Chocolate Cupcakes!

We take a brief moment to interrupt your regular schedule to BOMBARD YOU WITH CUPCAKES.

So on my very last day in LA, a friend took me to Sprinkles cupcakes.

Cupcakes. Never were they something that tickled my fancy, nor were they things I found myself craving. Give me an ice-cream any day.

But alas, Sprinkles cupcakes were amazing. Cakes that literally melted in your mouth with icing to match, the red velvet gluten free cupcake had me at first bite.

Upon return to Melbourne, nothing quite matches up to what I had in LA, so the other night I had the ingenious idea of googling to see if for some reason Sprinkles would indeed share their recipes somewhere.

Oprah is a mighty force.

Once I found it, Oprah's website, with the delectable recipe stayed up in one of my Firefox tabs all day and by the time evening came around, these cupcakes had to happen.









So whilst mine came out a little bit harder around the outside which worried me, once broken apart, the inside was still moist and almost as soft as I remember the original being. And that icing? That icing is deadly. Definitely not weight watchers friend. I may cut back on the sugar next time. Maybe.

Anyway. Here's the recipe I based it from, it's originally a strawberry cupcake recipe, but I just substituted out the strawberries for chocolate because....chocolate can't lose. Basically.

http://www.oprah.com/food/Sprinkles-Cupcakes-Strawberry-Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup fresh or frozen whole strawberries (thawed if frozen) - I substituted this with 5-6 tablespoons of unsweetened dark cocoa
  
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour , sifted - I used gluten free flour, came out great!
  
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. coarse salt
• 1/4 cup whole milk , room temperature
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract - I had vanilla bean paste. Does the job well enough
  
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter , room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg , room temperature
• 2 large egg whites , room temperature

Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners; set aside.

Place strawberries in a small food processor; process until pureed. You should have about 1/3 cup of puree. Add a few more strawberries if necessary, or save any extra puree for frosting; set aside. - Obviously skip this if you're doing chocolate!

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt (I added my cocoa in here as well); set aside. In a small bowl, mix together milk, vanilla and strawberry puree- again no strawberries if you're doing chocolate!; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter on medium-high speed, until light and fluffy. Gradually add sugar and continue to beat until well combined and fluffy. Reduce the mixer speed to medium and slowly add egg and egg whites until just blended.

With the mixer on low, slowly add half the flour mixture; mix until just blended. Add the milk mixture; mix until just blended. Slowly add remaining flour mixture, scraping down sides of the bowl with a spatula, as necessary, until just blended.

Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Transfer muffin tin to oven and bake until tops are just dry to the touch, 22 to 25 minutes. Transfer muffin tin to a wire rack and let cupcakes cool completely in tin before icing.

Icing!

http://www.oprah.com/food/Dark-Chocolate-Frosting

Ingredients - the original recipe was for two dozen, but here I've obviously halved everything for my dozen.

• 5 ounces (about 140grams) bittersweet chocolate , chopped
• 1/2 pound (about 225 grams) unsalted butter , at room temperature
• 1 pound plus 8 ounces (I put in about 300 grams) powdered sugar
• tiny pinch of teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup sour cream - I only had thickened cream, so used this instead
  

Melt and cool chocolate (until just slightly warm). Beat butter until light and fluffy. With mixer on low speed, gradually add powdered sugar. Add salt, vanilla and sour cream and mix until very smooth. Add chocolate and mix until just incorporated.

*Don't over-whip and add too much air into the frosting. The consistency should be rich and dense, like ice cream!

Enjoy and don't forget to lick your spatulas and bowls as I did!