Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream

Chocolate sour cream cupcake batter

Recipe adapted from Cupcakes! By Elinor Klivans

This batter produces a light, moist dark chocolate cupcake. As all good basic chocolate cupcakes should, these have flat tops, perfect for slathering with creamy fudge frosting They can also be swirled with a mound of marshmallow-like frosting, covered with peppermint icing, or filled with a generous amount of chocolate mousse.

Yield: Makes enough batter for 18 regular cupcakes, 12 big-top cupcakes, 12 extra-large cupcakes, or 60 mini-cupcakes

Prep time: About 10 Minutes

Ingredients

• 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1¼ cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ cup sour cream
• ½ cup water

Directions

Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl or the top of a double boiler and place it over, but not touching, a saucepan of barely simmering water (or the bottom of the double boiler). Stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Remove from the water and set aside to cool slightly.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and sugar until smoothly blended and creamy, about 2 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. On low speed, mix in the melted chocolate. On medium speed, add the eggs one at a time, mixing until each is blended into the batter. Add the vanilla and beat until the mixture looks creamy and the color has lightened slightly, about 1 minute. Mix in the sour cream until no white streaks remain. On low speed, add half of the flour mixture, mixing just to incorporate it. Mix in the water. Mix in the remaining flour mixture until it is incorporated and the batter looks smooth. The batter is ready to bake, or for additions such as nuts, fruit, chocolate chips, or other flavorings.

* Baking temperature and times vary by oven, so make sure you don't over bake.

I baked mine at 375 F for about 20 min. I checked them about 13 min into baking with a toothpick.

For the cream I used one of my favorites, from Paganini cake recipe.

Chocolate Cream:5 egg yolks, and 1 whole egg
50 g/1.75 oz dark chocolate
150g/ 5.25 oz sugar
250g/ about 9 oz butter or margarine, unsalted

Mix egg yolks, egg, and sugar until nicely incorporated, and then cook, with chocolate, in a double boiler. Cool down completely, and then add butter, or margarine cut into thin slices, and mix until smooth. Let it sit in the fridge until needed.

Great with morning coffee too :)