I didn't drop dinner on the kitchen floor, or make the kitchen smell of burnt rubber (I may tell that story in the future). This was a full fledged, I messed up the recipe SO badly, cooking disaster.
Ay, yay, yay.
Getting right to the point, here is what I'm moaning about...
Where did I go wrong?? Did I whip the batter too much? Did I miss a critical ingredient? Did I not whisper enough sweet nothings to the chocolate gods? What?
As you can see, the cupcakes did not rise properly, and most caved into themselves in the middle. I salvaged 2 of them and gave them to the neighbors kids. They tasted OK, not the best chocolate 'cake' I've ever had, but obviously looked terrible. Not bake sale worthy.
If you have suggestions on what may have gone wrong, please share. Since the strawberry cupcakes turned out great, I can't be a total baking dummy.
Here is the recipe I used, but, I can not recommend it...
Chocolate Cupcakes
recipe from Kitchen Link
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted*
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* To melt the chocolate, place in a double boiler over simmering water on low heat for approximately 5–10 minutes. Stir occasionally until completely smooth and no pieces of chocolate remain. Remove from the heat and let cool to lukewarm 5–10 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers. Set aside.
In a small bowl, sift together the flour and baking soda. Set aside.
In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugars and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the chocolate, mixing until well incorporated.
Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated, but do not overbeat. (hmmm... my error?)
Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended and the batter is smooth. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full.
Bake for 20–25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
Cool the cupcakes in the tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.
Since these did not turn out well for me, I can't recommend them. There must be easier, fool-proof chocolate cake recipes better than this. Someday, I'll retry chocolate cupcakes and let you know which recipe is a winner!
Guten appetit!
4 comments:
The only think that I can think is that maybe the chocolate wasn't cool enough before the eggs were added....or maybe you were right and you mixed them too much. I have the best luck with cupcakes when I just mix until moistened. I hope that you will try the recipe again and update us at some time. Goodness knows that your strawberry cupcakes look lovely. It's a shame about the chocolate ones. Don't feel alone...I ruined 2 batches of bread this weekend. Thank goodness the third batch turned out perfectly.
@ michele: Thanks for the tips! I felt like the recipe was a bit tricky, and there MUST be easier, yummy chocolate cake/cupcake recipes out there. If you have a solid go-to recipe, I would love to try it out. Thanks again for your comment. :)
I've only made cupcakes once so I'd be no help! Maybe you could have used the cupcake crumbs over some ice cream?
@ Mrs. L: Genius! I will absolutely remember that next time I have a baking disaster. I bet you could even freeze the leftover disaster cake/cupcakes for future 'crumbles' over ice cream. Hmmm.
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