Chocolate Cardamom Cupcakes

I was reeeeeally thinking of saving this for Mother's Day. They could be Chocolate Carda-mom Cupcakes.... ha! I crack myself up.  Ma, consider this an early Mother's Day greeting.

I was pretty lucky with this adventure. I only had to bake these cupcakes twice before finding the perfect combination. The first was... less than perfect. I used a devil's food cake recipe and just added the cardamom - I was lazy and you could tell.  The cupcake was dry and the cardamom totally over powered the wimpy chocolate flavor. I didn't even frost the darn things; it wasn't worth it. I ate one and threw them out.  Sad little cupcakes.

The second batch was a pleasant little surprise. I love this chocolate cupcake recipe. It's from the "America's Test Kitchen" magazine, but I changed some ingredients and added the cardamom. It only uses 2 bowls, and no mixer. There are a lot of ingredients, but trust me, this was almost as easy to put together as from a box (and it tastes much much better).  The result is a rich, complex flavor with a perfect balance of dark chocolate, coffee and cardamom.  The texture was moist, not too heavy, not too fluffy. Please make these.

Chocolate Cardamom Cupcakes:
3 oz dark chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup hot coffee
3/4 cup bread flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cardamom
4 Tbsp butter, melted
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 eggs
2 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, mix together chopped chocolate and cocoa powder. Pour the hot coffee over the top and whisk until smooth. Let this mixture cool in the fridge for at least 10 minutes.   Whisk flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and cardamom in a medium bowl - set aside.

To the cooled chocolate, add the butter, oil, eggs, vinegar and vanilla, whisk until smooth. Add the flour mixture and fold in gently until just incorporated.   Pour batter into cupcake pan cups and bake until firm to the touch - about 17 minutes.