Chocolate Chiffon Cupcake

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown, 2008

Show: Good EatsEpisode: Honey, I Shrunk the Cake

Rated: 3 stars out of 5Rate itRead users' reviews (15)

RECIPE
COMMENTS & REVIEWS(15)

Cook Time:
30 min
Level:
Easy
Yield:
about 24 cupcakes

Times:

Prep: 30 min
Inactive Prep: --
Cook: 30 min
Total:: 1 hr 0 min

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Ingredients

4 ounces cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup hot water
1 1/4-ounce cocoa powder
5 large egg yolks
6 ounces sugar, divided
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Place paper liners into 2 (12-cup) muffin tins and set aside. If you prefer, set 12 ovenproof coffee mugs on a half sheet pan and set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Place the hot water and the cocoa powder into a small bowl and whisk to thoroughly combine. Set aside. Place the egg yolks and 5 ounces of the sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk on high for 2 minutes or until the mixture becomes pale yellow and 'ribbons' when lifted. Add the cocoa mixture, vegetable oil and vanilla and whisk to combine. Add the dry ingredients and whisk just to combine. Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl while you whisk the egg whites.

Place the egg whites and cream of tartar into a clean bowl and whisk on high using the whisk attachment, until it becomes foamy. Decrease the speed to low and gradually add the remaining ounce of sugar. Once the sugar has all been added, increase the speed back to high and continue to beat until stiff peaks form, approximately 2 minutes.

Transfer 1/3 of the egg whites to the batter and whisk until well combined. Add the remaining egg whites and fold in gently. Transfer batter into prepared muffin tins or coffee mugs, evenly dividing the batter between the cups. Place both muffin tins on the middle rack of the oven or, if using mugs, place all of them on a half sheet pan and set on the bottom rack of the oven. Bake for 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean or the cupcakes reach an internal temperature of 205 to 210 degrees F. Remove from the oven to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.

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Comments & Reviews

recipe Chocolate Chiffon Cupcake
Kiima Washington, DC 08-30-2009
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Not Good Eats!
Rated: 1 stars out of 5

Based the smell from the oven, I was really looking forward to these....but boy was I dissapointed. I didn't even bother... baking the remaining 12. Like the other reviewers said, they are dry. Not sure if we're even gonna keep the 12 we did bake. But yes, they are light.Read more
recipe Chocolate Chiffon Cupcake
Avinash San Juan, WI 05-19-2009
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Kinda messed up...
Rated: 2 stars out of 5

Alton...we love you but this was kinda...not so good! I followed everything, step by step but the cake was a little runny... after mixing it.. It wasn't very sweet either. Also for the runny texture, they came out dry..? This wasn't one of Alton's great recipes... :'(Read more
recipe Chocolate Chiffon Cupcake
Luke Pineville , LA 05-16-2009
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No flavor
Rated: 1 stars out of 5

Alton, I love you man, but these cupcakes were awful. Not sweet enough, not enough chocolate flavor, not enough flavor at... all, and they were very dry. I haven't had any problem with any other recipes I've ever used by him but this one was bad. I"m sorry. And i hate cooking or baking from a box, so the next time I want cupcakes, i guess i'll have to go to another recipe, and that hurts me. Read more
recipe Chocolate Chiffon Cupcake
Lauren Poway, CA 04-23-2009
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Cake was good, frosting was not
Rated: 5 stars out of 5

These cupcakes were quite good, though the frosting recipe given at the end of the show tasted terrible--I ended up throwing... the whole batch out. These cupcakes are so light, the heavy frosting made in the episode doesn't go well with them anyway. I would use a slightly sweetened whipped cream, applied just before serving, or none at all--they are great on their own, or maybe dusted with a little powdered sugar if you want to make them look nicer. The cake is just sweet enough--I enjoyed the fact that eating one wasn't sugar overload. I also don't see any reason to use 1 teaspoon of salt--so I didn't. 1/4 teaspoon worked just fine so they weren't salty. Also, the recommendations for 15-16 minutes in the oven were perfect. Read more
recipe Chocolate Chiffon Cupcake
Joe Devine, TX 04-04-2009
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Not Bad...
Rated: 4 stars out of 5

i had good results with the vanilla version, so I decided to try the chocolate. The texture was good, but I would reduce the... salt by half on these (just because with the chocolate, it seems to be more prevalent than in the others). Also, there just didn't seem to be enough chocolate flavor. Next time, I will try adding a couple extra tablespoons of the cocoa powder (I'm not looking to overwhelm it with chocolate, but in this case the flavor was just too light). I used the icing recipe shown on the episode, but replaced 1 cup of the confectioner's sugar with 3/4 cup of cocoa powder + 2 Tbsp heavy cream. The result was good, but I'm sure thee are better chocolate icing recipes here on the site. I would also like to point out that 6 oz. of granulated sugar does not = 3/4 cup. It is more like 9/10 of a cup. Here are the measurements I used: 1 1/2 cups cake flour, 1/3 cup cocoa, and I separated the sugar into tablespoons, because it seemed more accurate: 3 Tbsp + 1 tsp in the meringue, 11 Tbsp + 1 tsp in the egg yolk mixture. The baking time is off as well. I had mine out in 14 minutes. As oven temps vary, I think 14-16 minutes is a good time to shoot for with average sized cupcake tins. The listed time must be for the larger incarnations. All in all, not a bad recipe. Thanks AB!Read more
recipe Chocolate Chiffon Cupcake
Mike Lincoln, NE 01-29-2009
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Gack!
Rated: 1 stars out of 5

Yeah, the chiffon-like texture is great, but these basically have no flavor, are too salty, and they didn't go over well with... the kids. Would I make these again? No. I did, however like the frosting recipe, in which I used marshmallow flavoring. Read more