chocolate cupcakes with liqueur icing

hey, this saturday i haven't made my floss bread. hahaha. i have a bad feeling with bread since i ruined my pretzel in wednesday. my boyfriend challenged me to make a pretzel that resemble "Auntie Anne's" because he is a big fan of it and on our latest date we bought that together. i've made it twice, but i haven't found the right temperature and timing on baking it. so i thought, it's better for me to take a step from yeast for a while. meanwhile, today i made chocolate cupcakes (honestly, cupcakes is a right thing to encourage my mood on baking, cause it's the only cake that i've never failed to make. hahaha). for the frosting, i used liqueur icing and sprinkles some chopped smarties on top of it.

Chocolate Cupcakes


1/2 cup cocoa powder
2/3 cup boiling water
2/3 cup (4 ounces) bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/4 pound plus 4 tbsp (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1.5 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup plain yoghurt, at room temperature


direction:

1. preheat the oven to 350 F. insert liners into a medium cupcake pan.
2. place the cocoa in a small bowl. pour the boiling water over cocoa and whisk until all lumps are dissolved. add the bittersweet chocolate to the cocoa paste, and stir until melted and set aside to cool.
3. in a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy, 3-5 minutes. add the eggs one at a time and beat 1 minute after each addition. add the vanilla.
4. in a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt
5. add half of the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. mix at low speed until well integrated. add the yoghurt and mix well. add the remainder of the dry ingredients. mix until combined. do not overmix.
6. fill the cupcake liners one-half to three-quarters full. bake for about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of cupcakes comes out clean. cool cupcake in the pan.

Liqueur Icing


3 cups confectioners' sugar
6 tbsp heavy cream
2 tbsp liqueur (rum, amaretto, or brandy)


direction:


combine all the ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. beat on low speed until smooth. add additional liqueur or confectioners' sugar if necessary to reach desired spreading consistency.

                                                                       - krystina castella, crazy about cupcakes -

for some tips, i used rum in the icing and the measurement of the icing's ingredients is not absolute, so you can re-measure it wisely with your own feeling until it reaches a desired spreading consistency. hope you enjoy it.. :)