Chocolate Cupcakes. Peanut Butter Frosting.

I haven't posted in a while because I've been working on my chocolate cupcake recipe (and also S'mores, but they deserve their own post or two...). I've never been completely happy with most chocolate cupcake recipes I find: most have a pleasing crumb but weak flavor or intense flavor but are way too fudge-like and dense for my taste. My fix to this is simple: cooking cocoa, butter, and a liquid together to fully activate the deep chocolate flavor in cocoa without making the cake texture overly dense.

Oh, and there's peanut butter frosting. What can beat that?

Chocolate Cupcakes
yield: 2 dozen cupcakes

1 cup coffee or beer (like Guinness)
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup cocoa powder

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3 tbsp powdered buttermilk, optional*
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

3 extra-large eggs
1 tsp vanilla

In a pan over medium heat, melt the butter with the beer or coffee. Once melted, add the cocoa and whisk to combine. Continue to heat just until it begins to break; this indicates that the cocoa has been heated sufficiently. Let cool before continuing. And don't worry, the mixture will come back together when mixed with eggs.

Meanwhile, line two cupcake tins with liners and preheat the oven to 350 degrees (325 if you have dark pans like me). Sift together dry ingredients in a large bowl, set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the eggs and vanilla together just to combine. Add the cocoa mixture, scraping down the bowl as necessary. Mix until homogeneous. It should only take a minute to come together. Add the dry ingredients gradually, mixing to combine. Again, this should only take a minute.

Divide among the cupcake liners and bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Frost with Peanut Butter Buttercream.

Peanut Butter Buttercream

3/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups natural peanut butter
3/4 tsp salt
5 - 6 cups powdered sugar
 6 - 8 tbsp cream

Cream butter, peanut butter, and salt until lightened and homogenous (natural peanut butter may take a minute or two to mix with butter). Add in 3 cups of confectioner's sugar gradually. By the time you've finished, the frosting should be fairly stiff. Add in 4 - 6 tbsp of the cream to lighten it up again.

Add in another cup and a half of confectioner's sugar and taste the frosting. I usually never add more than 5  cups total because the peanut butter flavor comes through better in a slightly less-sweet frosting. Depending on how much more sugar you add in, you may need to add more cream to keep it spreadable. Pipe or frost onto your cupcakes and enjoy!

*Seriously, guys, find powdered buttermilk at your store. It keeps for a very long time in the refrigerator and makes baking on the fly easier because I either find myself with no buttermilk or bad buttermilk because the last time I used it was months ago for another recipe. You mix the powder into your dry goods and add a cup of water (or other liquid if you're adventurous) to your wet goods. Easy!