The devil’s got a hold on me
Cupcakes. You either love ‘em or you hate ‘em. You might be thinking “Awww, but they’re so cute - teensy tiny cakes with frosting that you can devour in a few bites - what’s not to love?”
Long time readers of my blog will know that I used to have an almost unreasonable fear of these petite mounds of cuteness. I did eventually manage to turn out a pretty decent chocolate chai cupcake (with assistance from this book), but after that one success I put them to the back of my mind and forgot all about them - both the making and consuming.
If you’ve been browsing other food blogs, you may have noticed the cupcakes suddenly springing up all over the place - all in honour of the cupcake round-up being hosted by Cheryl of Cupcake Bakeshop and Garret of Vanilla Garlic, two food bloggers united in their love of all things cupcake-y! I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to try my hand at making these mini cakes again, so I turned to my cupcake compendium and looked for something relatively quick and easy but that still sounded delish.
The recipe that I happened upon was for ‘Devils Food Cupcakes‘ - chocolate cupcakes with a dark chocolate buttercream frosting. I don’t know about you, but when I hear ‘devil’ in relation to ‘chocolate’, I start expecting something sinfully rich and delicious, so I eagerly set myself to work, despite the fact that I had this niggling feeling that something wasn’t right.
It was only at the halfway point that I realized that these had hardly any chocolate in them. My fears were confirmed when, having tasted one straight out of the oven, I found myself hard pressed to taste any chocolatey goodness in the cupcake itself.
BOOOOO!!
Don’t get me wrong, the cupcakes are pretty nice, light and fluffy with a moist crumb - the only problem is the lack of chocolate flavour, which I’ve amended to make these a little more decadent 
The devil’s sitting pretty in the super-rich buttercream icing, so if you attempt these make sure there’s plenty of icing to go with them!
Devil’s Food Cupcakes (adapted from 500 Cupcakes)
Ingredients
225g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
225g light brown sugar
225g unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs, seperated
125g plain dark chocolate, melted
25g dutch cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
115ml milk
Chocolate Buttercream Icing
115g unsalted butter, softened
1 tbsp milk
115g plain dark chocolate, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
90g soft icing mixture, sieved
1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C and line a muffin tin with cupcake papers.
2. Sieve the flour and baking powder and set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream the sugar and butter. Add the egg yolks and beat well, then add the melted chocolate, cocoa powder and vanilla and beat till well combined. Add the milk and flour alternately, beating well with each addition.
4. Beat the egg whites in a medium bowl till soft peaks form, then gently fold 1/2 into the batter, adding the remaining 1/2 once incorporated.
5. Spoon 1 heaped tsp of batter into the cupcake cases and bake for 20 minutes or till a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean and they bounce back when gently pressed. Remove tins from the oven and cool the cupcakes.
6. To make the icing, cream the butter and sugar, then add the milk and beat till smooth. Stir in the chocolate and vanilla, then beat in the icing sugar till the mixture is thick and creamy. Spread over the cupcakes with a knife/spatula, and decorate with a dusting of edible gold powder if you want to go all out
Technorati Tags: cupcakes, chocolate, edible gold, recipes, baking, cakes, dessert
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Comments
Lisa Love the gold! How cool is that? I am very proud of you for making cupcakes again.. soon you will be an old hand at it. =)
xoxo
Tanna So more chocolate icing and gold powder might just solve the world’s woes! I’d have to think you have mastered the cupcake issue!! Very good. So will you put more chocolate in the cake next time. I feel very confident their will be a next time.
Patricia Scarpin Ellie, they’re beautiful!
I love the gold powder, it’s a fantastic effect.
They seem pretty tender and totally yummy! ;D
bea at La tartine gourmande I am not worried that your next batch will give you what you expected! Yum!
Mary I think your cupcakes turned out great. And thanks for telling me about the cupcake event. Hopefully I’ll have time to invent another cc before the deadline. I realized that 12% of my posts are cupcakes!
Natalia There’s nothing more dissapointing than a lack of chocolatey goodness, especially when you’re craving tons of chocolatey goodness. At least your not scared of cupcakes anymore!
gattina Ellie… sooo… did you feel regret that you missed the good time? You should have made cupcakes much much early, as yours is fantastic!!! Amercians tend to plop a mountain of frosting on top, yours is just perfect!
Michelle That edible gold dust is the difference between just a plain ol cupcake and a creation. How creative!
Ellie Brilynn - LOL! If someone had told me that years ago, think of all the anguish and angst it would have saved me 
Patricia - aww thanks hon 
Bea - I’m still on the hunt for a recipe that would have me return, but I have more faith that one day I’ll find it
Mary - Thanks hon, I haven’t done my blog reading in a few days but I hope you manage to get an entry in on time!
Natalia - How very very true! I think I’m still a bit hesitant, but with each attempt the fear is fading
Gattina - LOL! The lack of icing is due to my own tastebuds, I find that I can only handle a certain amount of buttercream frosting before my tastebuds feel a bit too overwhelmed But, am glad that you like my humble attempt
Paz - Thanks hon 
Kitchen Hand - Cheers hon
Michelle - Doesn’t it just? I thought they looked so naked after they’d been iced that I went a little bonkers with the gold dust Not to say that I regret it, though
Peabody - Hehehe, thanks hon
jasmine I love these sparkly goodies. I noticed Sam at Sweet Pleasure used gold dust for his SHF entry…I smell a future theme :O)
j
Ari (Baking and Books) You know, I’ve never made mini cupcakes! I don’t plan to either - their mini cuteness would overpower me and I’d eat them all in one go.
Ellie Laura Rebecca - Hehe, they certainly have enough bling
Jasmine - Ooo, that could be a fun theme!
Ari - LOL, any petite dessert makes for danger as they’re so easy to devour in one bite
Sher The only thing scary about those lovely cupcakes is that they would be gone after I gobbled them all up! 
Ellie Sher - LOL! I’ll have a doctor nearby to take care of you when the sugar rush kicks in
See, cupcakes aren’t so scary afterall, just smother the little suckers in icing and everything will be a-ok!