Vanilla Sour Cream Cupcakes with Fudge Icing

This recipe is one of my faves; simple yet effective !!! I found it years ago in a fantastic baking cookbook.

The icing is just a buttercream base with added melted semi-sweet and unsweetened chocolate. You cannot go wrong with buttercream !

A vanilla buttercream icing would work just as well. And for Easter, think about tinting it a pastel shade of green, yellow, pink or blue !

LET'S GO !!

RECIPE:

WHAT YOU NEED

FOR THE CUPCAKES:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup fine white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature. Cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 large egg at room temperature
2 large egg yolks at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract (love Madagascar vanilla in these!)
1/2 cup full fat sour cream at room temperature


FOR THE ICING:

2 ounces of dark baking chocolate
2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate (you can go with baking chocolate or even chocolate chips)
2/3 cup unsalted butter @ room temperature
1 1/3 cups sifted icing sugar
1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract


MAKE IT

PREHEAT oven to 350F
GREASE 12 muffin cups or LINE with paper liners (I am always a fan of liners!)
IN A LARGE BOWL, whisk together first four ingredients
WITH ELECTRIC HAND-MIXER, add all other ingredients and blend until combined
DIVIDE batter evenly among muffin cups
BAKE for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean
ALLOW to cool in muffin tin 5 minutes
REMOVE cupcakes and allow to cool 1/2 hr on a cooling rack before icing






MAKE THE ICING:

CHOP chocolate into small pieces
IN A SMALL MICROWAVE SAFE BOWL, combine dark and semisweet chocolate
MICROWAVE 30 seconds at 50% power
STIR and microwave again 30 seconds at 50% power
STIR and if melted then great ! If not, back in it goes
ONCE MELTED, allow to cool to room temperature
IN SEPARATE LARGE BOWL, whip butter with electric hand-mixer until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes at medium speed)
SIFT in icing sugar and mix until blended (1 minute at medium speed should do it!).
ADD vanilla extract and mix til combined.
ADD cooled chocolate mixture and blend until well combined.

ICE the cupcakes: I used a 1M Swirl Wilton piping tip.