Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Best Chocolate Cupcakes Ever -- Tuesdays with Dorie


A huge thank you to the oh so sweet Clara at I Heart Food4Thought who picked Dorie's Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes for the TWD sweet treat of the week! You can visit her website for the complete recipe as written in Dorie's book Baking From My Home To Yours.

It has been way too long since I've made any kind of cupcakes, and I'm not a huge chocolate fan so I would probably never have made these if it wasn't for Clara and TWD. Thank you again, Clara! I did make a couple small changes to the recipe, noting that some people had trouble with dry cupcakes -- and I hate dry baked goods -- I added an extra 1/4 cup of buttermilk, so instead of using 1/2 cup I used 3/4. I also weighed my one cup of all purpose flour, which was suggested at the TWD site regarding dry Dorie recipes, I ended up with 131 grams of flour. My other changes were to use two whole eggs, not the one whole egg and one yolk, probably just because I was too lazy to seperate the egg and figured than an extra egg white wasn't going to make or break this recipe.
My third change was to use one ounce of Scharffen Berger bittersweet chocolate, and one ounce of Baker's s brand semisweet chocolate -- Dorie's recipe called for two ounces of bittersweet, and I'm not a huge bittersweet fan, so went half and half with semisweet -- PERFECTO!


The baking time of about 23 minutes was right on, and the oven temperature, 350, was also just perfect! I think the fact that I baked these in silicone muffin cups on an insulated cookie sheet just added to the super moist crumb and no dry edges or bottoms, this will be my new standard for baking cupcakes from now on, no more dry bottoms from cupcakes in muffin tins.


I did not use the chocolate glaze, instead going for a simple buttercream frosting with cocoa powder mixed in, and the kids had a blast decorating these for Halloween :) I really can't say enough about how perfect these turned out, they were the best chocolate cupcake I've ever had in my entire life, seriously, and I am not a chocolate cupcake fan, I'd rather have a carrot cake cupcake, vanilla cupcake, even a pumpkin cupcake would beat out chocolate in my book, but man oh man, these are some converting cupcakes! If you've read any of my other TWD posts you will know that I'm usually honest and have been a touch picky with Dorie's recipes as of late, but these have taken away any doubt I had. These are amazing (with my minor adjustments)! I can see me making the whenever I might need a chocolate cupcake, especially when birthday season in our family rolls around. I think these would also be superb with a coconut pecan frosting, like a German Chocolate Cupcake -- YUM!
Please excuse the following picture overload of my oldest kiddos...they had SO much fun :)


This was a wonderful TWD experience - from the decorating with the kids to having amazing tasting finished cupcakes, just what good baking is all about :) Oh, just had to add, my two year old gave an unsolicited big smile "mmm, SO NUMMY" when he took a bite of these little gems!

19 comments:

Cathy said...

Oh, so sweet! I am glad that you and your family loved these, Andrea! "So Nummy" -- well, it doesn't get any better than that, does it? Your kiddos are adorable -- they look like they were having a ball! We had a great time with these too, although we didn't love them quite as much as you did. I'll have to try your modifications next time!

Nancy/n.o.e said...

Aww, did he name the blog or what? I'm so glad you had such a great TWD experience - from a doubter to a lover. That happened to me - I just pulled my 9th Dimply Plum cake out of the oven - well I always make 1/2 or 2/3 of a cake, but I keep making it for breakfast as long as I can find stone fruit!

I added about 1/4 cup extra "wet" ingredients, and it did the trick for me, too.
Nancy

Deb in Hawaii said...

Your cupcakes and kids are just adorable and it looks like you all had such a great time making them too. How fun!

Shelby said...

I'm glad these turned out for you and your kids are adorable!

NKP said...

Great cuppycakes! Looks like your helpers had a lot of fun too!

Laura said...

Beautiful work by beautiful kids! Unfortunately for my kids, I didn't finish these til late last night, so I just decorated them myself. I'm hopefully going to get some cookies made this week for them to go to pumpkin-shaped sprinkle heaven with.

Christine said...

Your little ones are beautiful! I forgot to add the buttermilk to my cupcakes so they came out a little dry! Your cupcakes look delicious glad everyone had fun!

Peggy said...

Yours turned out perfect. The buttermilk was a good idea. I used a little sour cream and that worked the same. Still laughing over you being too lazy to separate the white of the egg! That sounds like something I would do. :)

CB said...

Your candy corn flower cupcake is so cute. Love all the pictures of your kiddies too. I could just eat your little girl up! She's so precious with those pigtails. Definitely what baking should be about. Sharing with family and friends... Thanks for baking with me this week!
Clara @ iheartfood4thought

chocolatechic said...

I heart Scharffenburger chocolate.

You decorated your cakes so adorable.

Di said...

Great pictures of your helpers! I'm glad you all enjoyed these so much.

Flourchild said...

Ahhh your kids are cute as ever! At least you made homemade frosting..you saw I used kind from a jar! I think your cc turned out sweet looking! Im glad you liked them even though your not much of a chocolate fan!

Engineer Baker said...

Yeah, I think I can excuse you for taking pics of such cute little kiddies :) I'm glad they were a hit!

Prudy said...

Oh, nummy! These just prove the title of your blog even further. Delicios! Your little ones are so darling and they look like a hit to make and eat too.

Rebecca of "Ezra Pound Cake" said...

Mmmmm, Scharffen-Berger. That makes everything better. ;)

Shari said...

I love silicon muffin cups. Nice to have a fan who says "nummy" when you make something for them!

AmyRuth said...

Ah...sweet Mommy! Your adorable babies certainly had fun doing their magic. Sharing the Love! Those are the moments your kids will remember the most.
Precious kids.
AmyRuth

Anonymous said...

Oh, Andrea! They are so cute (the kids... not the cupcakes... but the cupcakes are cute too!) I'm finally taking a moment to myself to catch up on my loved ones...

~Cat

alex said...

i like to bake also some cookies... so love.. kids will really enjoy that..

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