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Chocolate Cupcakes with Mascarpone Frosting

Decadent, tender chocolate cupcakes topped with a creamy mascarpone frosting!
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Makes: 16 cupcakes
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Ingredients
  

For the cupcakes

  • 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 200 gms dark cooking chocolate, finely chopped
  • 1 cup butter, at room temp (230 gms)
  • 1 cup brown sugar (see notes)
  • 2 eggs, at room temperature (see notes)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup freshly boiled water

For the frosting

  • 200 gms mascarpone cheese at room temp
  • 1/4 cup butter at room temp (55 gms)
  • 1/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/3 cup icing sugar

Instructions

  • Sift the flour and baking soda in a large bowl. Set aside.
  • Preheat the oven to 175 C and line 14 muffin moulds with cupcake liners.
  • Melt the chocolate till smooth in a double boiler or heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Set aside to cool.
  • In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar till pale and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well. A hand mixer is best here.
  • Add the melted chocolate, and mix till combined but do not over-mix.
  • Now add the flour mixture gradually, alternating with the boiled water. Stir gently, avoiding lumps as much as possible. If you do see any lumps, run a hand mixer through the batter. The batter should be smooth and a little runny.
  • Divide the batter equally among the muffin moulds (see notes), filling them just about 3/4th of the way, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes until they have risen a little, developed crackly tops and a toothpick poked in the center comes out clean. Start checking for doneness at 20 mins as all ovens are different.
  • Allow the cupcakes to cool in the tray for 10 minutes and then place them on a wire rack to cool completely, without peeling the liners off.
  • To make the frosting, beat the mascarpone and butter in a bowl until fluffy. Sift in the sugar and cocoa powder and beat till smooth. If you'd like a thicker frosting, add more sugar. Otherwise spoon into a piping bag and pipe as desired. I'm not very big on piping, so sometimes I just slather it on top of the cupcakes with a blunt knife. It's going to be delicious either way!
  • Keep refrigerated at all times in an airtight tin, for 4 to 5 days. Happy eating!

Notes

*Add an extra 1/4 cup brown sugar for sweeter cupcakes. As written, these are bittersweet.
*For a thicker layer of frosting, make double the amount written.
*Without eggs these cupcakes could turn out dense and flat. You could try this recipe  instead.
*I had previously made 14 cupcakes with this recipe. I recently made a half batch with no other changes, and wound up with 9 cupcakes and in fact could have made 10 if I'd filled the moulds a little less. It remains a mystery to me why the yield would change so much, but I've updated this recipe to say 16 cupcakes. If you are however, able to fill even 18 muffin liners, that's ok too.