Chocolate Cupcakes

So... how was the weekend? Mine was good. The interesting part was that we had an unplanned Sunday restaurant lunch.... Went searching for a Chinese dine (it was not planned, I told!!!!).... most of them were closed.... being Sunday... and not ready to settle for anything else other than a chinese item... atlast we found 'Satay Noodle House' open..... had a yummy yummy 'Satay Fried Rice' followed by a double scoop of White Chocolate Rasberry and a Chocolate Brownie icecream at Wendy's.... what else could make a Sunday more merrier? Now on to the recipe at place......

For quite a long time I had this in mind. That is to bake a perfect chocolate cupcake... compromising on the health issues.... Yes I badly wanted 'The Cupcake' with all its ingredients at place.... so went to the grocery, pulled out a block of butter and a bag of white sugar along with a pair of eggs....

And here I started with the authentic way of creaming my butter.... and finally came out these wonderful soft, spongy cupcakes.... Next the devil's mind wanted me to frost it..... but.... I put it on hold thinking it would be too much :-o  So just topped it with some chopped almonds.... and here they are.... The original recipe was from Joy of Baking.....

You will need..........

Flour - 1 and 1/3 cups
Salted Butter - 1/2 cup
Cocoa powder - 1/2 cup
Hot boiling water - 1 cup
White sugar - 1 cup
Baking powder - 2 tsp
Eggs - 2
Vanilla extract - 2 tsp

Get going..........      

1. In a bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until smooth.
3. Beat in the vanilla extract.
4. In a small bowl, stir hot water and cocoa powder until smooth. Cool it to room temperature.
5. In another bowl sieve flour and baking powder together.
6. Add the flour mixture to the butter - vanilla bowl and just beat until incorporated.
7. Now add in the cocoa powder mixture to this and stir until smooth.
8. Now pour this into prepared cupcake holes and top it with chopped toasted almonds.
9. Bake them in a pre-heated oven at 190 deg for just 16-20 mins until risen, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. (Do not over bake or the cupcakes will be dry.)
10. Cool them on a wire rack and then store it in containers.

Enjoy them with a cup of tea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!