We recently had a baby shower for one of my co-workers. She’s a big chocolate fan, so I went in search of a super chocolately cupcake that I could make for the shower. Lauren’s Latest had a great recipe that incorporated dark chocolate and cocoa powder, perfect! I used an altered buttercream recipe from my Guinness Cupcakes so that I could have a white icing that I could dye blue. She is having a boy so I went with a duck theme!
Cupcake ingredients:
3/4 cup butter
12 oz dark chocolate
3/4 cup packed brown sugar (I used light)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cup flour
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup low fat sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Buttercream ingredients:
1 stick of butter, softened
3 cups powdered (confectioner’s) sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Milk, as needed to get to desired consistency
3 cups powdered (confectioner’s) sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Milk, as needed to get to desired consistency
4-5 drops blue food dye
So I did something that is typically a big no-no in baking. I took Lauren’s recipe and multiplied it by three to make 24 cupcakes. And (thankfully) it turned out a-ok! So feel free to use my multiplied version. Be sure to check out Lauren’s page though to see how beautiful hers came out, especially with that chocolate icing, yum!
Begin by preheating your oven to 350 degrees. Line a cupcake pan with paper liners.
In a small pot, melt the butter and chocolate over medium low heat, stirring until smooth. When combined, remove from heat and allow to cool.
While the butter and chocolate are melting / cooling, add the brown sugar, granulated sugar, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda and flour in a large bowl.
Mix to combine.
In a small bowl, combine the eggs, milk, sour cream and vanilla.
Make a well in the dry mixture.
Pour the wet ingredients into the well.
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| Mine overflowed. Oops@ |
Incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients as well as the cooled butter-chocolate mixture until just combined.
Add half of the mixture to the cupcake tins (the recipe makes 24 so you will have enough batter for 24 cupcakes). I use an ice cream scoop to at least attempt to divide the batter evenly.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a middle cupcake comes out clean.
Allow to completely cool before decorating.
To make the icing, use a hand mixer to beat butter until smooth. Add half of the sugar and beat until smooth. Add other half of the sugar and repeat. If the mixture is too thick, add a bit of milk to thin and beat until smooth. (Note: be careful to not add too much, a little bit of milk goes a very long way!)
I added 4-5 drops of blue food coloring to get a light blue color. The icing became water for my ducks.
How cute are these?
I used a pastry bag to add the icing, but you can also put the icing into a plastic zip lock bag and cut off one of the bottom corners to squeeze the icing out. It doesn’t have to be perfect (mine definitely aren’t!), the ducks splashing makes ripples in the water 🙂
I ordered the ducks and the sprinkles from The Bakers Confections, which you can buy on Etsy.
You’re probably thinking, super, they are adorable. But are they tasty?
They sure are! The double chocolate makes it a really nice dense cupcake, fully of chocolately flavor. The sour cream keeps them nice and moist.
My cupcakes were snatched up in minutes, so I think they were a hit!
Thanks to Lauren for posting such a fantastic cupcake recipe!
