This month, I am hosting our What’s Baking group and got to choose a theme for our lovely bakers. Since many people have food-related resolutions in the New Year, I thought it would be fun to bake something that only serves 1 or 2 people. Most baked goods serve enough for an army (or one toddler, if I let her) so I wanted all of us to put on our thinking caps and bake something that yields no leftovers.
I already feature a chocolate molten lava cake recipe for two on this blog, and it’s a perfect dessert that is ready in 20 minutes (including the prep time). I also have a single serving chocolate mug cake and a 2-minute chocolate and salted caramel mug cake that are great for 1-2 servings. Since I often crave cupcakes and obviously have a love for chocolate, it was only fitting to bake chocolate cupcakes for two during this month’s challenge.
I could have tried to adapt my go-to chocolate cupcake recipe but wanted to try something new. I eventually found this recipe and decided to test it out. This is probably one of the easiest recipes I’ve ever put together since the batter only makes two cupcakes. The frosting was extremely quick to prepare as well. The hardest thing about this recipe was figuring out how to photograph it.
Stay tuned for the roundup of everyone’s creations.
Chocolate cupcakes for two
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cocoa powder
- 1/8 teaspoon baking soda just eyeball half of a quarter-teaspoon and it will be fine
- Pinch of salt
- 2 Tablespoon cold water
- 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
- a small splash of vanilla about 1/8 teaspoon
- 1 Tablespoon chocolate chips optional
Frosting
- 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter softened (or, if you use salted butter, omit the salt below)
- 1 Tablespoon + 2 teaspoons cocoa powder
- 3 Tablespoons powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon milk of choice can substitute with half and half or heavy cream
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
Make the cupcakes
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Line a standard muffin pan with two paper liners and set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In a separate small bowl, mix the cold water, vegetable oil and vanilla together. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and stir just to combine. You can add the chocolate chips directly into the batter or sprinkle them on top of the cupcakes later. Evenly distribute the batter into the two paper liners (this is when you can top the cupcake batter with the chocolate chips). Bake in your preheated oven for 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Remove the pan from the oven and allow to cool before frosting.
Make the frosting
- While the cupcakes are baking, melt the butter in a small bowl in the microwave. Add the cocoa powder, powdered sugar, milk and salt and whisk together thoroughly until the frosting is smooth. Transfer the bowl to your refrigerator and allow it to cool for at least 15 minutes or until the frosting has cooled and is spreadable. Once the cupcakes and frosting are both completely cool, spread the frosting on top of the cupcakes.