Cupcakes are generally wonderful, and these are no exception.
These cupcakes were the first thing that I really made up here, and I ended up making them twice in one week because they were so delicious. This was also my first experiment with piping; I just cut off the corner of a ziploc, which while only mildly successful, felt very impressive.
I was looking for a chocolate cupcake recipe to make with ingredients I had on hand. I found this recipe from Martha Stewart and though it looked okay, but the comments seemed to indicate that it was somehow 'light' or 'diet'. Well, that certainly wasn't what I wanted. Another comment suggested adding dry pudding mix and oil to the recipe to make it especially rich and delicious. That sounded better! It didn't specify how much pudding mix, so I just decided to experiment and added in the whole box.
The dough was a surprising texture - it totally stuck to itself. See how clean the side of the bowl is? That's because the dough stayed in a giant ball. It made me nervous at first because I thought it was a sign my experimentation was leading to failure. I ended up adding some extra buttermilk because I thought it was too thick; I thought maybe the pudding mix needed some extra liquid. It did get a little bit more liquidy, but the texture actually was awesome because it made the dough super easy to spoon into the cupcake tins (especially for mini ones - those things are usually really annoying to fill so this batter was great for that).
After adding in all these extra ingredients, I wasn't sure how the cupcakes were going to turn out, so I decided to make a tray of mini-cupcakes first as an experiment. When they turned out okay (I had to taste test of course), I continued on with the regular sized cupcakes.
They did sink a little bit in the middle. At the time I figured it was from all the extra stirring I was doing with my experimental added ingredients, but when I made them later in the week they had the same problem. The ratio of the baking ingredients probably needs to be adjusted so they rise properly, but I don't know enough chemistry to figure that out. Anyways, that's easily covered with frosting!
Yum! They tasted delicious - and they looked delicious on my new Hello Kitty serving tray (my score from Chinatown; the tag said 18.00 but the store sold it for $10!).
For the cupcakes:
Ingredients (Makes 12)
-3/4 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
-3/4 cup sugar
-1 teaspoon baking powder
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (the recipe says Dutch-process is ideal, but I just used regular)
-3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
-9 tablespoons buttermilk
-1 large egg
-1 large egg white
-1 packet of dry chocolate pudding mix (4 oz)
-4 tablespoons vegetable oil
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard 12-cup muffin tin (or two 6-cup muffin tins) with paper liners. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
- With an electric mixer, combine cocoa and 3 tablespoons hot water until a thick paste forms (the recipe claims this process intensifies the chocolate flavor - my cocoa wouldn't paste and just kind of clumped up but then it created deposits of chocolate in the cupcakes so I didn't mind). Add butter, oil, buttermilk, egg, and egg white; beat until combined. Add dry pudding mix and beat until combined. Whisk in flour mixture until smooth.
- Scoop (or spoon) batter into prepared tin(s). Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Frost and decorate as desired.
For the frosting:
Ingredients
-4 sticks (1 pound) unsalted butter, softened
-6 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
-Pinch of salt
Directions
- Put butter in bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to medium; add sugar 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well, about 5 minutes total. Add vanilla and salt. Raise speed to medium-high; beat until smooth, about 1 minute more.
Cupcakes improvised from Martha Stewart, frosting straight from Martha Stewart
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