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Birthday gifts can sometimes be a tricky thing. We have, because of this, settled on themes in our house. You know – becoming pseudo-famous for a particular style of gift that you give? For example, my husband went through a “buy your wife new purses” phase for a couple of years. (True story. I get compliments on my handbags all the time, and can claim absolutely no credit for any of them.)

On the other hand, I am a birthday baker.
I sort of subscribe to the theory that we all have enough stuff, so I bake.
To be fair, if you earned a few more laugh lines over the course of the last year, you might as well live it up with something sweet and delicious.

In the case of my wonderful friend Tasha’s birthday – she loves caramel. (According to her husband, who provided requested input, any form of caramel outside of caramel apples. Haha!) Done.  I happen to have a super delicious, deeply rich, chocolate cupcake recipe that deserves nothing less than some stellar salted caramel buttercream to top it.  Aptly named – Black Magic.

Look, I never said I contributed to Birthday diets.

Around here we celebrate birthdays with plenty of wine, anyway, so at least you’re not going down in this ship alone.  In fact, if you happen to throw this recipe together whilst partaking in a celebratory glass of wine….

So here’s the scoop – I have had a surprising number of folks over the years tell me that homemade cupcakes seem difficult.  I know.  Sometimes that box in the grocery store aisle is incredibly tempting. But this recipe uses a ton of ingredients you already have at home, and is basically a two bowl recipe. Well, plus a measuring cup and a coffee mug, but you would need the measuring cup anyway.  Even if you buy the aforementioned box mix.

Let’s start with that coffee mug.
black magic cupcakesMake yourself a slightly stronger than normal cup of coffee.  While the coffee is still hot, put the squares of baking chocolate in the mug, and let the coffee melt it down. Set this cup aside for now.

Then we can move on to bowl #1 – which involves a mixer.  Put your softened butter in the bowl of the mixer, add your sugar and let those two ingredients cream together for a few minutes.  You’ll want to set your mixer to a medium speed and let them come together until they get to be light and fluffy.

black magic cupcakesUse your other bowl to combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt while the mixer is doing its thing.

If you’re like me, you’ve probably watched about 85 Food Network episodes of various shows where they tell you to sift your dry ingredients together.

Been there, done that. Created unnecessary messes in my kitchen as a result.  Given up on said “sifting”.

Know what works equally well, in my opinion?  The standard dinner fork.  Seriously. Added plus: my four-year-old can totally help with that.  He treats it like the scoop of an excavator and scoops the dry ingredients around in the bowl.  This comes complete with sounds, if you really want to do it right.

Bring it back, Amanda.

At the end of the day, the result is the same.  You will succeed in “sifting” or breaking up your flour and cocoa so that there are no large clumps. (I mean, if you really want to do that sifting thing, go with it.  I won’t judge.  But the 4 year-old version is fun, too.)

When done with your dry ingredients, your sugar/butter mixture should be set, so you can shut that off until your wet ingredients are ready.  Pour your buttermilk and vanilla into a large measuring cup, and then crack your eggs into the liquid.  You can actually reuse said dinner fork here to break up the eggs, and mix all three together.black magic cupcakes

Head back to your mixer bowl with both your dry ingredients and wet ingredients.  Set your mixer on low, and alternate adding the wet ingredients and the dry. I put in half the liquid, followed by half the dry and repeat. When you have a thick batter, add the coffee/chocolate mug by halves, as well. The result should be fully incorporated ingredients and have a smooth, dark sheen.

Scoop these into a muffin tin prepared with cupcake liners.  Each cup should be filled 1/2 to 2/3 of the way. I find that black magic cupcakeshalf filled makes them a bit easier to frost at the end, but 100% up to preference.  Bake them in a 350 degree oven for 18-20 minutes.  (Ovens can be finicky, so I always give a range.  My oven is 20 min on the mark with basically every cupcake recipe I have ever made.)

Pull them out when the toothpick check comes out clean, or when you can touch the top lightly and your cupcakes spring back. Be sure to let them cool on a rack or counter before frosting.

Speaking of frosting… I should warn you.  I am not a super sweet frosting kind of gal.  Don’t get me wrong, this is dessert.  But I have always backed away from cream cheese or buttercream frosting that has 4-5 cups of sugar in it.

I use 2 stblack magic cupcakesicks of softened butter and stick with 2 cups of powdered sugar.  This particular frosting also has caramel sauce in it (use whatever kind you like best), which adds to the sweet factor. You’ll cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy, and then add the caramel and vanilla.  Mix until they are a simple, smooth frosting.

While I like to use piping bags, I am no decorator, to be sure. Feel free to spread this stuff on with a knife, if that’s not your gig. For good measure, you’ll want to swirl some additional caramel sauce over the top of each frosted cupcake.  So, piping bag or no piping bag, they still taste just as wonderful.