Chocolate Cupcakes

Whenever I am baking something at night to bring into work the next day, I always have this little fear that something won't turn out right. Then I will either be up until late at night remaking the dessert or I will have to go to the store to get more ingredients or I will have to quickly come up with something else I can bake.

Well, it finally happened to me! I made chocolate cupcakes and I knew when I was adding the batter that the liners were too full, but the recipe said to divide the batter among 12 cupcake liners so I did against my better judgment. The end result was cupcakes that spread out over the liners and onto the top of the cupcake pan. The cupcakes tasted good, but the presentation was not good. I thought about just using them and finishing the recipe, but just couldn't do it.

Since I had used up the last of my sour cream in that recipe I needed a new one and after a internet search it turns out that when filling chocolate cupcakes, you should never fill the liner more than 1/2 full. I usually fill them 3/4 full and the ones that I just baked I filled 2/3 full! I also found a new recipe that I had all the ingredients for so that saved me from having to go to the store. 

When working on this recipe I made two decisions. I decided one, if this recipe worked for me I was going to make it my go to chocolate cupcake recipe and two, I was going to play around with how full to fill the cupcakes.

Normally when I make a new cupcake recipe I make the recipe as stated. So instead of using a cupcake recipe that I know works and tastes amazing. I use the one included in the recipe. However, to avoid a mistake again I need to have some go to cupcake recipes, like this chocolate one. 

When I added the batter I did some of the cupcakes with 3 tablespoons and some with 4 tablespoons. If you look at the pictures, some have a dome and some are flat. The dome ones had 4 tablespoons of batter and flat top ones had 3 tablespoons of batter. So depending on how you want your cupcakes to look, will depend on how much batter to use. When baking cupcakes, keep in mind that different recipe will bake up differently and the amount of batter can vary. However, you can use this as a guide to start with. Baking does take trial and error and finding the right base recipes, just like this one.

These cupcakes are moist, sorry if you dislike this word, but it is the best way to describe these cupcakes and that is how my co-workers described them. They are easy to prepare and the espresso powder kicks up the chocolate flavor without adding any coffee flavor. Plus they bake up beautifully.

Check back later this week to see the cupcake recipe I used these cupcakes in. It is definitely a recipe you don't want to miss.

Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon espresso powder
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup boiling water

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325º F. Line a muffin tin with 12 cupcake liners.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl using an electric mixer, add in the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and espresso powder. Whisk until the mixture is well combined.
3. Add in the milk, canola oil, egg and vanilla. Mix on medium speed until well combined. Reduce the speed to low and slowly and carefully pour in the boiling water while mixing. Increase the speed to high and and beat for 1 minutes.
4. Fill the cupcake liners about 1/2 full with batter, 3 tablespoons with give you a flat top and 4 tablespoons will give you a dome top.
5. Bake until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, about 20 minutes.
6. Remove the muffin tin from the oven and then remove the cupcakes from the tin and place on a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.

Enjoy!!!

*Adapted from Add a Pinch.