Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Dark Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

The groom’s cake for The Garden Wedding was replaced by dark chocolate cupcakes with a dark fudgy buttercream frosting.

I discovered there are at least a million different versions of chocolate cake out there! I must have tried at least half of them before finally narrowing it down to just  two seriously delicious recipes I felt were worthy of the occassion.  Ironically, the top two originated from my own Back Door Bistro so to speak–fished from the depths of my recipe drawer.  Both were so good that we couldn’t decide on a clear winner so it came down to that time-honored tried and true method of selection: eenie meenie, miney mo. The winner is a rich, fine textured, very moist,  easy peasey cupcake that almost melts in your mouth.  It’s a variation (I changed it up a bit) of a white bundt cake recipe a friend gave me 5 or 6 years ago. That cake was out of this world and became an instant family favorite. I’ll post it the next time I make it.

First off, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and put 30 paper cupcake liners in muffin tins. (This requires 3 tins) Yes, that’s a lot of cupcakes, but the good news is that they freeze beautifully. Frost them when you take them out to thaw. I personally considered 30 cupcakes a blessing since I was churning out 250 of those lil’ puppies for the wedding!  Here are the ingredients you need to gather.

You’ll need 9  squares of semi-sweet or unsweet baking chocolate, 4 for the cupcakes and 5 for the frosting. I used Ghirardelli’s, but you can use any brand.

Coarsely chop the chocolate for both cupcakes and frosting and put in separate microwavable bowls.

Set the frosting chocoate aside for later.   Microwave the 4 ounces for the cake  in 30 second intervals on high, stirring with a fork between nukings until melted and creamy. Leave in the microwave until needed.  Note: This will require will-power.  The chocolate tastes every bit as good as it smells. Whatever you do, do NOT  lick the spoon you use for stirring!  If you do, you might as well get another batch of chocolate ready, because after one taste you will never be able to resist licking the bowl clean.

In the bowl of your stand mixer (you can use a hand mixer if you want) dump 1 box Betty Crocker supermoist chocolate fudge cake mix, 1 box Jello brand instant devil’s food pudding, 8 ounces sour cream, the melted chocolate, 4 eggs, 1/2 cup sugar,  3/4 cups water, and 3/4 cups vegetable oil.  Mix on low for 30 seconds and then increase to medium speed for 2 minutes.

You can use any brand of moist cake mix.  I bought the Betty Crocker one because I thought “Chocolate Fudge” would be a nice dark color. (it was)  A Devil’s Food cake mix would probably work just as well. You could also use any brand of chocolate pudding.

Fill muffin cups 1/2 full:

Yes, I see the crusties around my muffin tins!  Try making

250 cupcakes and see how many times you scrub the pans between bakings!  I can tell you how many times I did it–once!  After that I said to heck with it.  I was on a mission, and I couldn’t be bothered with aesthetics.

Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centers of the cakes comes out clean.

Perfection!  Nice flat tops to match the White Chocolate Lime bride’s cupcakes, and perfect surfaces for frosting.

Speaking of FROSTING–I forgot to photograph the step by steps (again)  Although I’d like to blame it on the craziness of getting ready for the wedding, the truth is that I’ve been having these types of brain farts for as long as I can remember–which (you have to have seen this line coming) is never for very long! :)

Anyhoo, you need the other 5 squares of semi-sweet (or unsweetened)chocolate coarsely chopped and nuked the same way as for the cupcakes.  Cool slightly and dump in the bowl of your stand mixer (you can use a hand mixer) along with 1 cup room temperature unsalted butter. Mix on medium speed until smooth and well blended.    Add in 3 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted. (Sift AFTER measuring.) Do this 1 cup at a time, beating until well blended between additions. Add in 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract and 2 T milk or cream. Beat until the frosting is light and fluffy.  The texture should not be grainy. Add more powdered sugar if the icing isn’t stiff enough for piping, more milk if it is too stiff.  You will need a Wilton #2110 1M Star Decorating tip purchased at Hobby Lobby or online HERE , a large Wilton coupler purchased at Hobby Lobby or online HERE, and a 16″ disposable decorator’s bag purchased at Hobby Lobby or online HERE. There’s an instructional page for decorating the cupcakes on the Wilton site linked HERE.  Of course, if you don’t want to mess with the piping you can always smear the frosting onto the cupcakes with a spatula!  No accessories needed and the icing doesn’t have to be all that stiff.

I added some dark chocolate sprinkles and some gold edible glitter purchased HERE so the bride’s cupcakes didn’t outshine the groom’s! I am the mother of the groom after all! They were gorgeous dontcha think?

Want a bite?

Here ya go!