Sometimes it’s just really nice to make a dessert that doesn’t serve an army of 5 gazillion. I love this recipe for small batch chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting for that very reason. They’re perfect for a small group, or you and your honey to share. Or maybe you make them all for yourself and space out your enjoyment over a couple of days. I won’t judge. ;)
When making these, I recommend using a cookie scoop to plop your batter into the cupcake liners – it’s just so much easier to keep your batter evenly distributed this way. And this particular batter recipe is very thick so it works great with this technique.
The most difficult thing you’ll likely run into with this recipe is waiting for the cupcakes to cool before frosting them with this yummy buttercream frosting.
If you’d like to make sumptuous swirls of frosting like what you see pictured here, I recommend following the frosting instructions as they are and using a piping bag with a large round tip to pipe your frosting onto your cooled cakes. If you’re not such a huge fan of frosting, you can cut the frosting recipe in half and you’ll be good to go.
Recipe barely adapted from The Complete Cooking for Two Cookbook
- ¼ cup (1¼ ounces) all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 3 pieces
- 1½ ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¼ cup (1¾ ounces) sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 3 tablespoons whole milk, room temperature
OR 2 tablespoons Silk coconut milk + 1 tablespoon heavy cream - ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup frosting
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 16 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups (8 ounces) confectioner's sugar
- food coloring (optional)
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Line 4 cups of muffin tin (can be any of the cups) with paper or foil liners.
- Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in bowl.
- In a separate bowl, microwave butter, chocolate, and cocoa at 50 percent power, stirring occasionally, until melted and smooth, about 1 minute. Be careful not to overheat the mixture. Let cool slightly.
- Whisk sugar and egg together in a medium bowl until smooth. Whisk in milk and vanilla until combined. Whisk in cooled chocolate mixture until well combined.
- Sift flour mixture over chocolate mixture in 2 additions, whisking gently after each addition until just a few streaks of flour remain (batter will be thick). Continue to whisk batter until most of the lumps are gone (but do not overmix).
- Using a cookie scoop or dry measuring cup, divide batter evenly among prepared cupcake liners. Bake cupcakes until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 18 to 22 minutes, making sure to rotate muffin tin halfway through baking.
- Let cupcakes cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes from muffin tin and let cool completely on rack, about 1 hour (or until cakes are cool to the touch and no residual warmth is detected).
- Pipe a swirl of frosting onto each cooled cupcake and serve. Or, if you have halved the frosting recipe, spread 3 to 4 tablespoons of frosting over each cooled cupcake and serve.
- Stir cream, vanilla, and salt together in bowl until salt dissolves.
- Using hand-held mixer set at medium-high speed, beat butter in medium bowl until smooth, 30 to 60 seconds, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.
- Reduce speed to medium-low, gradually add sugar, and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.
- Add cream mixture and beat until combined, about 30 seconds.
- Increase speed to medium-high and beat until frosting is pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
- Optional: add a drop or two of food coloring to tint your frosting.
