Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla French Buttercream

Rating: 3.79 stars
72 Ratings
  • 5 star values: 26
  • 4 star values: 21
  • 3 star values: 14
  • 2 star values: 4
  • 1 star values: 6

Butter Lane's chocolate cupcakes with vanilla French buttercream will appease all chocolate lovers.

The Martha Stewart Show, January Winter 2009, The Martha Stewart Show, The Martha Stewart Show, January Winter 2009

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Read the full recipe after the video.

Recipe Summary

Yield:
Makes 40 cupcakes
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Ingredients

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line 40 standard muffin cups with cupcake liners and set aside.

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  • In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

  • In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together sugar and butter until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add chocolate and beat on medium speed until well combined, 1 to 2 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add sour cream and vanilla and mix until well combined, 1 to 2 minutes.

  • With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture in three parts, alternating with 1 cup water and beginning and ending with flour; beat until just combined, 1 to 3 minutes.

  • Fill prepared muffin cups three-quarters full with batter. Transfer to oven and bake for 10 minutes. Rotate muffin pans and continue baking until a cake tester inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 10 minutes more. Let cool completely before frosting.

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Reviews (27)

72 Ratings
  • 5 star values: 26
  • 4 star values: 21
  • 3 star values: 14
  • 2 star values: 4
  • 1 star values: 6
Anonymous
Rating: Unrated
05/11/2013
I do not recomend you to do this recipe. I've done it 3 times and all of them have been a mess, i dont know if anythings wrong with the ingridients or process, but it has been a total waste of time and food for me. A total mess
Anonymous
Rating: Unrated
10/01/2012
I have made many a cupcake from the Martha Stewart Cupcake cookbook and the website. All have turned out well except for these. Move on to another recipe....heed the other warnings
Anonymous
Rating: Unrated
07/28/2012
Ok these look good! I'm going camping with my family this weekend (also with my cousin's family) and I'm guessing I have to doble the recipe because there's 5 of us and 6 of them and i'm guessing we will probably eat 2 cupcakes each.................let you know if there good after i make them (im 10 years old)
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Anonymous
Rating: Unrated
01/14/2012
I made these and read it wrong and ended up using 2 cups of water instead of 1. The cupcakes turned out really good but it did not make even close to 40 cupcakes I think I ended up with 32.
Anonymous
Rating: Unrated
01/14/2012
I made these and read it wrong and ended up using 2 cups of water instead of 1. The cupcakes turned out really good but it did not make even close to 40 cupcakes I think I ended up with 32.
Anonymous
Rating: Unrated
09/10/2011
Adore Italian Marscapone Cream Cheese in a "tub" in place of tangy Original Cream Cheese.Works on Froastings.Would not replace in a recipe unless know visocity first.Could make runny.
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Anonymous
Rating: Unrated
04/20/2011
I've made this recipe three times now to rave reviews. It makes a light, cakey cupcake; I've topped it with Billy's chocolate buttercream and the brown butter glaze from other recipes, as I don't really like meringue icing. If you want an explosively chocolate cupcake, this may not be the one for you, as this recipe makes a more delicately flavoured cupcake.
Anonymous
Rating: Unrated
04/02/2011
Im making his recipe now and i saw that you need to add 1 cup Sour Cream. Why the heck would you add sour cream???
Anonymous
Rating: Unrated
03/22/2011
To whom it may concern... I've noticed a lot of negative comments in regards to mart has bake goods. I just want to point out that baking is not like cooking. You can't eye ingredient measurements or substitute items. The recipe must be followed precisely or you will alter the outcome. So please use cake flour if it's called for, let the chocolate cool before you add it and READ the instructions so you don't miss the water. This recipe is amazing if you follow it.
Anonymous
Rating: Unrated
02/15/2011
Just add 1 cup water to ingredient list because in the video of the program they did use water. I guess they forgot to add it to the list. I am a baker and when a recipe calls for water it is in the ingredient list.
Anonymous
