Chocolate Cupcakes

Happy holidays! Okay, a little early, I know, but where I work, Santa's coming on Monday night.

Okay, so remember the time I said I was taking a break from baking in an attempt at cleansing, and cutting back on the sugar in my diet? Because it's quite clear to me that I have zero resistance to the things I bake. Yeah, so about the detox - didn't really work so well. I think it lasted for maybe 24 hours, and then, let's be honest, I got way to busy to keep up with all the prep! Soon though...

Needless to say, I'm back! Tomorrow night is my store's holiday roll-out meeting, so in the spirit of Christmas (two months early!), I made cute Christmasy cupcakes for my staff.

This time I made my Grandmother's chocolate cake recipe, and piped Magnolia Bakery's vanilla buttercream on top. Perfect combination! As much as I love the Trophy Cupcake chocolate cake recipe, this one is my absolute all-time, moistest, most delicious cake recipe. Whenever a recipe calls for coffee, I always fire up my espresso machine and make an americano to get the best quality, we all know instant coffee is awful. Again, however, with the recent launch of their new product, I was able to use Starbucks VIA ready-brew with this cake, and it was such a help. It's also a very helpful product for this cake because the recipe calls for both hot and cold coffee, and VIA is totally soluble in hot or cold water. And I can't get enough of this buttercream! So simple to make and pipe.

I used a large round #808 piping tip this time and squeezed a small amount on each top, pulling it up at the end to form kind of a Hershey Kiss shape.

To get a perfectly rounded cupcake, I used exactly 1/4 cup of batter in a large-size cupcake paper.

Here it is (Top Secret!):

Perfect Chocolate Cake

By Dulce Doll

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup butter, room temperature

4 eggs, beaten

2 cup brown sugar

1 cup cocoa

1 cup hot coffee (1 package Starbucks VIA Italian Roast)

2 tsp. baking soda, dissolved in a little hot coffee

2 1/2 cups AP flour

1 cup cold coffee (1 package Starbucks VIA Italian Roast)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream granulated sugar and butter together. Pour eggs on top, but do not stir yet.

Add brown sugar, cocoa, and hot coffee. Beat until well blended.

Finally, beat in baking soda, flour (in a couple additions), and cold coffee. When smooth, divide evenly among lined muffin tins. Will make approximately 36 cupcakes or 4 9-inch cake layers.

Bake for 17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool completely .

Vanilla Buttercream:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

6 to 8 cups confectioners' sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Combine butter, 4 cups sugar, milk, and vanilla. Beat until smooth and creamy. Gradually add remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, until icing reaches desired consistency; you may not need to add all the sugar. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Rainbow Confetti Cupcakes

These cupcakes were super fun and cute too. They'd be great for a birthday party or for a project with kids. You could use any basic white cake or vanilla cake recipe and just mix in colored sprinkles at the end..

I was really excited to try out my new cups like I saw on this blog. Definitely don't fill the cups any more than 2/3-full or they'll spill over and make a mess, mine came dangerously close. Check out the website, she has some amazing recipes and photos.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups AP flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 cup sugar

6 tbsp. butter, room temperature

1 egg plus 1 egg white, room temperature

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup milk

2 tbsp. colored sprinkles

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pan with papers.

In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, beat sugar and butter until well combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add vanilla.

Add flour mixture into wet ingredients in three additions, alternating with milk, beginning and ending with flour. Fold in sprinkles.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3-full. Bake for 17 to 20 minutes, or until tester inserted comes out clean. Remove from pan and cool completely before frosting.

I chose my old stand-by chocolate buttercream for icing. I tried piping it, but my bag broke. There isn't really a recipe I follow, I start with about 1/8 cup softened unsalted butter, 1 1/2 cups icing sugar, 1/2 cup cocoa powder and start creaming. Once butter is incorporated, add milk, 1 tbsp. at a time until you have the right consistency. To make a bigger bowl, add more icing sugar, cocoa and milk. You can also add extra cocoa to make it really chocolatey, I always do.

Not Great...

Kind of disappointed today with the kitchen. Totally having an off day, dropped everything, spilled everything, twice, ruined an entire tray of lemon macaroons (I knew from the time I put them in the oven they weren't right). The only thing that worked was my lemon curd.

My great success yesterday with the chocolate macaroons diluted my thinking to the point where I assumed I could bust out two batches tonight, no problem. Wrong. I am instantly humbled.

I made some vanilla ones that turned out alright, not great, though. I think I might skip this recipe in the future. Or maybe I will try it once more, but not anytime soon.

Ingredients:

1 cup slivered almonds

2 cups powdered sugar

4 egg whites

5 tbsp. granulated sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment and set aside.

Process almonds in food processor until finely ground, about 1 minute. Add the powdered sugar and process until very fine. Sift mixture into a bowl.

Beat egg whites on medium-low speed until frothy, increase speed to medium-high and beat until whites form medium-stiff peaks, about 2 minutes. Gradually add granulated sugar, whisking constantly until stiff, glossy peaks form. Stir in vanilla.

Transfer whites to a large bowl. Fold in almond mixture in two batches. Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a plain 1/2-inch piping tip. Pipe 1-inch rounds about 1/2-inch apart on baking sheets. Set aside for 10 to 15 minutes.

Bake until puffed and lightly colored, 10 to 15 minutes. Set aside to cool completely before peeling off parchment.

They tasted okay, a little sweet for my liking, even with the tart curd.

I am on hiatus from macaroons...

Geroy's Birthday

Silly, I know. A friend decided at the last minute to celebrate her puppy's first birthday. She asked me along with my little dog, and it was a great afternoon with friends and too many snacks. It also gave me an excuse to do some baking! I decided on trying the Magnolia Bakery's Vanilla Cupcakes. I found the little bears at a craft store, they're very cute.

Most of Magnolia Bakery's cupcakes are frosted with an offset spatula, but I took the opportunity to test out my new Ateco #828 piping tip. I had to search high and low to find one, and I've been itching to use it.

The icing is white, so it would be a great opportunity to get creative with colors!

The buttercream in particular is extremely easy to work with, sometimes they can be challenging.

The recipe is also available online at marthastewart.com.

For the Cake:

1 1/2 cups self-rising flour

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup milk

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners; set aside. In a small bowl, combine flours; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth and creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until fluffy, about three minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla, and scraping down sides of bowl in between each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.

Divide batter evenly among liners, filling about three-quarters full. Bake, rotating halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool in tins for 15 minutes. Remove cupcakes from tins, and cool completely on rack. Once cupcakes have cooled, frost the tops by using a small offset spatula.

For the Vanilla Buttercream:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

6 to 8 cups confectioners' sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Directions:

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter, 4 cups sugar, milk, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy, 3 to 5 minutes. Gradually add remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating for about 2 minutes after each addition, until icing reaches desired consistency; you may not need to add all the sugar. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.