Devil’s Food Cake Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream

For the sponge:
Preheat the oven to 170ºC (340ºF) and line a cupcake tray.

Place the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder and butter in a bowl and mix with a hand mixer until it looks a bit like sand.

In a jug, whisk the milk, egg and vanilla extract together. Pour into your dry ingredients slowly and mix on low speed to start with to ensure it is well mixed. Scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula. Increase your speed until the mixture is smooth and well mixed. It should be lighter in colour than when you started; this means it’s done. Don’t be tempted to overmix.

Half fill the cupcake cases and the place in the oven to bake for 20-25 minutes or until the sponge is firm and a knife/skewer comes out clean when poked in the cake. Leave to cool completely before icing.

For the buttercream:
Melt the dark and milk chocolate. (I know you’re not supposed to, but I always melt my chocolate in the microwave and I’ve never had a problem. I do it for 30 seconds then check and stir and keep repeating this until there are still lumps of almost melted chocolate that, when you mix, melt because of the heat of the chocolate. As long as you don’t just put it into the microwave and leave it you will be fine. Just do it for 30 seconds then in 10-second increments until ready. If you don’t want to do this, melt the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan water.)

Put the chocolate aside to cool. Place the icing sugar in a bowl and the butter in a separate bowl. Using the hand mixer, cream the butter and then add the icing sugar gradually. When the sugar and butter are well mixed into a buttercream, pour in the cooled chocolate.

Mix with the hand mixer until well incorporated. Now for the cocoa. I put about a heaping teaspoon in, but I would suggest you do it to taste and not just put the whole spoonful in. Mix until well incorporated.

Either use a spoon or pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes. I always keep my cupcakes in the fridge until about 15 minutes before I’m ready to serve, as the buttercream sets better. I would also add that whilst I use margarine in baking, I always ensure I use real butter for buttercream as margarine is just too soft and will melt.

Notes:
If you are not piping the cupcakes, halve the buttercream recipe.
The buttercream is not overly sweet. It has a good chocolate flavour, so don’t be worried if you taste it and it tastes a bit tart!

Cake recipe adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook.