Mini Chocolate Cupcakes

Whenever I see bloggers posting pictures of beautiful cupcakes, I'm always tempted to bake those. Yet there wasn't really any occasion for me to bake cupcakes, and given that I've so many things that I wanna try out on my 'to do bakes/cooks', so cupcakes would be lower on my priority list :)

A week after I baked the strawberry swissroll for Kexian came just at the right time! I had a fair bit of leftover buttercream chilled in the fridge. I don't think buttercream can be kept too long in the fridge so I had to use it. My cousin invited us for his housewarming on the same weekend, so I baked a batch of mini cupcakes frosted with buttercream to bring to his housewarming. The cupcakes were well received. :D :D

The chocolate cupcake recipe, taken from Baking Bites, uses a simple mixed-in method and the texture was just perfect. It had the right degree of compactness I would say, without being too dense or too light and soft for cupcakes. It wasn't too buttery also which I felt was good cos' it was already frosted with buttercream. Of cos' if you like a richer chocolate cupcake, just feel free to try any chocolate cake recipes.

For the buttercream, I had to let it stand in room temperature for a while, and re-whipped again, adding more sifted icing sugar in order for it to hold its shape well. For the pink strawberry portion, as there was already some strawberry chunks in it, it was more watery thus when I tried piping, it began melting. I had to spread it instead of piping as the shape can't hold. I love minis cos' they are just so cute and won't make one feel too full and will wanna come back for more variations! :)

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp coffee powder (I omitted this)
• 1/2 cup sugar (I reduced to about 1/3, still fine but not so sweet)
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 90 ml milk
• 1/4 cup (62.5ml) oil
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract/essence

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 175°C. Line mini muffin trays with paper cups.
2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, cocoa power, instant coffee powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, vegetable oil and vanilla extract.
4. Pour into dry ingredients and stir until just combined and no streaks of flour remain.
5. Distribute batter evenly into prepared muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full.
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
7. Turn cupcakes out onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Recipe: Nic - Baking Bites