Simple Chocolate Cupcakes

I've been craving chocolate cupcakes for a week or so now. Light and moist cupcakes with frosting that accentuates the cake rather than overpowers it with sugar. Yup, that's what I wanted and Valentines day proved to be the perfect excuse for me to bake them.

I searched high and low on the internet and in cook books but so many recipes just seemed over the top. Finally I found a recipe from none other than my usual standby (Ol' Martha) and they were exactly what I was looking for when paired with a super simple buttercream.



Adapted from Martha Stewart
Makes 1 dozen cupcakes

3/4 flour
3/4 sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cocoa powder
3 tablespoons butter, melted
6 tablespoons buttermilk
1 large egg
1 large egg white

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper liners.
Combine first five ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Using a mixer (or by hand) mix cocoa powder and 3 tablespoons hot water together until a thick paste forms. Add butter, buttermilk, egg and egg white to cocoa and whisk until smooth. Slowly add in the flour mixture and beat until combined.
Fill muffin tins 1/2 full and bake until a knife comes out clean, about 20 minutes.
Let cool completely on a rack before icing.

Simple Buttercream*

1/2 cup salted butter, softened
1/4 pound of icing sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Cream all ingredients together by hand or with a mixer until light and fluffy. Use immediately or cover and refrigerate for later use. To soften after being refrigerated beat again with mixer or by hand.

*I truthfully didn't measure the sugar (the battery in my scale died!) so I just added it to taste. I probably used less than the recipe calls for because I really didn't want it to sweet. It definitely still tasted very buttery when I was done.