CHOCOLATE CUPCAKE RECIPE: Do-it-Yourself Yummy Chocolate Cupcakes Gift! @bakehappytweets

“Recently, I received one of the best homemade perfectly moist chocolate cupcakes as a gift from Aikko of Bake Happy blog. I asked her if she can share her secret recipe to OAP friends as a way also of introducing her passion baking blog to all of you. Enjoy!” – Anton, Founder, Our Awesome Planet

Hi, everyone. Aikko from Bake Happy (http://www.bakehappy.net) here. First of all, I would like to extend a big thank you to Anton for allowing me to guest post in his awesome blog! Such an honor! 

Today I’m going to show you how to make super easy, really moist and absolutely yummy chocolate cupcakes. 

Because saying thank you never goes out of style, what better way to show your appreciation to the people you care about than giving gifts that you made yourself? How about making them chocolate cupcakes individually packaged in cute little boxes? 

Guest Blog Post Series from Awesome Bloggers in Manila:

• GOOGLY GOOEYS: Signs That You’re a Foodie! @googlygooeys
• CHOCOLATE CUPCAKE RECIPE: Do-it-Yourself Yummy Chocolate Cupcakes Gift! @bakehappytweets

Making chocolate cupcakes is really easy. The cupcake recipe which I got from my Ma contains only eight ingredients you can easily buy from the grocery. 

It all starts with combining all the dry ingredinets, the flour (all purpose flour is okay, but cake flour is even better for a more moist cake), cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda. Sift them all together three times until they’re all well combined. 

In a big bowl, combine mayonnaise, vanilla extract and sugar. Yes, the mayonnaise is the recipe’s secret ingrendient. Mix well using a hand held mixer for about two minutes. A wire whisk will do a great job as well. 

Add a third of the dry ingredients to the mayonnaise mixture. Mix until just combined. 

 Add one half of the required amount of water. 

Repeat steps untill all of the dry and wet ingredients are combined with the mayonnaise mixture. Make sure to just mix the chocolate batter until everything is just about combined. 

Now, we’ll use a regular sized cupcake liner which is the 3 oz ones. We’ll put 1/4 cup batter in each cupcake liner. 

An ice cream scoop can also be used to make evenly sized cupcakes. 

 The chocolate batter will make about 20 cupcakes. 

The consistency is not that thick, it’s actually quite a bit liquid. But don’t worry, it’ll bake nicely once in the oven. 

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until done. Now that we have the cupcakes, it’s time to make the chocolate ganache or the icing. 

Ganache is simply chocolates and cream combined. For this, chocolate chips can also be used. Place it in a small bowl.

Heat the cream in a small bowl until it starts simmering then pour it over the chocolate chips. 

Wait for 10 seconds then start mixing. It will look like this at first.

Then after a while, everything will come together like this. Cool until room temp then refrigerate for four hours. 

After four hours, get the ganache and whip or mix using a hand help mixer just until it reaches piping consistency or something that can be spread on top of a cupcake and still hold it’s shape. 

To assemble, make sure the cupcakes are completely cooled, otherwise the ganache will just melt on top of the cupcake like one big goo. (But then again, it will still taste good nevertheless)

Pipe the ganache on the top of the cupcake. A spatula can also be used to spread the ganache on top. 

Lastly, add some chocolate chips as toppings or sprinkles can also be used for added cute-ness. 

Now that the cupcakes are done, it’s time to package these little cute desserts before giving them out as gifts. I saw a cute Retro Oven Printable Cupcake Box for sale over at Claudine Hellmuth’s Esty shop. The printables come in five different colors. I decided to print some and started cutting them out here. 

Here they are assembled. Don’t they look adorable? Doesn’t seem to look like cupcake boxes, right?

But open one of the “ovens” and you can see how they look like inside. 

Here’s a cupcake placed on the “oven”. 

Another alternative would be to buy some individual cupcake boxes from Sweetcraft in Mandaluyong and tie a cute ribbon on it. 

CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES RECIPE

Orginal recipe: How to Bake a Perfectly Moist Chocolate Cake

Frequently asked questions: Perfectly Moist Chocolate Cake FAQ 

350F/20 cupcakes/15-18 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• ½ cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 ½ cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cup water

Procedure:

1. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and baking powder. It’s up to you if you’d like to sift or dry whisk. Just make sure all four ingredients are well mixed. Both works for me.

2. In a bowl, mix mayonnaise, vanilla extract and sugar until smooth

3. Add a third of the flour mixture to the mayonnaise mixture

4. Add 1/2 of the water required. Now don’t be discouraged if it looks sloppy once the water is added. It’ll come together, pinky swear.

5. Repeat #3 and #4 until the flour mixture and water has been added to the mayonnaise mixture.

6. Place 20 cupcake liners into cupcake pans and pour 1/4 cup batter in each liner. 

7. Bake at 350F for 15-18 minutes or until done.

CHOCOLATE GANACHE

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips 
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 

Procedure:

1. Chop chocolate and transfer into a heat proof bowl.

2. Heat cream until bubbles form around the edge of the pan, pour cream through strainer, over the chocolate.

3. Let sit for a few seconds then stir until combined.

4. Cool ganache in the refrigerator for four hours. Then beat/whip until fluffy. 

Hope you like the cupcakes, everyone!

Happy baking!

Aikko Aragon
Founder, Bake Happy
Blog: www.bakehappy.net
Facebook: www.facebook.com/bakehappy
Twitter: @bakehappytweets

Guest Blog Post Series from Awesome Bloggers in Manila:

• GOOGLY GOOEYS: Signs That You’re a Foodie! @googlygooeys
• CHOCOLATE CUPCAKE RECIPE: Do-it-Yourself Yummy Chocolate Cupcakes Gift! @bakehappytweets