Cooking with Manuela: Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Mousse Frosting

Make from scratch these super easy and soft vanilla cupcakes, topped with light and creamy chocolate mousse.

Today is my younger boy's birthday! I can't believe he's already 6. Birthdays are so exciting, especially at this age. To make this day super special for him, I baked some cute vanilla cupcakes topped with chocolate mousse, to share with his friends at school.
The recipe is quite basic and simple. You will see that it's really not a lot of work to make them from scratch. I'm sure you will be pleased with the result: deliciously soft and light vanilla cake, with a not-too-sweet, creamy and rich chocolate topping. The kids absolutely loved them!
I also had one (ahem... or two), and I'm really not a big fan of cupcakes. I generally don't like the butter nor cream cheese based frosting. And even less the store bought icing, way to sugary!
But the chocolate mousse that I prepared was phenomenal. So simple to make, with whipped cream, powder sugar and unsweetened cocoa.
The final touch of chocolate sprinkles made these cupcakes look amazing. Perfect for a room full of 6 years old!

Ingredients: to make 24 cupcakes
For the cupcakes:

8 oz (2 sticks, 230 gr) of unsalted butter, melted
2 cups (400 gr) of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 pinch of salt
4 eggs
1 cup (235 ml) of milk (I used whole milk)
2 cups (300 gr) of all purpose flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder

For the chocolate mousse:

2.5 cups (600 ml) of heavy whipping cream
3/4 cups (70 gr) of powder sugar
1/2 cup (40 gr) of unsweetened cocoa powder
a pinch of salt

Preparation time: 45 minutes, plus 30 minutes to cool down, and about 15 minutes to decorate

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Melt the butter, by cutting in pieces, and placing it in the microwave at medium-low power for maybe 20 seconds. Check and add a few seconds if needed. In a large bowl, blend the butter with the sugar until fluffy.

2. Add the vanilla extract, salt and the eggs, one at a time.

3. Blend in one cup of flour and the baking powder. Add the milk, and mix again. Now you can blend in the last cup of flour.

4. Line 24 muffin tins with cupcake papers. Spoon the batter into the liners evenly, about 3/4 full.

5. Bake for about 20-25 minutes. Test with a toothpick if ready. Wait until completely cooled before frosting.

6. While the cupcakes are in the oven, let's work on the chocolate mousse. Very simple: In a bowl, whip the cream until foamy and it holds a peak. Gradually add the sugar and a pinch of salt, whip some more. Sift in the cocoa powder and fold with a spoon. Refrigerate until ready to decorate the cupcakes.