I'm sure you know Divya. You cant miss all the beautiful cakes that she is baking these days. However I don't think many of you know the fact that we were batch mates in college :). Yes, we were batch mates for 5 years. But I guess we've talked more in the past 1 or 2 years, mainly through our comments on each others' blog, rather than those 5 years. Sometimes when you look at it, life is so strange right? 7-8 years back if you asked me about cooking, I would be staring at you as if you were an alien. And if you asked me about blogging, I would pretend I didn't hear you because I didn't even know what that meant. Leave alone blogging I didn't even know about the existence of Google! Ya now you are staring at me as if am an alien ;)
Honestly speaking, I'm generally scared of all technology stuff. Am very bad at it. So to hide my ignorance and fear about handling new technology, I decided to protest against it :) Ok, now that's one honest thing about me. Miriam gave me an honest badge and tagged me to write 10 honest things about myself. I usually write only honest stuff here, I don't lie to you, so nothing new to write about ;) Thanks Miriam, appreciate it a lot. Thanks again for all the sweet things you've written about me :)
Ok, now back to Divya, these days we talk at least once in a week or so. It's all because of food & blogging. Divs blog is celebrating second birthday and she has an event for the same, “The best chocolate cake event”. I thought I should participate in this, after all she is my batch mate and a fellow Theresian right :)? Also I liked the book she is giving away as a present. Divs, don't worry abut shipping to Bahrain, you can send it to my Cochin address ;) Once again wishing your blog many more wonderful birthday's! All the best dear! Divs, hope you like this.
The cupcake recipe is from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook and the icing recipe is Hershey's “perfectly chocolate” chocolate icing. Like all other cake recipes here, this too is an easy one. This is a one-bowl chocolate cupcake recipe. Put together all the ingredients, mix it and the batter is ready. Sounds easy right? These are pretty moist & not too sweet, even with the icing. I also gave this cupcakes to one of our friends, when we visited them and they enjoyed it very much :). Hope you too will like it.
Here is the recipe:
Ingredients
- For the cupcake
- 2.5 cups Plain flour
- 1 .25 cups Dutch-process cocoa powder (refer notes)
- 2.5 tsp Baking soda
- 1 .25 tsp Baking powder
- 1.25 tsp Salt
- 2.5 cups Sugar
- Eggs – 2 whole + 1 egg yolk
- 1.25 cups Milk
- 1/2cup + 2 tbsp Oil (I used sunflower oil)
- 1.25 tsp Vanilla essence
- 1.25 cups Warm water
For Icing recipe
- 1/2 cup Butter
- 3 cups Icing sugar
- 2/3 cup Cocoa powder
- 1/3 cup Milk
- 1 tsp Vanilla essence
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 175 C, 10 minutes before baking. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pans with paper cups. Into the bowl of an electric mixer, sift together ingredients listed from plain flour – salt. Add sugar to that and give it a stir. Attach bowl to mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; add the ingredients listed from eggs -warm water. Beat on low speed until smooth and combined, about 3 minutes; scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups, filling each about two-thirds full. Bake in the preheated oven, until a skewer inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean, around 20-25 mins. Let them cool completely before frosting.
- To make icing:
- Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. This qty gives about 2 cups icing.
Notes
Check out other cupcake recipes:
maria don’t know what happened but this time it turned out bad.. the cupcake dint turn out good at all..it tasted liked it had bits of stone in it..i messed up a bit on the baking powder and soda..could that be the reason??
Hi Keerti,
Sorry to hear that it didnt work out well :(
Well, baking powder and soda is imp when it comes to baking, so it can be the reason..
Hopefully it comes out well next time, all the best!
Maria…
You are awesome!!
Tries this today and came out perfect !!
Thanks a lot Amala for sharing the feedback here :)
my! my! where do I even start?? I can sit and eat these days all day just without the frosting.. lip smacking and silky texture.. just awesome to the touch and taste!! thanks Maria everyone thought I was a pro and even asked me the price of each !! :o :D
Thanks Keerti :) So when are you starting your cake business. I do hope I get a discount ;)
hehehe!! don’t know everyone is askin me that? maybe I should send them back to you :P.. anyways if I give up my lawyer profession, my mom will chase me out of the house hahahah!!
you get everything for free!! no charge :D :D
:)
I am going to make this for my sick friend :D.. how nice would it be if docs said we could eat cupcakes whenever sick!! :D *sigh*
;) Hope your sick friend feels better after the chocolate treatment ;)
yeah they keep thanking me every day!! you know who gets the credits ;) and oh yeah now you have become a life saver as well!! :D :D
We can divide the credit fifty-fifty :)
haha! Maria, thou art the humble–bumble!! :D :D
;)
Hi Maria,
I used powdered sugar for the icing (sieved it too)… But as I mixed this to the mixture granules could be felt.. Might be a stupid question, but does it crystallize when heated??? Please help… This is the second time that my icing has ended up like this
Hi Shauna,
I’m sorry to hear that the icing didnt turn out well. I’m not sure why it happened like that. I always use icing sugar & not powdered sugar for my icing. Ideally the sugar melts when heated & it should not crystallize. Please try it with icing sugar, if its available in your place.
Thank you so much dear friends :)
wow maria…they look amazing…the snaps have come out so well….i’m still shying away from baking…but honestly this post of yours is inspiring me to bake too…:)…you have made it sound so simple…:)..your friend divya’s blog is really nice too…
Ay Maria!!!! That cupcake surely is tempting.who is the photgrapher?GR8 pics,..
Hi Tara,
Thanks dear and I only take the photos for the blog :)
Cheers
Maria
Maria :o .. me thinks your a pro on photography too..!! :D :D
awwww, thanks dear :)
Yummy! Will give it a try sometime and let u know :)
Wow, they look DIVINE. I love any form of choc cake. Cute icing….=)
I so wish i could grab this beautiful cupcake as hubby as prohibited me to make anything wih chocolate for a whole month as he is in a kind of a diet.
That cake looks so good and rich maria…..there seem to be lot of cocoa powder in the cake. was the cake slightly towards the bitter taste?…i would love it then:)
ShABS,
sorry dear for the delayed rep. Yep the amt of cocoa is more compared to other choc cakes I usually make. However it doesnt have a bitter taste but its not very sweet too, even with the icing.
Cheers
Maria
Ente mariammooo oru cupcako cako kazhikkan njanum kunjuvavayum kothichirunnapozha eeeee chathi kandathu..ulla controlum koodi poyeeeee…Adipoli ayitundu..
Was wondering from where all the yummy choclatey scent was floating around from.
This explains it. :)
They are gorgeous.
Goodness!Maria! They are giving me their devilish grin! I really want to grab one right away! they do look moist!
Brilliant entry ! And Divya, yes I know her ;)
Maria kutti… They luk LOVELY! Infact very PRETTY! :) Im they r YUMMY too! :) Keep them comin! :) Tc!
Lovely lovely cupcakes Maria..:).
Right said..even I had no clue about all this internet thingy..I started an e-mail a/c only so that I could chat with Ajay..couldn’t act ignorant in front of him..:):).So we can form an alien group:):)
Thanks for all the nice things you’ve written about me..I am touched..:):)
Love the intense dark colour of the cupcakes and the frosting makes it so pretty.