• Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with muffin liners.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Whisk well to combine.
• In a separate bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, egg, and vanilla. Whisk until smooth.
• Add the wet ingredients to the bowl with the dry ingredients and fold together. When there are still a few streaks of dry flour left, add the hot coffee. Fold everything together until just combined, don't over mix.
• Divide the batter between the muffin tins, you want to fill your muffin tins about 2/3 full. (If you fill your muffin tins higher than 2/3 just be aware that your cupcakes might spill over the sides a little bit like a muffin.)
• Bake for 15-18 minutes until risen and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out without wet batter clinging to it. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before frosting.

to make the frosting

• Cut the butter and cream cheese into large chunks. Add to the bowl of a food processor along with the salt and vanilla extract, and blend until smooth.
• Add the powdered sugar and cocoa powder, about 1 cup at a time, blending briefly between each addition. You made need to scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice to ensure everything is smooth.

to frost the cupcakes

• Add a large spoonful of frosting to the top of each cupcake and use a small spoon or butterknife to gently spread it out.
• You will likely have some frosting left over if you frost your cupcakes like I have here. If you are piping frosting onto your cupcake, you should still have enough frosting to pipe all 12 cupcakes, unless you are going for a very tall look with a lot of frosting on each cupcake, then you might want to make 1.5x or double the recipe.