(Yields 15 cupcakes)
Ingredients
For CupCake
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 6 tbsp cocoa powder (I used cadbury)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup buttermilk (can use milk if not available)
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil (do not use olive/coconut/mustard oil and use ghee if vegetable oil is not available)
- 3/4 tsp vanilla essence/extract
- 1/2 cup hot water (not warm, hot)
For Chocolate Frosting
- 1 1/4 cups unsalted butter at room temperature (soft but not melted)
- 300 grams chocolate chips, melted
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder
- 5 cups powdered sugar
- Pinch of salt (avoid the salt if you are using salted butter in case of unavailability of unsalted butter)
- 4–5 tbsp heavy cream for whipping (preferably readymade whipped cream)
Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees C and arrange a cupcake baking pan with the serving paper inside it. (To bake the cupcakes with the paper beneath)
2. Add the dry ingredients (all purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, sugar, salt) to a large bowl and mix together.
3. Once it’s mixed, add the egg, buttermilk, vegetable oil and vanilla essence to the bowl.
4. Whisk well.
5. Add hot water to the batter and mix until well combined. Batter should be thin, to bring out the moistness in the cupcakes.
6. Fill the cupcake serving papers till half and bake for 20-23 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with very little moistness.
7. Remove the cupcakes from oven and cool for a couple of minutes. Let it come to almost room temperature.
8. Now start making the frosting.
9. Blend butter, melted chocolate in a mixer till combined well.
10. Add the cocoa powder to this and mix well.
11. Add powdered sugar slowly and half the heavy cream. Mix well.
12. Add salt and the remaining heavy cream.
13. Mix well till you get the right consistency of smooth silky frosting.
14. Top the cupcakes with the frosting with the help of either an icing dispenser or a quick fix zip-lock bag. To frost using a ziplock bag, transfer the entire frosting into a ziplock bag, and make a teeny-tiny cut at one of the corners. If a ziplock bag is not available, just dip the cupcakes into the frosting – this will work for sure but might not give you the perfect pretty zigzag shape of the frosting tip. Serve warm or after refrigeration, and garnish with sprinkles or M&Ms!
