Easter Cupcakes

Happy Easter! I know it's been awhile, but I'm back!

The last eight months have been a bit of a whirlwind...But with almost my first year of grad school at McGill under my belt, and Jesse settling into his new job, we are starting to feel more at home in Montreal.

On to the baking!

I've made this cupcake recipe a couple of times and its really good - super dark and moist. I found it on the lovely blog brown eyed baker which is full of lots of yummy treats.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes 

Ingredients:
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces

2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

½ cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder

¾ cup all-purpose flour

½ tsp baking soda

¾ tsp baking powder

2 eggs

¾ cup granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp table salt

½ cup sour cream

Method:
1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat to 350 degrees F. (If you are using a non-stick muffin pan, heat the oven to 325 degrees F.)  Grease and flour a standard-size muffin pan or line pan with baking cup liners. (I actually used large muffin tins to make extra big cupcakes and they worked out great.)

2. Combine butter, chocolate, and cocoa in medium heatproof bowl. Set bowl over saucepan containing barely simmering water; heat mixture until butter and chocolate are melted and whisk until smooth and combined. (Alternately, you can microwave the mixture at 50% power, stirring every 30 seconds until completely melted.) Set aside to cool until just warm to the touch.

3. Whisk flour, baking soda, and baking powder in small bowl to combine.

4. Whisk eggs in second medium bowl to combine; add sugar, vanilla, and salt until fully incorporated. Add cooled chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Sift about one-third of flour mixture over chocolate mixture and whisk until combined; whisk in sour cream until combined, then sift remaining flour mixture over and whisk until batter is homogeneous and thick.

5. Divide the batter evenly among muffin pan cups. Bake until skewer inserted into centre of cupcakes comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes.

6. Cool cupcakes in muffin pan on wire rack until cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes. Carefully lift each cupcake from muffin pan and set on wire rack. Cool to room temperature before icing, about 30 minutes.

(Makes 12 standard-size or 6 large cupcakes.)

I made an icing recipe from Martha Stewart's website, but it wasn't anything to write home about. The toasted coconut was tasty though! Next time I think I'll stick to my Mom's tried and true icing recipe.

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

After becoming obsessed with Jamie Oliver's 15 Minute Meals, I was dying to get my hands on some vanilla paste. I found this at Dean & Deluca's on a trip to NYC. It is absolutely heavenly!