TWD- Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes

The title says it all. These cupcakes have a TON of chocolate in them. There is both cocoa powder and bittersweet chocolate in the cupcakes themselves and even more bittersweet chocolate in the icing. I am not a super sweet chocolate eater. I am more drawn to fruity sweets than chocolate itself. But these cupcakes are a more refined chocolate taste that is sweet but also has a bitter kick. So thanks to Clara of I Heart Food4Thought for picking this week's recipe. The recipe is on pages 215-217 from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

I pretty much stuck to the recipe as Dorie states it in the cookbook except that I added about a teaspoon of instant coffee with the intention of making the cupcakes have a coffee kick. I didn't add too much, because I was worried the flavor would be overwhelming...unfortunately I didn't use enough and you can't really taste it in the cupcakes.

Also I tried to use my cast iron muffin tins again this week. Since I used them I couldn't really use muffin liners, because the cups are a little smaller than a regular size. I tried to coat the cups with butter and flour as Dorie Suggests, but the cupcakes didn't fair to well when I was trying to get them out. Great looking tops, but the bottoms mostly got stuck. They still taste really good. My husband ate one before I could even melt the chocolate for the icing.

So I had to think of another way to present the cupcakes other than the normal way. That is why they are in a pie pan with the icing smothered all over them. So...presentation is poor this week, but the cupcakes are good. I also did not have the problem a lot of TWDers were having with the cupcakes being dry. I cooked them the whole time, but I also added a splash of olive oil in the dough to add a little moisture.

Next week's recipe is Rugelach. . . never heard of it before, so it should be interesting :)