Chocolate Cupcake Recipe

Cake for one or something to feed a whole company? Check out this Chocolate Cupcake Recipe that buys the approval of everybody!

Being normal is the subjective opinion of the majority of any given idea. It’s the byproduct of our ancient survival instinct that made us fit into groups. By coping the behavior of others, we signaled to the tribe that we are one of them, hence they accepted us into their circles and offered the benefits of belonging to the group, such as protection.

Thanks to establishing countries with stable governments, armies and law enforcement, most of us don’t need to rely on such ancient instincts to survive the night, but since we can’t just turn off thousands of years of evolutionary training, we are still governed by it.

Some of us are better at it than others, judging by the popularity contests of playgrounds, high schools and the workspace but luckily we can learn to be better at it if we choose to.

All we have to do is, to copy others which goes rather unintentionally anyway. This is why the more overweight people are around us, the more likely we’ll see it as normal and become overweight too.

If someone starts to make something that is out of ordinary, it fascinates our imagination and more likely than not forms an opinion on the subject. Some of us, whom find the idea fascinating, may immediately sign up for the new wave, while others who are more cautious jump on the bandwagon later. Some may never like the new thing but as soon as the majority of people tilts the balance, the days of doing things the old ways are running short.

Less and less people will remember or care about the old and the new normal will become the way people do things. This is how cupcakes from their modest beginning got their own category in baking with their own papers, tins, trays, and this is how they did not only grow in style, but in size contradicting their primary existence.

Cupcakes are, unsurprisingly, cakes made in a cup. Or nowadays in a muffin form designed to make cupcakes in, but originally such luxuries weren’t viable for all so people had to do with what they had and that were cups.

Today true cupcakes are morphed into something rugged and bigger. To make distinction, we call them mug cakes, but their essence is the same. A cake designed to be consumed by one person.

Not like a whole cake couldn’t be consumed by one person or making a dozen of cupcake would mean we’ll share it with someone else but that wouldn’t actually fall into the healthy eating category at all.

Cupcakes are desserts and as such, they should be treated as a luxury that we can have after a proper meal, be that breakfast lunch or dinner. Maybe, we can sneak one on next to our coffee or tea which actually makes more sense nutritionally than gulping down a couple of hundred empty calories after a full meal.

However, if we choose to have our coffee in a shop where cupcakes are the size of a smaller cake and we don’t shy away from having the whole thing on our own then no amount of work will burn that off in a day.

It’s not like cupcakes are inherently bad or we should shun desserts entirely but desserts should never come at the expense of proper nutritional calories. Of course, cupcake shops don’t live off us making the right nutritional choices, hence muffins and cupcakes have grown to the size that could provide energy easily for a week.

Luckily, in the coziness of our kitchen, we don’t have to meet the standards established by others and we can make as big or small cupcakes as we see fit for our own good.

Ingredients

Chocolate muffins

3 medium / 150g Eggs
½ teaspoon / 3g Salt
½ cup / 100g Butter (melted)
2 tablespoons / 30g Honey or sweetener of choice to taste
1½ teaspoon / 7.5ml Vanilla
1 teaspoon / 5g Baking powder
1 teaspoon / 6g Baking soda
½ cup / 50g Cocoa powder
2½ cups / 300g Flour
1 cup / 240ml Buttermilk or Whole milk
½ cup / 80g Chocolate chips

German chocolate buttercream

2 cups / 500ml Milk
2 medium / 50g Egg yolks
5 tablespoons / 40g Cocoa powder
6 tablespoons / 45g Corn starch
1 cup / 200g Butter
2 tablespoon / 30g Honey or sweetener of choice to taste

How to make Chocolate cupcake

Chocolate muffin

Whisk eggs until light yellow. Keep on whisking and incorporate salt, melted butter, honey or sweetener of choice, vanilla, baking powder and baking soda. Adding baking soda and baking powder now, ensures optimal distribution.
Whisk in cocoa powder then flour. Depending on the flour moisture content, we’ll end up with a pretty tough dough but our kitchen robot should have no problem coping with it. If working by hand, swap the order and add buttermilk at the first step and leave baking powder and baking soda to the end. For more detailed instructions check out: Chocolate Muffin Recipe
Whisk the buttermilk quickly in but throughout, 30-60 seconds should do it. Adding baking powder and baking soda together will result a reaction between the acid in buttermilk and the base in the baking powder which ruins the fluffiness of our cake.
If chocolate chips are used, fold them in quickly. Leave some chocolate chips to sprinkle on top.
Quickly pour the batter into the muffin forms and even faster decorate them with chocolate chips if desired.
Place the chocolate muffins into the middle rack of 350°F / 180°C preheated oven until the inner temperature of the cake reaches 208°F / 98°C. Which should happen in 30 – 40 minutes.

German chocolate buttercream

Warm the milk up in a pot on medium heat until it starts to bubble gently.
In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks, cocoa powder, honey or sweetener of choice, vanilla and corn starch for about a minute until lump free.
Gradually whisk in about ½ cup of the hot milk.
Slowly pour all of the egg yolk mixture into the scalding milk while stirring vigorously until the mixture seems completely dissolved.
Keep warm and continuously stir until the custard thickens. Let the custard cool to room temperature.
Cream the butter.
Whisk the creamed butter and custard together.

Assembly

Fill the buttercream into a pastry bag and with our favorite icing tip decorate the muffins.
As a finishing touch sprinkle on some chocolate flakes or even a couple of berries if consumed within a day.