Chocolate Cupcakes

I have such a cute story to tell you.

My friend called me up. Yes, called. And we talked. 

Cute, right?

Just kidding, that's not it.

So he called me up and said...

"Hey Elissa, I'm going to ask [insert girlfriend's name here] to the dance. And I'm going to do it with cupcakes!"

So I says to the guy...

"Ooh ooh! I want to make them!! Let me do it!"

And the guy says to me...

"Ok, cool!"

The end. 

So I was commissioned to make chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting to ask [insert girlfriend's name here] to the dance. 

And it was super adorable because I was sending him pictures as I was frosting them to make sure he was ok with the design and he asked me if I could write "[insert girlfriend's name here], will you go to the dance with me? with a heart" and I was like "Honey, do you know how big cupcakes are?" 

Another thing that you probably won't think is funny but you'll read anyway, I sent the guy a picture of the cupcakes all frosted and pretty without the edible glitter hearts, and he asked if I could make the writing frosting lighter. So I sent him a picture with the hearts. I tried to make it as not ugly as I could, but they're only so much you can do when you start with chocolate frosting.

I really like this recipe. They're soft and moist (don't you hate that word?) without falling apart or leeching oil. And I actually did something impressive. Well, it impressed me. I used an ice cream scoop to fill the cups, but I don't have one of the spring-y ones, so I just used my plain old boring one. I did have to do about 1 1/2 scoops of batter, but they were all pretty much even and they were a good height when fully baked. I was very pleased with myself.

Pre Bake

Post Bake

Recipe (adapted from Brown Eyed Baker):

3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (6 tablespoons. Also, I used 1 ounce unsweetened and 2 ounces semisweet cause I'm sad and don't have bittersweet chocolate)
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup hot coffee
3/4 cup flour (I used cake, but the original actually used bread flour)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 teaspoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
3/4 cup corn syrup (light if you can)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 ounces melted chocolate (milk, semisweet or dark works) (cooled somewhat) (1 cup)
Splash of cream (optional)

Combine chocolate and cocoa powder in a large bowl. Pour coffee over it and stir/whisk until melted and smooth. Cool in the fridge for 20+ minutes. 
Whisk together flour, sugar, salt and baking soda in another bowl. 
Whisk oil, eggs, vinegar and vanilla together with chocolate (I whisked those together first, then poured it into the chocolate). Add flour mixture and stir until smooth.
Pour into muffin pans and bake 17-19 minutes at 350. 

I got 18 cupcakes while the recipe says it gets 12. Yay!

Beat together butter, sugar, cocoa powder and salt until smooth. Add corn syrup and vanilla and beat again until combined (it shouldn't take too long).
Melt chocolate in a double boiler type setup. Add some cream when it's melted if you want.
Add melted chocolate and mix until smooth and creamy. 

I used Wilton tips numbers 3 and 12.

Whoops! Clogged tip!

And [insert girlfriend's name here][ok, just read the cupcakes] did say yes. And she liked the cupcakes. So all's good!