1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used the special dark kind)
3/4 baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
4 tbsp unsalted butter (room temp. is best)
1 egg (also room temp...just a little tip, its always best to bake with room temp. eggs)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1/4 cup buttermilk (or you can just use regular milk with a tsp of lemon juice or white vinegar)
First make sure you preheat your oven to 350 degrees and place 12 cupcake liners in your cupcake pan. Then you are going to take the dry ingredients (remember, sugar is not a dry ingredient) and mix them together in a medium bowl. This is going to consist of the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. The mixture will look like this...
Next you are going to take the granulated sugar as well as the brown sugar and blend it together with a hand mixer until the butter is incorporated with the sugar...
After the butter and sugar are mixed together add the egg and the vanilla, blend the mixture again until it reaches a creamy consistency...
You are then going to begin to add the dry ingredients to the sugar mixture - it should be added in three doses, alternating the water and buttermilk in between each dose...also, make sure to blend well in between each dose but be careful to not over blend or else the cupcakes with be tough.
Once the batter is all blended together divide into 12 cupcake cups and bake for about 20 minutes...
While the cupcakes are baking you can start on the frosting. Now, I normally do a powdered sugar frosting but I didn't want anything too sweet for these cupcakes or it would have overpowered in intense chocolaty goodness! And I also wanted to experiment and try something new - so I turned to the back of the book where I discovered a buttercream recipe that I have never hear of before! For the frosting you will need...
3-4 egg whites (depending on the size of the eggs)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp powdered sugar
1 cup (16 tbsp, or 2 sticks) room temp. butter
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (I used the special dark again)
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
2 tsp almond extract
First you are going to want to heat your egg whites with the sugar over a double boiler for a few minutes or until the temperature of the mixture reaches 160 degrees. If you do not have a double boiler you can always use a heat proof bowl over a saucepan filled with simmering water. Make sure you are constantly stirring the egg white mixture or else the egg whites will cook...yuck!!
Once the 160 degree temperate is reached pour the mixture into a bowl and allow it to cool down for a few minutes before beating with a hand mixer until the mixture forms stiff peaks...it took me a little over 5 minutes to get it to this point...
You can't really see the stiff peaks in this picture...but it was holding, you will be able to tell when it is done.
After the mixture is holding still peaks you can add the cocoa powder and beat the mixture again. Next you are going to want to melt the chocolate chips in the double boiler with about 3-4 tbsp of the butter...
Once the chocolate mixture is melted allow to cool and then add to the frosting mixture. Next you are going to want to add the rest of the butter, powdered sugar, salt, and almond extract and mix until it reaches a fluffy frosting texture. Now it may seem a little runny at first...but you are going to want to refrigerate it for about an hour so that it hardens and is easier to spread on the cupcakes. After it is done refrigerating if will look like this...
After frosting the cupcakes sprinkle a small pinch of sea salt chunks on the top...this gives it the really yummy sweet/salty taste!
This recipe was taken and adapted from Cupcakes "luscious bakeshop favorites from your home kitchen" by Shelly Kaldunski...Devil's Food Cupcakes pg. 28...Basic Buttercream Icing pg. 112
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