Cocoa Cupcakes

In November my nephew turned 3, when plans first came up I offered to make him a cupcake cake that went along with his Thomas the Train theme.  I  wanted to make sure on his big day the cake was perfect so I had lots of practice rounds and when I was finished I never wanted to look at another cupcake again!  Well, it's been nearly four months now so I guess I got over it.

This recipe originally came from an All You magazine but I tweaked it here and there.

Here is the original recipe.

My ingredients are basically the same except I used Maxwell House International Cafe Vanilla Caramel Latte Mix instead of Vanilla Extract, I had previously made a batch of cookies with this and really liked the flavor so I tossed it in here too.  And I used white chocolate chips instead of chocolate.

1 cup flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/8  teaspoon  salt
2  large eggs, separated
4  tablespoons  unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2  cup  sugar
1 TBS. Maxwell House International Cafe Vanilla Caramel Latte Mix
1/2  cup  low-fat buttermilk
1/4  cup  white chocolate chips
2  TBS. confectioners' sugar, optional

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. In a bowl, sift flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

2. Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat egg whites in a clean, dry bowl until stiff peaks form. Rinse and dry beaters.  (This was really neat and something I have never done before.  When it was finished I had my husband come out and I asked if he knew what it was, he didn't believe me when I told him that all that it was was egg whites!)

3. In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugar until light. Add yolks, one at a time, beating well after each. Beat in vanilla. With mixer on medium-low speed, beat in one-third of flour mixture, then half of buttermilk. Repeat, ending with flour.

4. Fold in one-third of egg whites. Fold in remaining whites and chocolate chips.

5. Divide batter among muffin cups; bake until a toothpick inserted into center of a cupcake comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then remove cupcakes to rack to cool completely.

 
6. Sift confectioners' sugar over cupcakes, if desired.

Enjoy!