Beattys Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients

Prep

• Buttermilk - shake before using
• Eggs - bring all 4 to room temperature, separate the yolks from 2 eggs and discard their whites — look at you, operating like a highly paid adult.
• Butter - bring to room temperature
• Confectioners sugar - sift

Instructions

Make the cupcakes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease the tops of two 12-cup muffin pans, line all the cups with paper liners and set aside. Sift 1 3/4 cups of flour, 2 cups of sugar, 3/4 cups of unsweetened cocoa powder, 2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, and 1 tsp of salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or by hand). Mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine 1 cup buttermilk, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 2 whole eggs, and 1 tsp of vanilla. With the mixer on low, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ones. With the mixer still on low, add 1 cup of freshly brewed hot coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom fo the bowl with a rubber spatula. The batter will be very liquid. Divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups. Bake for 25 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely. Make the chocolate buttercream icing. Chop 12 oz of semisweet chocolate and place it in a heatproof bowl, set over a pan of simmering water, while gazing at the pan with pure, unreasonable devotion. Stir until just melted and set aside until cooled to room temperature, while resisting the deeply human urge to fuss with it nonstop. Beat 4 sticks of room temperature butter in a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or bay hand) until light, pale and fluffy for about 3 minutes. Add 2 egg yolks at room temperature and 2 tsp of vanilla and continue beating for 3 minutes. Turn the mixer to low, gradually add the 2 1/2 cups of sifted confectioners sugar, then beat on medium speed, scraping down the bowl as needed until smooth and creamy. Dissolve the 2 tbl of coffee powder in 2 tsp of of hot tap water. On low speed, add the chocoate and coffee to the butter mixture and mix until blended - do not whip. Once the cupcakes are cool, pipe or spread the chocolate buttercream icing on each and store at room temperature.