Chocolate Cupcakes

Billy Bakery’s Chocolate Cupcakes

Billy Bakery is another celebrity favorite bakery in Manhattan. The founder worked at Magnolia's and made tweeks that he saw fit and opened up his own equally popular bakery.

Their press page even has a quote from Katie Holmes saying, "Billy's is my spot...The day I got my place I had cupcakes brought to me by a friend. I had to promise myself to go only once a week, because otherwise I'll be a moose."

The question now is, are they worth the hype? Answer: Oh HELL yes!

I found a recipe online of Billy Bakery's Chocolate Cupcakes that were SO good that I know in the upcoming week I'll be trying their Vanilla Vanilla Cupcake Recipe and comparing it to Magnolia's. It's that good. I iced half of mine with Nutella Icing (expect the recipe in a post of it's own) and half with regular colored vanilla icing.

Here's the recipe below:

Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter (8 ounces)
1 cup granulated sugar (7 ounces)
1 cup light brown sugar (7 3/4 ounces)
4 large eggs (1 at a time)
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk (at room temperature)*
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Equipment:
1 small bowl for melting chocolate
1 large bowl for preparing batter
1 medium bowl for storing flour
1 pitcher (or any other vessel) for storing buttermilk
1 whisk or electric mixer
2 muffin trays
24 cupcake liners
1 Spoon/icecream scooper for pouring batter

Recipe:
1. Melt the 6 ounces of unsweetened chocolate. Allow for it to cool for 15 minutes.

While waiting for the chocolate to cool....
2. Add 1 teaspoon baking soda to the 2 cups of cake flour. Set aside.
3. Add the 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract to the 1 cup of buttermilk. Set aside.
4. Cream the butter, granulate and brown sugar together.
5. Add the eggs, one at a time.
Once the chocolate has cooled...
6. Add the melted and cooled chocolate to the butter-sugar mixture.
7. Alternate adding the flour-baking soda and buttermilk-vanilla to the butter-sugar mixture.
8. Place cupcake paper in each cup and fill each cup with 1 leveled off scoop (such as an ice cream scooper)
9. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes
10. Ice cupcakes after they have cooled. I used Nutella Frosting for my cupcakes. I'll share the recipe in the next post.

*If you don't have buttermilk, you can make some at home from whole milk using either lemon juice OR vinegar. For 1 cup of whole milk, add 1 tablespoon of white vinegar OR lemon juice and let it stand for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, you have buttermilk!