Cupcakes!

OK, I have been trying to write this post for over a week and keep getting thwarted. Twice! Yes, twice! Typepad has decided to either delete my post entirely or not save my changes. Sure, it could be my own damn fault, but I'd rather blame Typepad (especially since the first disappearance was very mysterious). So with no further complaining . . .

In December of 2001 my mom and I went to visit my brother in NYC. A friend of a friend of my mom's insisted we try Magnolia Bakery cupcakes. And try we did! Vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting. Vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting. Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting. And maybe also, chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting. I can't remember. It was a flurry of cupcakes! They were delicious. That year for Xmas mom gave me the Magnolia Bakery cookbook and it turns out, these cuppies can be made at home. No cross-country trips needed. And you can thumb your nose at the cupcake limit* while you are at it.

They are not even all that hard to make. See for yourself

True Magnolia Bakery Cupcakes are topped with the Vanilla Buttercream Frosting (super yummy), however be warned this recipe yields enough frosting for 7000 cupcakes. For the cakes pictured above I used Chocolate Buttercream frosting, which, despite its anemic coloring, packs a chocolately finish.

Chocolate Buttercream icing

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, very soft
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon milk
6 ounces of semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled to lukewarm
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 1/4 cups confectioner's sugar, sifted

In a medium-size bowl, beat the butter until creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the milk carefully and beat until smooth. Add the melted chocolate and beat well. Add the vanilla extract and beat for 3 minutes. Gradually add the sugar and beat until creamy and of desired consistency.

*Brother and Mrs. Brother are coming up on the fourth anniversary of their boycott of Magnolia over the rule that you are not allowed more than a dozen cupcakes per day. Making them yourself solves this problem.

Comments

[Kyle]

Is this Cupcake Club or what? I actually have an idea for how to mitigate that 'anemic' coloring of your frosting: dutch-process (or 'Dutched') cocoa powder. They put in some alkaline additives that makes the taste a bit more like dark chocolate, and really ramps down the color into the black region. Just add a Tablespoon or so along with the melted chocolate; start with 1 T and add more if you like. Also, if you get a cheap plastic piping bag and a star tip (you can get a set of 15 disposable bags and 3 tips at Sur La Table for, like, $10), you can pipe a heaping helping of frosting on the cupcake, thereby having less 'left over." It can be piled high with just a knife, too, but it's a bit easier with the bag, believe it or not.

[Bonnie]

I had the same typepad problems.....but I think one of those delicious cupcakes would make me feel better.