Triple Chocolate Cupcakes

Remember that time I admitted to being obsessed with this dark chocolate cake recipe? Yes. Obsession still happening. I'm the birthday fairy at work, and we had another birthday a few weeks ago. When I asked said birthday girl what she wanted and she said, 'chocolate,' so I came up with these. In short, this is a dark chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting, dipped in chocolate. They are just as delicious as they sound. :-)


On a side note-- due to the heatwave hitting Chicago right now and my lack of a/c, I will be a bit quiet through the month of July. I hope the heat breaks so I can be back to baking ASAP!

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here)
The Cake...

Dark Chocolate Cake (Yield 2 dozen standard sized cupcakes)
Adapted from Sweetapolita's Rich & Dark Chocolate Cake

2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups dark cocoa powder, such as Hershey's Special Dark
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup strong black coffee
1 cup whole milk, room temperature
1/2 cup melted butter, cooled
1 tablespoon vanilla extract


Step #1- Preheat oven to 350*F.

Step #2 - Mix together the four, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Step #3 - In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, vanilla and butter.

Step #4 - Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and fill it with the egg mixture.
As you stir, slowly add in the milk and coffee. When you are done, the batter will be soupy and look like liquified Oreos.

Step #5 - Fill cupcake papers 3/4 of the way full and bake at 350* F for 17-20 minutes. Cupcakes are done when a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean.

The Icing...
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup cocoa powder (regular, not extra dark)
8 cups powdered sugar
3-4 tablespoons milk or heavy cream

Step #1 - Mix all ingredients together with a mixer until you reach the desired consistency. Use less/more sugar to achieve the thickness you are looking for. You want the icing relatively thick for this so that it holds it's shape when you dunk it in chocolate.

Step #2 - Ice cupcakes. To ice the cupcakes, pipe the icing into a tall peak. I used a Wilton 1M tip. As you can see in the pictures below, I find it easiest to pipe a blob in the center, and then spiral around it as if I were serving soft-serve ice-cream.

Step #3 - Freeze the cupcakes after they are iced. Give them at least a few hours, overnight is best. You want them to be solid when you dip them in the chocolate, or else the frosting will wilt and/or melt into your dipping chocolate.


The Chocolate Coating....

16 ounces high quality dark chocolate
2 tablespoon coconut oil

Step #1 - Melt chocolate and coconut oil in the microwave or using a double boiler until oil and chocolate are smooth and well mixed together. I used the microwave-- it's a lot less mess. When using the microwave, only heat the chocolate for 10-15 seconds at a time. Stir between each 10-15 second blast. If you melt it faster than that, it will burn. It should only take 3 or 4 blasts in the microwave at 10-15 seconds each. (Oh, and, because it can come as a shock to some, coconut oil is a solid. Don't think about it too much, it will gross you out of eating it.)

Step #2 -Dip the frozen cupcakes in the chocolate! Make sure you pour the melted chocolate into something deep enough that you can dip the cupcake without touching the bottom. Also, as you see in my photos, I used fancy cupcake papers with little 'skirts' at the top. I do not suggest doing this; they picked up a lot of excess chocolate. Add any desired sprinkles or decorations directly after dipping.

Step #3 -Refrigerate until chocolate is set. This should only take about an hour or so. Store the cupcakes in the refrigerator, but serve at room temperature.