my very own version of Chocolate Madness Cake.
First recipe tested was Hershey's Perfect Chocolate Cake with Hershey's Perfect Chocolate Frosting, recipe found on every can of Hershey's Natural Unsweetened Cocoa Powder. The cake was too sweet but moist and fluffy.  The frosting not perfect at all.

Second was Nigella Lawson's Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake, recipe found on the internet via the Food Network with how-to video on youtube. Again the cake was too sweet, crumbly and dry.   The frosting was a disaster.   But I take full responsibility for the disaster through no fault of the author.

Third was Dorie Greenspan's Devil's Food White-Out Cake, recipe found on page 247 of her book "Baking". The cake was bland and dense, again probably my fault,  but the icing was very good.  Dad even helped me scuplt the design.

Finally, my very own Chocolate Madness Cake.   The cake was a modified Hershey's Perfect Chocolate Cake recipe with Dorie Greenspan's version of 7-Minute Frosting.  Success!

To break from all the chocolate madness, I managed to squeeze in Martha Stewart's Lemon Squares, recipe found on her website.  It was perfectly sweet and tangy.  

Note this Lemon Squares recipe was developed for very young bakers (kids!).  That should say something about my level of baking.  

Next project - Cupcakes!