What is Chocolate Cupcake?
A chocolate cupcake is a serving-size cake baked with wheat flour, eggs, milk, and cocoa powder. It has a light, airy texture and a sweet, chocolatey flavor.
Ingredients
Powdered sugar, also called confectioners sugar is made by grinding the sugar granules until they are powdered. They are then mixed with a small amount of cornstarch to prevent clumping. The sugar is white, powdery and looks a lot like a powdered starch. It tastes sweet and starchy. Powdered sugar is used in baked goods and on baked goods, as well as in icings.
Butter is made from churned cream, usually from a cow. It has a cream color and a texture that is smooth and melts easily. The flavor is mild and creamy. Butter is often sold in square sticks, or as a flat or round block. It is delicious on bread. It pairs better in baked goods than salted butter, due to its more neutral taste. It also makes an excellent cooking fat.
Brown sugar comes from the sugar cane or sugar beet. It is less refined than white sugar, but a refined sugar nonetheless. Brown sugar varies in color from light brown to dark brown. Light brown sugar has a milder flavor and lower moisture content, than stronger tasting brown sugar. The taste is mildly like molasses and very sweet. The sugar comes in fine granules that clump together. Brown sugar is used in baked goods for its sweet flavor and ability to make cookies soft. It is also used in many savory dishes to balance flavors.
Sugar comes from sugar cane and sugar beets. The sugar is extracted from the juice of both plants and refined into the granulated substance known as sugar. Sucrose, the sweet substance of sugar is a combination of glucose and fructose. White sugar is composed of tiny white, dry granules. The flavor is sweet and neutral. Brown sugar is brown and has more moisture, with a richer flavor that hints at molasses. Sugar is used in both sweet and savory foods.
Eggs are an incredibly versatile protein and binder. Most eggs used in cooking come from hens and are usually unfertilized. Eggs are oval shaped and roughly 53 mm in length and 40 mm in width. Eggs have a hard, but thin and delicate shell that is brown or white and occasionally green. Inside is the clear and glossy white, with a slimy texture and in the center is the yellow opaque, round shaped yolk. Once cooked, the whites become opaque. Eggs can be scrambled, fried, boiled, and more. They are used in desserts and baked goods as a binder. Egg is also used as a wash to glaze items or dip meat into before breading it. The flavor is mild and sulfurous. It has many uses.
All purpose flour comes from wheat and though wheat is cultivated all around the world today, it was first cultivated in Turkey 10,000 years ago. All purpose flour is white in color and has a soft texture. This incredibly versatile flour is used in everything from breads, cakes, pastries, crackers, pasta, sauces and much more because of its pleasing and mild flavor that is slightly nutty and buttery. The gluten protein is what helps hold together breads and other products, part of what makes all purpose wheat flour so popular.
Cocoa powder is made from the fermented and dried cocoa bean and ground into a delicate powder. This powder is extremely fine, brown and tastes earthy like cocoa. It is bitter until sweetened and used in many baked goods and some savory dishes. Cocoa is a key ingredient in brownies.
Canola oil is a popular and readily available oil in America, due to its inexpensive price and neutral flavor. Canola oil comes from the rapeseed plant, the oil is pressed from the seeds and has a yellow color. It is a thin oil that is best for medium high heat, such as sautéing, though is commonly used for deep frying. Canola can be found in baked good, salad dressings, and a vast variety of food products.
Heavy cream has a high fat content, giving it extra flavor and richness. The cream usually comes from cow's milk and generally floats to the top of milk, from which it can be skimmed. The cream is cream colored, or a pale golden color. The texture is thicker than milk with a flavor that is mild, rich and creamy. Heavy cream is used to make whipped cream and many desserts.
Buttermilk is a dairy product, traditionally made from the remaining milk liquid after butter is churned. Today, commercial buttermilk is made by fermenting cow's milk with lactic acid and healthy bacteria. Buttermilk is slightly thicker than regular milk; similar in consistency to a very watery smoothy. It is white in color, has a distinctly sour taste and in the western world it is commonly used in baked goods to tenderize the crumb and add lightness to the texture.
Vanilla extract is a flavoring used in baked goods, candies and drinks. It is made by infusing alcohol with vanilla pods or beans. This mixture sits for some months and is then strained. It is also extracted using heat and alcohol. The result of either is a thin brown liquid that smells and tastes like vanilla. It has a rich and gentle sweetness to its flavor.
Salt is a mineral composed mostly of sodium chloride. It is the main flavoring used in food and is naturally occurring in certain foods, such as cheese, beets, meat and celery, plus many others. Salt is white and has finer granules than sugar. Many commercial salts include iodide, while others exclude it. Most salts are white, while some are naturally pale pink with minerals. Salt brings out the flavor of something and can create a tangy mouthfeel, if used in excess.
Baking powder is a fine, white, powdery substance with a neutral smell and a very bland taste. It is an acid and used to instantly leaven baked goods. It reacts when it touches moisture and differs from yeast because of its instant leavening reaction. Baking powder is primarily used in flour-based baked goods to help cakes and cookies rise. Baking powder can be found in many non-yeast baked goods.
Baking soda is a crucial component in non-yeasted baked goods and acts as an instant leavener with the acids in the batter. It is used for cakes, quick breads and many flour-based baked goods. Baking soda is a fine white powder with a salty and bitter taste.
