Everyone Loves Cupcakes

One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes
Adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes. Makes about 22.

Most cupcake recipes yield dry, flat cupcakes that overflow their cups and get stuck on the pan. I learned early on that even though every recipe says fill each liner two-thirds full, bakers at high altitude should aim for half instead. I also prep my muffin pans with more liners that the recipe calls for because sea level recipes usually require a but more flour, and the batter expands higher and faster.

The following recipe is now my go-to for chocolate cupcakes. With some help on cake adjustments from Pie in the Sky by Susan G. Purdy, I got Martha's sea level recipe to produce lovely, dark, moist, full, and round topped cupcakes. Third time’s a charm! This is what worked:

1 & ½ cups PLUS 2 TBS all purpose flour
¾ unsweetened Dutch processed cocoa flour
1 & ½ cups MINUS 2 TBS sugar
1 & ¼ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp salt
2 large eggs
¼ cups PLUS 2 TBS buttermilk
3 TBS vegetable oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
¾ cup warm water
large bowl
muffin pans
paper muffin cup liners
standing or hand held mixer


1. Line 2 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners (always more that the recipe calls for because of adjustments described above).
2. Turn oven on to 375 degrees.
3. In large bowl whisk together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until thoroughly blended.
4. Add eggs, buttermilk, oil, vanilla and water.
5. Beat on medium speed until smooth. Don’t worry about the thin consistency, you’ve done nothing wrong!
6. Fill lined tins ½ to 2/3 full of batter. I use an almost full ¼ plastic cup measure for easy scooping and consistency.
7. Place both pans in oven, turn down to 360 degrees and bake for 8 minutes.
8. Rotate pans 180 degrees and move the top pan to the bottom rack, and the bottom pan to the top rack.
9. Bake for 8 more minutes or until cake tester (or toothpick)inserted into center cupcake comes out clean, without any crumbs.
10. Cool full pans on wire rack for 8 minutes.
11. Turn out cupcakes onto racks to cool completely.
12. Frost and serve ASAP or store in airtight container immediately.



So far my favorite frosting of ALL TIME is Martha’s “Fluffy White Frosting.” But for the occasion of Lily’s birthday, I topped these with Martha’s Dark Chocolate Frosting. It tastes like a melted candy bar but I haven’t perfected its consistency yet. I must be doing something wrong because it has not really turned out on tries one and two. In my opinion it is much too thin and definitely cannot be used for piping, as the recipe suggests, even after adding extra powdered sugar. Oh well, the third time HAS been a charm with the cookies and cupcakes, so maybe next time !