On the Best Chocolate Cupcakes Ever

The word “best” can be defined as follows: of the highest quality, excellence or standing. That’s saying something, isn’t it? Taking this definition into account, calling my post (and the subject thereof) The Best Chocolate Cupcakes Ever would seem to be quite a bold statement. After all, there are zillions of “best ever” recipes, cookbooks, columns and blogs out there, and surely “best” is a matter of opinion, isn’t it? A matter of personal taste? And when there are so many “best” recipes out there the impact of the term must get diluted, mustn’t it?

Well maybe, but have you tried these cupcakes?

When you bite into one and discover its dense, moist interior, it’s difficult to prevent the words “oh my god” from escaping one’s lips. It’s ok – that’s allowed.

These cupcakes are oh so simple. You won’t find lashings of buttercream on top of these babies, because in their case it’s all about the cupcakes themselves, not about the icing. They are instead adorned with a simple chocolate glaze. Trust me, they don’t need lashings of buttercream – that would take away from the intense, moist chocolateyness of the cupcakes themselves. And they are just oh so moist and oh so chocolatey.

I made them for clients recently. One guy, after eating his third, proclaimed them the best cupcakes he’d ever eaten. I later heard him describing them to his colleague using a different term, which I won’t put into writing here because that would attract a lot of spam of the unwanted sort. You get the picture… but it was complimentary!

The recipe comes from Nigella Lawson’s How To Be A Domestic Goddess book. The first recipe in the Chocolate section, it’s actually a chocolate loaf cake recipe, but easily converts into cupcakes (and in fact on the next page Nigella has actually given us the cupcake recipe). See how easy that is? The batter is very liquidy - I’ve found that pouring it from a liquid measure into the cupcake liners is the easiest, least messy, and quickest way of doing it. Plus, there’s something particularly satisfying about pouring liquidy chocolate goo into cupcake liners.

The glaze on top is the chocolate glaze recipe I use over and over again because it’s so incredibly easy to make and just really delicious. You can find it here .

These cupcakes are my contribution to Forever Nigella #2: Seduced by Chocolate.  This blogging challenge was devised by Sarah at Maison Cupcake, and had an incredible response in its first month. Somehow I think this month’s response will be even bigger. Chocolate and Valentine’s Day after all – how can one resist?