The Caldera Cupcake

I made some chocolate cupcakes from a recipe over at cupcakeblog.com. I used the Chocolate Chai cupcake recipe, just minus the chai spices for a standard choco cupcake. The cupcakes were rising beautifully and poofily, with a crackly brownie like top. Then I watched as the crusty top sunk down and made a little crater deep within the cupcake. Hence the name, Caldera Cupcake, after the caldera near here.



I'm going to briefly go over the ingredients here. I weighed out the flour, FYI. I forgot to weigh the cocoa, because I was lazy, and had a conference call very soon and needed to get them in the oven. The oven was set to 350 F, with a thermometer inside.

Ingredients
200 grams semi-sweet chocolate (Ii used Callebaut semi-sweet)
3 sticks butter ( i used half fancy margarine, half butter)
7 oz flour (i assume about 5 oz == 1 cup of whisked flour)
2 1/8 cups sugar (original called for 2 1/4, but I reduced for altitude).
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup cocoa powder
8 eggs

I altered the recipe slightly -- I reduced the baking powder by 1/4 teaspoon, and I added a few tablespoons of flour, and left out 2 tbps (1/8 cup) of sugar.

I used an oven thermometer to make sure the oven was at 350 F. I noticed when I put the cupcakes in, the temperature dropped 5 or 10 degrees. The second batch I upped the temp to 375 F and it seemed to stay around 350 F the whole time, mainly. Both sunk dramatically.


I think next time I might cut down the baking powder even more. I don't think adding eggs will help -- this recipe already uses a ton of eggs. Perhaps increase the flour, and possibly up the oven temperature as well. Or maybe I should just frost the craters and eat them as is. They do taste kinda good -- kind of chewy but dense as well.

I'm not sure how Cheryl at Cupcake Blog measures her flour (some people sift then measure, some whisk it in a bowl then measure, others just scoop from the bag).