Happy Birthday Chocolate Cupcakes

I'm in London!  I'm lucky to be staying with friends, and to celebrate a very special 27th birthday last week, I made chocolate cupcakes.

I found a really easy chocolate cake recipe.  I am not so good about converting English and American recipes back and forth, and I couldn't find the measuring equipment in the new to me kitchen.  This is a totally haphazardly prepared recipe, and the results were delicious!  The cupcakes were light, fluffy and chocolate-y, and the frosting was not too sweet and very rich!

Slapdash slaphappy cupcakes

greatly adapted from Bon Appetit, February 2010  and Martha Stewart

Makes 12 cupcakes

Takes 1 and half hours total

Cake: 

1/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder

1 ounce dark chocolate (roughly 28 grams), chopped

1/4 cup boiling water

1/4 cup yoghurt, with a splash of milk added

2/3 cup a-p flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup butter (56.7 grams), softened

1 large egg

1 teaspoon bourbon

Preheat oven to 325 degrees fahrenheit (162.77778 degrees celsius)

Line cupcake pan with paper cups.

In a large bowl, pour boiling water over cocoa and chocolate, stirring to remove lumps from cocoa and completely melt chocolate.  Add yoghurt and whisk until smooth.

In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt together.

In yet another bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla and beat until well combined.

Pour butter/sugar mixture into chocolate and whisk together.  Slowly add dry ingredients to combine well.  Pour into cupcake cups.  The cupcake pans here are smaller than the US because they also use them to make mince pies at Christmas.  This filled out my 12 cupcake cups perfectly, but might only be enough batter for 6 to 8 American cupcakes.

Bake for 18 to 21 minutes or until a fork inserted comes out cleanly.

Let cool completely.  And then frost with the following recipe.

Chocolate Frosting

Takes 15 minutes

Makes enough for 12 cupcakes, plus a little more, just because!

1 cup powdered sugar

1/3 cup cocoa

4 Tbsp. butter, softened

3 Tbsp. milk

1 tsp. bourbon

Sift together powdered sugar and cocoa.  Add butter and mix until combined well.  It will be really thick.  Add bourbon and milk and whisk together until smooth and pretty.  Add more milk, sugar or cocoa to your liking.

Spread onto cupcakes, stick a candle in one, sing, and eat!

 Happy Birthday John!

Updates

Hello readers!  I've been travelling again, and I hope to post some recipes soon: there were birthday cupcakes in London, and kozhakottais in Chidambaram!

In the meantime, I have some updates from friends who have been baking bread.  Dr. K sent in some pictures from her attempt to make the foccacia recipe I posted last month.  Look at her beautiful gluten strands in the header photo!

 

And the final product?  "It was yummy!" she writes.

And JORJ just wrote in to say that she has been experimental bread baking!  She writes:

"I also made the no-knead bread the other day with whole wheat flour and some wheat germ and some thyme. It turned out great, but I think I should have soaked the thyme in water before adding it to the dough, or something because the flavor didn't really go all the way through the bread like I thought it might. Anyway, I liked the whole wheat flour better--I used 50% whole wheat and 50% AP flour--the texture of the crust was even better. I am hoping to find another type of whole grain flour and do some kind of mixing experiment. This whole wheat flour is a little too cardboard-y."

Here's a loaf of the original recipe that we made together in January.

I love that you are reading my blog and trying the recipes for yourself.  Please continue to let me know about it!

And of course, stay tuned, recipes to come!