Buttermilk Cupcakes with Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Last weekend I felt the urge to bake again so I pulled out a new cupcake book to try a recipe. I recently picked up Martha Stewart's Cupcakes - It's a great cookbook with tons of photos and creative design ideas for cupcakes! The first recipe I decided to try was for Buttermilk cupcakes - a fairly basic cake, but I already had buttermilk in the fridge that I didn't want to waste so this was a perfect use for it.

One downside to the recipes in the Cupcakes is they are written for 36 cupcakes - too many for this household! Because the quantities in the recipe aren't easily spilt, I had to slightly modify the recipe to only make 16.

1.5 cups cake flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/8 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/8 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/8 cup sugar
2 whole eggs, plus 2 yolks, room temperature
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350. Sift together flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
2. On medium-high speed, cream butter & sugar until pale & fluffy. Reduce speed to medium. Add whole eggs, one at a time, beating until eggs are incorporated. Add yolks, and beat until thoroughly combined. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with buttermilk, and beating until combined after each. Beat in vanilla.

3. Divide batter among cups - filling each 3/4 full. Bake for 20 minutes.


Top the finished cupcake with whatever frosting you'd like - the joy of buttermilk cupcakes is that it's a great base to be creative with! I opted to use a chocolate swiss meringue and also to fill half the cupcakes with melted chocolate.







Enjoy!!