Chocolate Cupcake with Caramel Buttercream

Starting to fond in those pretty cupcakes, I now tend to make more cupcakes. I found this recipe from this blog. The batter of chocolate cake is from Cupcakebakeshop and the Buttercream is from dailydelicious. It looks pretty so I give it a try.

Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cupcakes

(adapted from cupcake bakeshop) ~12 regular cupcakes / 375 degree oven

1/2 cup (125 g) butter, room temp

1-1/4 cups (250 g) sugar (I used only 100g, reduced ridiculously)

2 large eggs, room temp

3/4 cups (75 g) all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 cup (62.5g) unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Beat butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well combined.

4. Measure the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder into a small sized bowl and whisk to combine.

5. Measure out the milk and vanilla and stir to combine6. Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar and beat to combine.

6. Add about a half of the milk/vanilla and beat to combine. Continue adding, alternating between dry and wet and finishing with the dry.

7. Scoop batter into cupcake cups about 1/2’s full. Turn oven down to 350 degrees and bake cupcakes for about 22-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Note from Chockylit: As mentioned previously with this recipe, if you overfill the cupcakes, they will overflow and then sink. To be on the safe side I am now recommending that you fill the cupcakes 1/2 full. With a big batch you may still have some problems with one or two of them, but the majority should work out just fine. Your oven must be for sure hot enough, so it doesn’t hurt to get an oven thermometer and make sure it’s at the correct temperature. These cupcakes are temperamental, but the resulting cake is worth it.

I was a bit over fill.. about 2/3 full.. so become a small mountain lol

* I normally scale 1 cup of all purpose flour = 100 g. by this conversion (unless it's Australian recipe then I might scale 145 g for 1 cup). Can anyone please tell me what is the weight for flour that you normally use for 1 cup?

Italian Meringue Buttercream
(adapted from dailydelicious)

75 g egg whites

140 g caster sugar

1/8 cup water

225 g unsalted butter

1. To make the sugar syrup, place the candy thermometer in the saucepan and heat the water and 120 g of sugar over medium-high heat. Partially cover with a lid to capture the evaporating water this helps to moisten the sides of the saucepan to prevent sugar crystals from forming.

2. With the mixer on high speed, begin whipping the egg whites to stiff peaks. When the peaks are stiff, with the mixer still running slowly pour the remaining sugar into the meringue.

3. Raise the heat under the sugar syrup to bring the syrup to 245°F, if it is not there already. When the syrup is at 245°F, remove the thermometer and slowly pour the syrup into the meringue.

4. After 1 to 2 minutes reduce the mixer speed to medium for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the meringue is cooled. Add the butter 1 tablespoon at a time. Increase the mixer speed to high for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the butter is fully incorporated.

5. Add in the caramel until you like the taste.

The buttercream turned out beautifully smooth but I found it is a bit too heavy. I will try to find some lighter version of buttercream.. any recommend?

Caramel

75g caster sugar
½ tsp water
½ cup whipping cream
½ tsp salt

1. Bring sugar and the water to a boil in a medium saucepan. After that, turn to low heat. Cook, undisturbed, until caramel is dark amber.

2. Remove from heat, and slowly add cream, stirring with a wooden spoon until smooth. Let cool.

This is my first time making caramel (yeah, you read correctly, even I studied in LCB, we make a lot of caramel but not the version that put whipping cream in it.. very excited when it was bubbling. haha. It's extremely delicious.

The piping can be better as you can see the end of it.. Definitely have to practise more. It's my first time piping rose though... so happy about the outcome :D