Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting

The original of this recipe is mated with the chocolate cupcake recipe in Cook's Illustrated magazine.  When I took a look at the ingredients list, my rapier-sharp mind determined that it was virtually identical to the swiss meringue buttercream recipe from the other day.  Since I had plenty leftover from frosting the chai latte cupcakes, I simply plopped the remainder into the mixing bowl, then added in half the chocolate called for.  The following is the full version.

Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting
Makes enough to cover 12-18 cupcakes

one recipe swiss meringue buttercream
6 ozs. semi-sweet chocolate, melted and cooled, but still liquidy (liquidy is VERY important! You'll see why later)

This is the leftover frosting from the other day.  If you are starting from the beginning, you will have more.  There's more there than you think.  It only looks tiny because the bowl is big.

Pour in the cooled but still liquidy (you'll understand why later) chocolate, and mix at medium speed until combined.  Increase speed to medium-high, then beat another 30-60 seconds until the frosting is light and fluffy.















Now it looks like a lot, but it's really a thin layer spread around the big bowl.  Using a butter knife, slather the frosting onto the cupcakes.  Or ...















Tip alert! (You get it?  Tip alert, and not because you are about to use a pastry tip.  I am SO witty! :P ).  Anyway, when your pastry bags all tend to leak because they are either defective or very old, grab a freezer bag (NOT a storage bag, they are too thin and will sprout more leaks than a defective or very old pastry bag) and cut a teeny-tiny triangle off one of the bottom corners.  When you push the large tip inside the bag out of the small hole, the bag will give gently and seal tightly around the tip.

Create dainty stars on the cupcakes.  This will be easy, unless some of the cooled chocolate was not really liquidy, and had solidified in spots.  Then those solid chocolate spots will eventually make their way into the tip and jam the works.

Doesn't that look yummy?  The pressure from squeezing the bag in order to push out a hidden solid chocolate piece will result in a small explosion, such as above.  Clean up the mess, then take out the butter knife that you should have used in the first place, remove frosting from the busted bag, and slather said frosting onto the remaining naked cupcakes.