Chocolate Butter Cupcakes

Rose's Heavenly Cakes, Page 296: Chocolate Butter Cupcakes

When i first looked at the recipe i was skeptical that it would be chocolaty as Rose claimed in her book since it didn't required any melted chocolate and only 42g of cocoa powder.  I was wondering to myself if the chocolaty was up to my standard (I'm a chocoholic..and i admit that i'm also a chocolate snob..no lousy chocolate for me).  I was disappointed before.  I once tried Flo Braker's devil food's cake recipe in one of her older books which also called for only cocoa powder and was deeply disappointed because i was expecting this rich moist chocolate cake but in the end it turned out ok but not that deep rich chocolate taste that i was looking for.  I guess the disappointment was largely due to the fact that i ordered her out of print book from Amazon just for the recipe to the cake on book cover cos it looked really good..and it didn't turn out really that good imo.  

So I gathered & weighed all my ingredients.  Followed instructions which are pretty short, simple and sweet.  

Placed ingredients in my kitchenaid mixer...  Weather's so hot....and next to the mixer, i had the slow cooker with my herbal ginseng chicken soup in it was emitting heat too.. (that's about my work space..next to my kitchen aid is a bit of space and the sink..)..hence i just used butter right from the fridge..no need to wait till room temp.  

After mixing, I used the standard size ice-cream scoop to place it right into the cupcake cups.  Not sure what size is my ice-cream scoop..cos i don't see any numbers on it.   Baked for 15-17 mins..it was pretty quick.   :)

I wanted to make Rose's fave chocolate-egg white buttercream but didn't in the end cos i found left-overs of my dreamy white chocolate frosting i did last week and some ganache too in my fridge. :D  Gotta clear them first...no good to waste food..lol! 

Ok, I confess, this is about all that i frosted..hahaha..i only frosted 5 cupcakes just to take photos for this blog post.  And i tied ribbon around the cupcakes because the paper cases were peeling off on its own away from the cake.  

VERDICT:  When i took a bite, i was surprised!  It certainly was all that Rose had claimed - "velvety, moist and deeply chocolaty".  Exactly what i was looking for!  Yummy! Surprised because the batter didn't taste very chocolatey but after the cupcakes were baked, they tasted different - very chocolaty!  So...my lesson learnt here - Never doubt the guru in cake making!   My daughter said they were delish and ate 2 in one go!  My husband ate the ones without frosting and he too said they are very good (my husband doesn't like any frosting if he can help it).   The cupcakes tasted good on their own without any frosting imo.

My son, the picky one needed much coaxing before he wanted to try!  He doesn't like cupcakes just because they have paper around - I guess he thinks it is different.  So I 'tricked' him - removed the paper and placed the cake on his plate. At first he said "NO" and i had to tell him: "Look, it's chocolate cake, smell it!"  He took a sniff, tried a spoonful, liked it very much, ate it all up and wanted another one.  After he ate his first cupcake, i showed him the others with the paper cases attached so that he can link them together, ie cupcakes = cake.  Introducing him new food is not impossible but almost impossible...i should know..i have been trying for 17+ years already..

With my son liking this cake, definitely be in always bake list.  :D  I think i'll teach him how to make them..but i have to first convert the recipe into PECS symbols so he can read & understand.