Chef Demo Recipe: Lorna’s Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Cointreau Cream Cheese Frosting and Berries

Lorna Yee, food writer for Seattle Magazine, blogger at The Cookbook Chronicles and author of The Newlywed Cookbook (soon to be released!), is a frequent shopper at our market. She lives just a block away, and we are thrilled to be neighbors. On the page, the screen and in person, Lorna keeps us laughing and trying new things. Her cupcakes are a marriage made in choco heaven. Sources: milk from Sea Breeze Farm, blackberries from Sidhu, vanilla salt from Secret Stash.

Lorna Yee. Photo by Valentina Vitols.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Cointreau Cream Cheese Frosting and Berries
Makes 24 cupcakes

For the cupcakes:
3 ounces good-quality bittersweet chocolate, such as Valrhona 70 percent, finely chopped
1 cup strong, hot brewed coffee
2 large eggs
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup good-quality unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt

A tiny powerhouse of flavor! Photo by Valentina Vitols.

For the frosting:
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 8-oz. packages cream cheese, softened
1/4 teaspoon Secret Stash vanilla salt (or kosher salt)
2-1/4 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon Cointreau
1 pint of your favorite berries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a small bowl, mix together the chocolate and the hot coffee until the chocolate dissolves. Set aside until the coffee mixture cools.

In a separate large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat the eggs for 4 to 5 minutes, until pale in color and almost doubled in volume. Turn the mixer speed down to medium, and add the vegetable oil, buttermilk, and vanilla, and beat until combined. Add the coffee and chocolate mixture, and again beat until combined.

Add the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt, and mix just until the batter comes together and no white streaks of flour are visible. Take care not to overmix, as this will make your cupcakes tough.

Divide the batter into lined cupcake tins, filling them three quarters full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops of the cupcakes spring back when lightly pressed (or a toothpick inserted in the center of one of the cupcakes comes out clean).

Let the cupcakes cool on a wire rack before frosting.

To make the frosting, simply beat the butter and cream cheese together until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes on medium-high speed. Lower the speed to low, and beat in the icing sugar, vanilla extract, and Cointreau. Beat until just combined.

Top each cupcake with your favorite berries!

The last cupcake. Photo by Kimberly McKittrick.