Chocolate Cupcakes

Happy holidays! Okay, a little early, I know, but where I work, Santa's coming on Monday night.

Okay, so remember the time I said I was taking a break from baking in an attempt at cleansing, and cutting back on the sugar in my diet? Because it's quite clear to me that I have zero resistance to the things I bake. Yeah, so about the detox - didn't really work so well. I think it lasted for maybe 24 hours, and then, let's be honest, I got way to busy to keep up with all the prep! Soon though...

Needless to say, I'm back! Tomorrow night is my store's holiday roll-out meeting, so in the spirit of Christmas (two months early!), I made cute Christmasy cupcakes for my staff.

This time I made my Grandmother's chocolate cake recipe, and piped Magnolia Bakery's vanilla buttercream on top. Perfect combination! As much as I love the Trophy Cupcake chocolate cake recipe, this one is my absolute all-time, moistest, most delicious cake recipe. Whenever a recipe calls for coffee, I always fire up my espresso machine and make an americano to get the best quality, we all know instant coffee is awful. Again, however, with the recent launch of their new product, I was able to use Starbucks VIA ready-brew with this cake, and it was such a help. It's also a very helpful product for this cake because the recipe calls for both hot and cold coffee, and VIA is totally soluble in hot or cold water. And I can't get enough of this buttercream! So simple to make and pipe.

I used a large round #808 piping tip this time and squeezed a small amount on each top, pulling it up at the end to form kind of a Hershey Kiss shape.

To get a perfectly rounded cupcake, I used exactly 1/4 cup of batter in a large-size cupcake paper.

Here it is (Top Secret!):

Perfect Chocolate Cake

By Dulce Doll

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup butter, room temperature

4 eggs, beaten

2 cup brown sugar

1 cup cocoa

1 cup hot coffee (1 package Starbucks VIA Italian Roast)

2 tsp. baking soda, dissolved in a little hot coffee

2 1/2 cups AP flour

1 cup cold coffee (1 package Starbucks VIA Italian Roast)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream granulated sugar and butter together. Pour eggs on top, but do not stir yet.

Add brown sugar, cocoa, and hot coffee. Beat until well blended.

Finally, beat in baking soda, flour (in a couple additions), and cold coffee. When smooth, divide evenly among lined muffin tins. Will make approximately 36 cupcakes or 4 9-inch cake layers.

Bake for 17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool completely .

Vanilla Buttercream:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

6 to 8 cups confectioners' sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Combine butter, 4 cups sugar, milk, and vanilla. Beat until smooth and creamy. Gradually add remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, until icing reaches desired consistency; you may not need to add all the sugar. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.