The Haphazard Kitchen

Chocolate Cupcakes with Coffee Buttercream Frosting

Achieving Buttercream:
After several failed attempts, I finally achieved perfect buttercream frosting. I first attempted chocolate buttercream frosting as a sophomore in college. Since I had little to no experience in baking, actually, I had never baked anything that didn’t come from a box; you can only imagine how well this went. With no thermometer, and measuring everything by estimating, I created a sugary, gritty, sticky mess. I mean, it wasn’t so bad that I didn’t eat it - I was a starving college student after all.

After my first attempt at buttercream, I avoided making anything that involved a candy thermometer for a long time. I have since moved past my thermometer fear and have made quite a few sweet treats with it, and I’ve made some inedible concoctions as well. But, I still had not attempted buttercream frosting again. With the right tools, and time to concentrate, I achieved buttercream glory. The coffee buttercream turned out tastier than I could have imagined, and perfectly complimented my chocolate cupcakes. I love it when recipes turn out correctly.

While I’d like to, I can’t take all of the credit for these delicious little treats. I amended a chocolate sheet cake recipe from Baking Illustrated to create the cupcakes, and followed the Baking Illustrated recipe for the buttercream as well. A friend of mine gave me Baking Illustrated for my last birthday, and she warned me that it would become my Bible. She was right, it has.

Chocolate Sheet Cake, amended from Baking Illustrated
3/4 cup (2 1/4 ounces) cocoa, preferably Dutch-processed
1 1/4 cups (6 1/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups (10 1/2 ounces) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of a 13 by 9-inch baking pan. (I skipped this step and lined a muffin pan with cupcake papers.)
2. Sift the cocoa, flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside. Heat the chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl covered with plastic wrap for 2 minutes at 50 percent power; stir until smoothed. (I didn’t have a chocolate bar on hand, so I used about half of a bag of semisweet chocolate chips instead.) Whisk together the eggs, sugar, and vanilla in a medium bowl. Whisk in the buttermilk until smooth.
3. Whisk the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture until combined. Whisk in the dry ingredients until the batter is smooth and glossy. (When I made this batter it came out very light and airy, almost like a mousse.) Pour the batter into the prepared pan; bake until firm in the center when lightly pressed and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle. (I used an ice cream scoop to create uniform cupcakes. I baked the regular-sized cupcakes for 28 minutes and the mini cupcakes for 19 minutes.) Cool on a wire rack until room temperature, frost as desired.

Coffee Buttercream Frosting, from Baking Illustrated
4 large eggs
1 cup (7 ounces) sugar
pinch salt
1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened but still cool, each stick cut into quarters
3 tablespoons of instant espresso dissolved in 3 tablespoons of warm water

1. Combine the eggs, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a standing mixer; place the bowl over a pan of simmering water. Do not let the bottom of the bowl touch the water. Whisking gently but constantly, heat the mixture until it is then and foamy and registers 160 on an instant-read thermometer. (I don’t have an instant-read thermometer, but I do have a trusty candy thermometer that worked out just fine.)
2. Beat the egg mixture at medium-high speed until light, airy, and cooled to room temperature, about 5 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium and add the butter, one piece at a time. After adding half of the butter, the buttercream may look curdled; it will smooth out with additional butter. (This happened to me after I had added all of the butter. But after I beat the mixture for an additional minute per the instructions, it smoothed out.) Add the espresso mixture and increase the speed to high, beat for 1 minute until light, fluffy, and thoroughly combined. The buttercream can be covered and refrigerated for up to 5 days.

To decorate the cupcakes, I loaded an 18-inch piping bag fitted with a large round tip and attempted to pipe the larger cupcakes with the traditional cupcake swirl. Some of the cupcakes turned out nicely, while others didn’t. However, I actually prefer the look of the mini cupcakes over the larger cupcakes. To frost the mini cupcakes, I held the piping tip on top of the cupcake and lightly squeezed out a puff of frosting.

I made a visit to Peet’s Coffee earlier in the day and picked up a few whole French Roast coffee beans to add to the top of each cupcake. I was advised by the barista that if there was even a chance that someone might eat the coffee bean with the cupcake, I should go with the French Roast. Apparently, French Roast coffee beans are the softest beans. Her tip may have saved a tooth or two from being broken. 

I encourage you to attempt making something you’ve failed miserably at before. I really enjoyed making these cupcakes, and while they turned out great this time, that doesn’t mean they will next time. Happy baking!