Chocolate Cupcakes with Amazing Belize Chocolate

Do you love chocolate cupcakes? Who doesn’t love chocolate cupcakes? The chocolate from Belize has a different fruit forward characteristic we’ve noticed and enjoyed. The chocolate here is unlike our favorite chocolates that originate from South and Central America. If you’d like to take a shot at making these as we did, buy chocolate from Belize first. You can use Ixcacao or the chocolate From Belize Chocolate Company, just find them online.

Belizean Chocolate Cupcakes

For the cupcakes:

1 Cup All purpose Flour
1/3 Cup Belizean cocoa powder from Belize Chocolate Company
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ Cup cold coffee
¼ Cup Media Crema (or Half n’ Half)
4 ounces of unsalted butter (softened)
1 Cup sugar
2 whole eggs – preferably from the yard chickens aka gallinas
1 teaspoon Mayan vanilla

For the buttercream:
3 egg whites
2/3 Cup turbinado or cane sugar
¼ teaspoon of lemon or lime juice
4 ounces Belize Chocolate Company Dark Chocolate, melted and cool
4- 8 ounces softened butter, cut into cubes
1 teaspoon Mayan vanilla
4-6 Cups of sifted confectioner’s sugar

For the cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
   Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. 
   Mix coffee and cream.
2. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time and vanilla and cream. 
3. Add dry ingredients alternately with liquids to egg/sugar mixture, incorporating well after each addition. 
4. Portion into paper cups filling approximately 2/3 full. 
5. Bake for 18-22 minutes.  Check after 18 minutes. Cool completely on a rack out of the muffin tin.

While cupcakes are baking, make the buttercream. 

1. Heat the egg whites and sugar over a pan of simmering water. Use a whisk and stir constantly. Heat until the mix feels silky (all of sugar is dissolved) and it feels very warm to touch- just about 2-3 minutes.  This will heat the whites to a safe temp without cooking them. Do not let them sit in the hot water, immediately transfer to a mixing bowl with a whisk and start on low speed.
2. Add the citrus juice. Whip on the lowest speed and gradually increase the speed until light and foamy. Add the vanilla, continue whipping.  Whip until they form stiff, glossy peaks.  Make sure the mix is cool to touch. 
3. Add the butter cubes in a few additions, whipping constantly. At first the mix will begin to look curdled, but with the addition of more butter it should begin to look glossy and shiny like a buttercream. You may not need all the butter.
4. Add the sifted confectioner’s sugar one cup at a time until the buttercream is stiff but still spreadable. Again, it may not take all of the confectioner’s sugar. 
5. If you wish all the frosting to be chocolate, add all of the melted chocolate and whip to incorporate. If you are making a vanilla icing and a chocolate frosting, reserve the vanilla in a separate bowl and add the melted chocolate and mix until incorporated. Leave the buttercream at room temperature until ready to use. It can be kept in the refrigerator for up to one week. 

Yields 12 frosted cupcakes.

©AmyMalikDec2020

Note: recipe below is the same, however, used to help people to find us on Google.

©AmyMalikDec2020