Chocolate Cupcakes (Unusual Recipe)

I don't really go on the Something Awful forums these days but, years ago, I used to like to read the CAKE thread. It's long-dead now, but before it closed and got archived, I went through it and collected all the recipes that people had shared over the years. I now have a huge file containing all the recipes and links. There's been some bit-rot over the years, so not all the links work anymore, but that's why I made my own copy of everything: so that I could still have access to the recipes even if the various sites went down.

At one point someone posted some photos of some cupcakes they'd made and mentioned that they'd used a recipe from this "Ming Makes Cupcakes" site. I grabbed that recipe and decided that while I was there, I might as well save ALL of the recipes for later reference.

I haven't had a chance to try most of them yet, but I think I've done at least one of the other "Ming Makes Cupcakes" recipes and had good results. I appreciate how straight-forward they are. The ingredient lists are usually pretty brief and simple and the instructions, while sometimes a bit laconic and lacking in detail, are direct and involve a minimum of faff.

Despite feeling generally happy with this set of recipes, this particular recipe did make me a bit nervous. The mixing instructions were very different from what I'm used to: Mix the acid and base directly and set aside while you make the rest of the batter? Melt the butter; don't cream it? Make a batter that's already verging on losing all cohesion and then add even more wet ingredients? None of that sounds right! And the icing was just as weird. I've never made icing by pouring hot melted butter into icing sugar before!

The whole thing was very strange and I was a bit worried that I was going to end up with a sad chocolate disaster rather than a tasty dessert. But they actually came out very nice! They were light and fluffy, but still pleasingly chocolatey. And the icing tasted rich and didn't have that you're-actually-just-eating-a-lump-of-sugary-butter taste and mouthfeel that most American buttercream tends to have. I was really shocked! Especially given how simplistic the recipe seemed. What a pleasant surprise!

So, TL;DR: Don't panic if your batter is sloshing around and ends up looking like extra-dark chocolate milk; it's supposed to.

Chocolate Cupcakes

From Ming Makes Cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes

• 1/4 c. buttermilk
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 c. unsalted butter
• 1/4 c. natural cocoa powder
• 1/2 c. water
• 1 c. sugar
• 1 c. soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Chocolate Icing

• 1/2 c. unsalted butter
• 75g cocoa powder (either natural or Dutcched)
• 450g icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar.
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 4-5 Tbsp. milk

Directions

Cupcakes

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and line a muffin tin with papers.
2. Mix the baking soda into the buttermilk and set aside.
3. Combine the butter and the cocoa powder and melt over low heat, mixing thoroughly.
4. Remove from heat and pour in the water. Mix to combine.
5. In a separate bowl, combine the fugar, flour, and salt.
6. Pour the cocoa mixture into the dry ingredients and mix a little bit.
7. Mix in the egg.
8. The batter will already seem quite thin by this point, but go ahead an pour in the buttermilk and vanilla and mix that in too.
9. The batter will be extremely runny; this is fine. Don't be tempted to adjust the batter and add more flour.
10. Pour ~1/4 c. of batter into each muffin paper and bake at 180°C (350°F) for ~20 minutes.
11. Remove from oven and turn out onto wire rack to cool.

Chocolate Icing

1. Melt butter over medium heat.
2. Cook, stirring often, until butter begins to smell nutty.
3. Meanwhile, sift the cocoa and icing sugar together and set aside.
4. Once the butter is ready, pour it into the icing sugar mixture and stir a bit.
5. Add the vanilla and stir a bit more.
6. Add the milk, 1 Tbsp. at a time, until the desired consistency is achieved.
7. Once the cupcakes are cool, use either a piping bag or an offset spatula to generously frost each one.