sea salt buttercream on a chocolate cupcake

CHOCOLATE CUPCAKE, HARDLY ANY  NEWS.

BUT A PROMINENTLY SALTY AND SWEET BUTTERCREAM, REALLY GETS ME EXCITED

So if you don’t mind, in a world now that I can’t even fucking swallow a good poke without beating myself with a stick, I was planning on keeping the last inconvenient truth at bay, and stay able to eat a bloody cupcake with blissful ignorance.  But I guess, sooner or later, we all have to grow up…

If you’ve been following my lazy instagram, you’d noticed that I’m working on a photography side-project combining food and music, and in the name of professionalism and sacrifice, I’ve let it burn down my last eating sanctuary into a, again, guilt-laden wreckage.  The idea was innocent enough, to come up with a lethal but nonetheless cuddly cupcake in contrast with a badass rock’n roll themed background-poster.  The images, didn’t come out as nicely as I planned.  But the triple chocolate cupcakes with sea salt buttercream, carried out a very successful bombarding campaign on my last defensive cupcake illusion.

OK, chocolate cupcake, while being “tripled” and stuffed, is hardly any news.  But the idea of a prominently salty and sweet buttercream, really got me excited.  Oh buttercream… salty buttercream… hmph, now… what is “buttercream” exactly?  Surprisingly, a quick Googling didn’t land me on any promising “sea salt buttercream” recipe, and just when I was jittering that I might have landed on a less charted territory, I started to absorb the truth of a basic buttercream…

Ingredients:

• Triple chocolate cupcake:  adaped from Cook’s Illustrated via Brown Eye Baker
  • 3 oz (85 grams) of bittersweet chocolate
  • 1/3 cup (31 grams) of natural cocoa powder (not dutch processed)
  • 3/4 cup (163 grams) of hot coffee
  • 3/4 cup (125 grams) of light brown sugar
  • 6 tbsp (84 grams) of vegetable oil (or peanut oil for a nuttier flavour)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tsp of white vinegar
  • 1 tsp of vanilla extract
  • 3/4 cup (96 grams) of all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp of salt
  • 1 tsp of baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp of baking soda
  • 2 tsp of milk chocolate chips (or nutella works, too)  for each cupcake
• Sea salt buttercream:
  • 2 sticks (230 grams) of unsalted butter, soften
  • 1/2 + 1/8 tsp of fine sea salt
  • 1 1/4 tsp of vanilla extract
  • 4 cups (480 grams) of powdered sugar
  • 4 tbsp of heavy cream or whole milk

To make the triple chocolate cupcake:  Preheat the oven on 350ºF/175ºC.

Add bittersweet chocolate and cocoa powder in a large bowl, then pour in the hot coffee.  Whisk until the chocolate has completely melted and refrigerate for 10 min to cool.  Then add the light brown sugar, vegetable oil (or peanut oil for a nuttier flavour), large eggs, white vinegar and vanilla extract.  Whisk until smooth and velvety.  Sift the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda directly into the bowl through a large sieve.  Whisk just until evenly incorporated.

Divide the batter into 10 to 12 cupcake-holder, filling each up to about 80% full.  Drop 2 tsp of milk chocolate chips (or nutell) into the center of each cupcakes, then bake in the oven for 17~19 min until a wooden skewers comes out clean from the side.  Let cool completely on a baking rack before applying buttercream.

To make the sea salt buttercream:  Saltiness of sea salt may differ, so add 1/2 + 1/8 tsp first, then a pinch more if needed.  Make sure that you use extra fine sea salt (not the flaky/coarse kind) so it dissolves nicely into the buttercream.  If you can only find flaky/coarse sea salt, you can either pulverize it in spice-grinder, or melt it into the heavy cream first over gentle heat, let cool completely, then add it in the last step.

In a stand-mixer with pedal-attachment, or in a food-processor, add the unsalted butter and fine sea salt then whip until light and fluffy (takes a bit longer in a stand-mixer).  Add the vanilla extract and 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time, whip until smooth before the next addition of powdered sugar.  Then finally, whip in the heavy cream to loosen the texture (you  may need more if you prefer softer buttercream).