A chocolate lover’s dream, these rich and moist chocolate sour cream cupcakes are covered with a smooth and creamy chocolate buttercream.
Photos Updated August 2015
Originally posted March 13, 2008 – I think that everyone needs a go-to chocolate cupcake recipe in their arsenal. I’ve had to play with this recipe a bit over the years to get it to be consistent for me (because I had some issues with it in the beginning if you read below), but now I can call it my go-to. The texture of this cupcake is perfect – nice and moist from the sour cream, with the perfect amount of chocolate flavor. And the buttercream? Even my frosting hating husband will eat this stuff. It’s that good.
The original post follows:
I am turning into a cookbook junkie. I definitely don’t own as many as some other bloggers do, but in the last year of blogging, my cookbook collection has at least doubled. Not only do I love to have the cookbooks to read through and cook from, but I’m a sucker for recommendations made by other people. When I read a blog and the blogger raves about a certain cookbook, I end up thinking about that book until I just have to go and order it.
So when I see a cookbook pop up on multiple blogs, you can pretty much guarantee that sooner or later, that book will be on my bookshelf. That’s what happened with this cookbook – cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans. With cupcakes like this, this, this, this, this, this (I could go on and on!!) I just had to buy it. And I’m really glad that I bought it, because it has some very different recipes in it, but I did have a bad start with the book.
It all started back in January. I had a birthday at work to bake for, plus it was my brother’s birthday, so I decided to make cupcakes so that I could do both at the same time. I was looking to do German Chocolate cupcakes, since they are my brother’s favorite. I found a recipe in this book, and set out to make the cupcakes. Well, they didn’t quite work out…
I don’t know what happened. It could be that I used those stupid silver cupcake liners, or it could be that I filled the cups too full, but I ended up with more cupcake on the bottom of my oven than in the actual cupcakes. And to top it all off, the cupcakes really stuck to the wrapper, making it impossible to peel it off. Maybe I did something wrong because I doubled the recipe. But I wasn’t too impressed with the recipe. They were not suitable to give away, so the next day I stopped at the grocery store on my lunch break and bought a cake mix – I needed something no fail because I had to have the cupcakes back at work that afternoon. The frosting was delicious, though!
So when my mother-in-law’s birthday came around in February, I don’t know why, but I went back to this book. I really wanted to do something creative, but my husband just kept saying “just chocolate – she loves chocolate”. So because I’m not a quitter and I wanted to make the recipe right, I went for the Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting. If she likes chocolate, she was gonna get chocolate!!
And I’m glad I took the risk. These were probably the best chocolate cupcakes I’ve ever made. Even my husband, who is not a frosting lover, loved these. I still don’t know what happened the first time, but I’ll no longer be scared of this book!!
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Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate roughly chopped
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/3 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/3 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups minus 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup water
Chocolate Buttercream
- 1 1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate roughly chopped
- 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
- 3 teaspoons Dutch process cocoa
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream at room temperature
Instructions
Make the cupcakes:
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line 18 muffin tin cups with cupcake liners.
- Place the chocolate in a glass bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Stir the chocolate until it is melted and smooth. Remove the bowl and set aside to let it cool slightly.
- In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- In a large bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy, about 2 minutes. Scrape the bowl down as needed. With the mixer on low, slowly add in the chocolate. Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating fully between additions. Add the vanilla and beat the mixture until the color has lightened slightly, about 1 minute. Mix in the sour cream and mix until no white streaks remain.
- Add half of the flour mixture to the batter, mixing just until combined. Mix in the water. Mix in the remaining flour mixture, mixing just until combined.
- Divide the mixture between the prepared cups. Bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely.
Make the buttercream:
- Place the chocolate in a glass bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Stir the chocolate until it is melted and smooth. Remove the bowl and set aside to let it cool slightly.
- In a large bowl, sift together the powdered sugar and cocoa. Add the butter, and with an electric mixer on low speed, beat until smooth and combined. The mixture will appear crumbly at first, but it will eventually come together. Beat in the melted chocolate. Add in the vanilla and the cream and beat together on medium speed for at least 3 minutes, until it is smooth and creamy.
Recipe Notes:
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Brad G says
Made these last nigh for my son’s birthday. Wow, super flavorful, light crumb, moist and airy. My only problem was that they collapsed quite badly. Oven temp was correct according to oven thermometer, and they looked beautiful when they came out, but by the time they had cooled they had deflated significantly, with some even having the wrappers hanging loose. Any thoughts?
Deborah says
Hi Brad – I’m not sure what could have caused the shrinking. I would try either adding another tablespoon or two of flour or lowering the oven temperature just slightly next time. It could also be that you may have overbeat the batter just a bit. I’m glad that they were delicious, though!
Margaret Miller says
This recipe is moist, delicious, holds its structure and is adaptable. I substituted a crumb topping made with brown sugar, cinnamon, butter, cocoa and flour for the frosting. My friends liked it. I also added dark cocoa to the batter, increased the vanilla to 1 tablespoon, and used vaniilla almond milk instead of water. The cupcakes were absolutely delicious, tender, and very, very popular.
Margaret Miller says
I meant to leave a 5 star rating!