Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

I was meeting another couple for dinner tonight and the girl is pregnant. I thought, every pregnant lady has cravings...chocolate cravings! So I wanted to make chocolate cupcakes! :) There's a lot of different chocolate cupcake recipes out there and I'm determined to find the most moist. So..here's the start! I've made the Devil's Food Cupcakes from Martha Stewart's Cupcake book and they've gotten really great reviews. I made them with the dark chocolate frosting recipe in the same book. The frosting recipe is pretty rich and bitter. It has a great consistency, but, it's a bit too bitter. I like my chocolate sweet! So I found this chocolate cupcake recipe in the same Martha Stewart Cupcake book that uses buttermilk instead of the sour cream of the Devil's Food, and found a chocolate buttercream frosting on the internet..yummy. seriously.

This recipe is called the one-bowl chocolate cupcakes because all the ingredients in the recipe come together in one bowl. Pretty simple. It also uses no butter, instead it uses a small amount of vegetable oil for a more moist cake.

Ingredients
-1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
-3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
-1 1/2 cups sugar
-1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
-3/4 teaspoons baking powder
-3/4 teaspoons salt
-2 large eggs
-3/4 cup buttermilk
-3 tablespoons vegetable oil
-1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
-3/4 cup warm water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tins with paper liners. With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Reduce speed to low. Add eggs, buttermilk, oil ,extract and the water. Beat until smooth and combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.

Fill each cup with batter about 2/3 full.

Bake, rotating halfway through, until a a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool for 10 minutes.

then turn cupcakes out onto racks to cool completely.

Ingredients for the frosting:
-1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks or 1/2 pound), softened (but not melted!)
-3 1/2 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar
-1/2 cup cocoa powder
-1/2 teaspoon table salt
-2 teaspoons vanilla extract or 1 teaspoon almond extract
-4 tablespoons milk or heavy cream

Instructions

Cream butter for a few minutes in a mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed. Turn off the mixer. Sift 3 cups powdered sugar and cocoa into the mixing bowl. Turn your mixer on the lowest speed (so the dry ingredients do not blow everywhere) until the sugar and cocoa are absorbed by the butter. Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla extract, salt, and milk/cream (I used heavy cream) and beat for 3 minutes. If your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add a little more sugar. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add additional milk 1 tablespoon at a time.

This is some yummy frosting...the cupcakes recipe makes about 18 cupcakes. I decorated the cupcakes with some chocolate shavings. ummmm yummmmm.....here you go! enjoy!