Rating: Unrated
02/14/2011
@icegirl - Water is never included in an ingredient list. Bakers and cooks know this.
Anonymous
Rating: Unrated
01/01/2011
Step 4 calls for water and there is no water in the ingredient list. They are in the oven now, they fell and look terrible. I hope I don't have to make another recipe for the birthday party tomorrow. I'm terribly disappointed.
Anonymous
Rating: Unrated
07/29/2010
I made the cupcakes and they were very moist and tender; very delicious. However, although I followed the directions carefully, the cupcakes shrunk significantly in size after baking and the cupcake liners pulled away so much that I had to remove the liners. What can I do to prevent these problems?? Linda OH
Anonymous
Rating: Unrated
07/29/2010
I just made the chocolate cake but used a different buttercream recipe. The cake itself is very light, but delicious! It's not too sweet but still has great flavor. Not dry at all. Will make again!
Anonymous
Rating: Unrated
06/22/2010
Just baked them and they turned out quite well, weren't dry but I have to agree with Arymon2, something was just missing. Maybe more chocolate.
Anonymous
Rating: Unrated
03/15/2010
My friend made these cupcakes and i didn't like at all, very dry and not much flavor!
Anonymous
Rating: Unrated
03/18/2009
these cupcakes turn out wonderful ! Thanks for the recipe.
Anonymous
Rating: Unrated
02/24/2009
i'm baking these cupcakes now and the batter is one of the lightest and nicest cupcake batters i've ever seen. i'm tempted to try it with a cake, too. we'll see how they look/taste when they come out of the oven, but right now i'm giving them a huge thumbs-up right now
Anonymous
Rating: Unrated
02/02/2009
I tried this recipe, using 1 cup of water, and the cupcakes were very dry. I baked them 20 minutes, they looked great but were quite heavy. I tried the icing which tasted great, however, it did not thicken properly to ice the cupcakes. Maybe someone at Martha Stewart could check the ingredients again with the New York Bakery. At this point, I do not recommend this recipe.
Anonymous
Rating: Unrated
01/27/2009
Tried these cupcakes and frosting yesterday - mixed success. The printed recipe says 1 cup water. The video shows her pouring in 2 cups of water. I used 1 cup and cupcake batter seemed a bit thicker than the video and the crumb texture was b ti dry. The frosting printed recipe says 1 cup (2 stickes) of butter but the video says 2 cups. I used only 1 cup and my frosting was a bit thin and runny. Nonetheless, both were DELICIOUS!
Anonymous
Rating: Unrated
01/24/2009
The next day, after thawing a few in the fridge, I took them and poked 5 holeswith an ice pick and used simple syrup to fill them up using a syringe. The syringe is the kind that you use on injecting turkeys with, just don't use the needle. I filled the syringe with icing and turned my 10 year old daughter loose, great fun! The syrup trick really worked great too. Very moist.
Anonymous
Rating: Unrated
01/23/2009
They use 1 cup of water total in the show. Mine came out a little dry. I went 20 minutes and the toothpick came out clean. i may try 18 minutes next time. and test. Freezing them and then refrigerator did help. I put half of them in ziplock bags unfrosted. Put them in the fridge for a few hours and then frosted them. The frosting had too much undissolved sugar, my bad. Next time I will add some water to the egg whites if i have to before heating up to 140.. This makes a real fluffy frosting and does not harden up and stays fluffy in the fridge overnight too.
Anonymous
Rating: Unrated
01/22/2009
Step 4. There is no water mentioned in the ingredients. Does this mean add a total of 3 cups water?, or use one cup of water and use a third of it between each cup of flour? PLEASE CLARIFY THIS RECIPE AS I WAS GOING TO MAKE, BUT NOW CAN'T UNTIL THIS IS CLARIFIED. THANK YOU.
Anonymous
Rating: Unrated
01/22/2009
You can also freeze the batter. What I do is fill the paper muffin cups with the batter and put it in the freezer. Once it is frozen solid, I put the cups in a plastic bag. Take them out as needed and thaw in the refrigirator before baking. This is a good solution for couples or people living alone.
Anonymous
Rating: Unrated
01/21/2009
Yes, you can freeze cupcakes and cakes - frosted or unfrosted. The trick is that you need to thaw them in the refridgerator. If you don't then you get a lot of condensation from them thawing too quickly.
Anonymous
Rating: Unrated
01/21/2009
Can you freeze cupcakes? I was thinking that maybe you could freeze them unfrosted.
Anonymous
Rating: Unrated
01/21/2009
Is it okay to allow this batter to sit while the first batch bakes? Ionly have 2 sets of cupcake pans. thanks for your help
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