Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

The world of cupcakes is a vast, ever-expanding one. Whatever kind of cake or dessert or flavor or dietary preference you indulge in, a cupcake has been created to imagine it. Some cupcakes are all about the recipe, and find a perfect balance between cake flavor and icing. Others maintain their substance in the decoration, not dissimilar to fancy cakes, and the craftier the better.

I’ve tried many cupcakes in my day, from the homemade to the museum-quality masterpiece, and the best cupcake that I’ve ever eaten remains to be the chocolate cupcake at Sugar Sweet Sunshine in New York City. There, the recipe has been perfected, and in a little innocuous shop with a cutesy sign out front, buttercream heaven awaits those who are in need of a sugar rush.
The last time I was in NYC, I relished the moment when I walked through the front door of the little cupcakerie, once again after a long year apart from it. Although every bakery has a wonderful aroma of flour, butter, sugar, and spices, this place has the most specific smell I could imagine (only because of its evocative quality in my brain, of course), and breathing in the buttercream scent was like returning to a happy dream. I grinned as I ordered my cupcake: the “black & white…just right.” The lady behind the counter chose a perky pink frosted cupcake, handed it to me, and it was as though I was reunited with a long lost friend. I sat by the window, carefully placed the cupcake on the bistro table, and I sat down, never taking my eyes off of the beautiful sprinkled frosting. And the first bite of that cupcake…the first bite of that cupcake sent a complex swelling of sugar, nostalgia, and pure joy through my body. I must have looked slightly off my rocker as I sat there, consuming this cupcake in slow, pleasurable bites, a smile constantly on my face. It was better than I even remembered it.

Thinking about that cupcake now, it saddens me deeply that it is 3,500 miles away. That I cannot simply take the subway to Sugar Sweet Sunshine, that I cannot even order one weensie cupcake through the mail. It also saddens me that I cannot replicate it precisely. I know this is the case, because I know that Sugar Sweet Sunshine cupcakes are not wholesome cupcakes, and now that I do all my own baking, it’s almost impossible for me to go to the store and buy shortening or pour cups upon cups of sugar into a mixing bowl. I’m bound by my love for wholesome desserts. With that in mind, I made chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting, knowing full well that they would not be the SSS cupcakes I long for.

Regardless, these were darn good cupcakes. They were springy and moist with a very rich chocolatey flavor. And the buttercream was an experiment that turned out pretty well. I had been searching for a good-quality buttercream recipe, and this one I found from Organic Valley. It calls for non-fat powdered milk, and although I found the butter flavor to be slightly overwhelming, the frosting turned out great, with a nice stiff and spreadable texture.

I don’t know when I’ll be in New York City again, or if a kind friend will send me one or two Sugar Sweet Sunshine cupcakes, but until I get to savor one of theirs again, this is a wonderful, slightly healthier, substitute.

Chocolate Cupcakes

Yield: 1 dozen

Ingredients:

¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
¾ cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
¾ cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup sour cream

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Line 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper liners.
2. Into a medium bowl, sift together cocoa, flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each, then beat in vanilla. Add the flour, alternating with sour cream, and beginning and ending with flour. Mix well.
3. Pour batter into muffin tin. Bake 20-25 minutes. Cool in pan 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Decorate as desired.

Buttercream Frosting

Courtesy of Organic Valley

Ingredients:

1 cup dry milk
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
¼ cup honey
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. water

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together with an electric mixer until smooth (at least 5 minutes).