Vanilla Cupcakes with Bitter sweet chocolate frosting

These cupcakes are just moist,delicious and go very well with tea or coffee.These cupcakes tastes good themselves even without the frosting.The bitter sweet Chocolate frosting takes these goodies to another level.

Adapted from : Food & Wine

Yields: 15 medium cupcakes

Ingredients for cupcakes

• 2 cups of all purpose flour or 1 cup all purpose and 1 cup of whole Wheat pastry flour
• 3/4 cup of sugar. Reduce the sugar to 1/2 cup if using frosting or prefer less sweet cupcakes.
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• a heavy pinch of salt
• 2 tbsp of brown sugar. Replace it with white sugar for white cupcakes.
• 1 cup unsweetened Applesauce
• 1/4 cup Butter/Olive oil
• 2 Eggs
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla essence
• 3 to 4 tablespoon Milk

Preheat the oven to 350 F with the rack in the upper most of the oven.
Line the muffin pan with paper cup liners.
Mix the flour,sugar,baking powder,baking soda and salt.
Mix all the wet ingredients and add to the dry ingredients.Don't over beat the batter if you want tender cupcakes.Just mix gently to incorporate all the ingredients and no dry flour is left. The batter should be thick like a pound cake batter.
With a medium ice cream scoop, spoon the batter into the muffin pan.

Bake it for 20 to 23 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
Take them out of the muffin pan and let it cool before frosting.

Frosting
Ingredients

• 3 ounces chopped bitter sweet Chocolate or dark Chocolate.Use a good quality Chocolate like Callebaut.( Substitute Bitter sweet Chocolate with semi sweet or milk Chocolate) 
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup milk/water/coffee
• 1 tsp regular coffee,gives shiny texture to the frosting
• 1 tsp of sugar or more.Add more if you prefer a sweet frosting.
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla essence

Melt the Chocolate and butter over the double broiler or in the microwave.Add the coffee,sugar and milk.    Mix well. If the mixture is thin, let it sit in the mixture in the refrigerator for couple of minutes.
Take a spoonful of frosting and spread it on the cooled cupcakes with icing knife for smooth and glazing finish.Or just dip the cupcake in the frosting mixture and swirl it to coat nicely.

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