Monday, February 25, 2008

I Heart Cupcakes



I was browsing the Martha Stewart site looking for this chocolate cupcake recipe so I could make some for my sister's birthday. I have made these before and think they are the perfect chocolate cupcake; rich, moist, dense, delicious. Many of the comments mentioned there was too much cocoa and thought they were inedible. I was compelled to leave a comment about how much I liked this recipe. To do so on Martha's site you have to sign up and I was so bent on leaving my comment, I ended up becoming a memeber and signing up for a bunch of emails and newsletters. I know, I'm a sucker.

The recipe calls for sourcream which produces a very dense batter. Using a cookie scoop to fill the pan made the process a lot easier and also helped to fill each cup evenly. The cupcakes baked flat, lending a nice surface for frosting. As they cooled, they shrunk up and the liners started falling off. I hadn't used liners for the mini cupcakes, so I just removed them all and called it good.

The white frosting accompanying this recipe is very basic; butter, powdered sugar, milk. I considered putting in some vanilla, but decided to try it as it was written. I really like how it looks stark white against the dark chocolate brown, and vanilla would have produced a cream color.

My kids usually just go for the frosting and leave the bare cupcake behind, but there was nothing left this time. These cupcakes are so good, I ended up making them a couple of days later to bring to our good friend Lane's birthday celebration. This time, I was short on sour cream and ended up using half butter milk. They had the same flavor, just a touch lighter in texture, and didn't shrink up as much when cooling, bonus!





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