molten chocolate cupcake

I am not really a cupcake fan, but, this one was asking to be made...

I found a used copy of Cupcakes by Susanna Tee - just exclusively cupcakes - at my local bookstore pleading, "Take me home, please", and I had to :)

Of course, as with music CDs, I rarely find one book with only the recipes I like and want. Same with this cupcake book. But, there were enough good recipes in there (plus it was under $5) that I decided to get it a week before my baby's birthday: I was planning to make mini cupcakes of various sorts for her birthday, but, decided to make teddy bear cakes instead.

Anyway, the molten center of the cupcake made this appealing. Simply place a little bit of your favorite chocolate into the center of the cupcake batter before baking; bake as usual; and serve warm. The chocolate inside is perfectly melted and just oozes out. I was a bit conservative as seen in picture above, but next time I think I will add more chocolate to the center ;)

And what was more appealing to me was that this was one of the recipes in the book that made up a small batch - just 6 regular cupcakes. Usually, if I try to halve the proportions of the ingredients of a standard baking recipe they don't turn out right.

Of course, as always, I could not help meddling - the recipe here is slightly different from the one in the book :) But it turned out alright...

Ingredients

4 Tbsp butter
½ cup baker's sugar
1 large egg
2/3 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder^**
1 Tbsp Hersheys Special Dark™ cocoa powder^*
2 oz dark or semi-sweet chocolate
powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

^*or any other cocoa powder you like
^**my baking powder is old, so, if using fresh baking powder, reduce the amount a little

Preparation

Heat the oven to 375°F; place 6 paper baking cases in a muffin pan, or double layered paper cases on a baking sheet

combine all ingredients, (except the chocolate and sugar for dusting), and beat with electric whisk till just smooth, no need to over beat

spoon some batter into the paper case, just half way, add the chocolate, spoon more batter to fill the paper case

bake for about 20 minutes or until risen and springy to the touch

Remove from oven and let it rest for a few minutes before serving. Dust with powdered sugar, if desired.