Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes with Dark Chocolate Frosting

I had big plans for the first recipe post on this cupcake project. I bought a variety of ingredients today, from blueberries to gelatin to whipping cream, and a small blowtorch. I still have plans for other recipes this week, or, possibly next week. But something came up, and I got the feeling that I needed to make some cupcakes for some specific people who, after some prodding, requested yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting.

So the first recipe (aside from the coconut cupcakes last Friday) that I will be making from my Martha Stewart cupcake book is her recipe for yellow butter cupcakes. Plain old yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting. And sprinkles if I have some in my apartment.

One of the things I love about cupcakes, and this project in general, is the amount of control I have over things. It sounds weird, but I am having one of those days in which I realize how much of my career and my personal life are beyond my control, despite my best efforts. Cupcakes, if you follow the recipe, should turn out right. I like things in my life to turn out right, which is why I followed Martha's recipe and used cake flour for the first time in my life.

I hit a snag when I got home with all my ingredients and realized I had no regular sized cupcake liners. I did, however, have close to a million of the mini cupcake liners and one mini muffin tin.

After five tiny batches, it didn't look like the level of the batter had changed at all.

I improvised by doing something I had qualms about-filling the liners and baking them in a cake pan. Experience has taught me that they don't hold their shape that way, but I really wanted to go to sleep before 2 a.m. Here were the results:

I didn't like the cupcakes shaped like hexagons, so I went back to twelve at a time. Finally, when about half the batter was gone, I gave up and put the rest in the fridge.

For those of you wondering where my theory of therapy paper has gone to during this cupcake frenzy, let me put your minds at ease: I have now written 10 pages, double-spaced. Only 15 more to go.

The next morning, I woke up and drove to Wal-Mart to buy regular sized cupcake liners, which is probably what I should have done in the first place, as the remaining batter made 14 regular-sized cupcakes.

I also made dark chocolate frosting to frost the cupcakes with. I will warn you now: nothing about these cupcakes screams health food. This frosting has a lot of chocolate and a lot of butter.

The chocolate had to be melted, cooled, and then added to the frosting. I have worked with chocolate enough to know that melting it is a delicate procedure, and that if any water gets into it while you are melting it, you can basically kiss your chocolate goodbye. I was supposed to allow 30 minutes for the melted chocolate to cool down, but I did not have that kind of time, so I improvised by making an ice bath for the chocolate container.

It's resting on a bed of frozen fries and shredded coconut.

The frosting was soft enough that I could dip the cupcakes into it, rather than having to spread it on. Also, because I am taking these cupcakes to kids, I added some extra powdered sugar because I find most kids don't like dark chocolate that much. I also threw on some sprinkles I found at Wal-Mart, which I think makes them look more festive.

Substitutions: I did not buy buttermilk because I knew I could substitute regular milk with lemon juice or vinegar. Also, I used salted butter instead of unsalted butter, just because. Then, I got worried and reduced the amount of salt I added to the dry ingredients. I just ate one, and it seems like it was okay.

Final observations:

• For a simple yellow cake recipe, it's pretty good. It's oddly moist on the outside and a little dry on the inside, but it goes well with dark chocolate frosting.


• To keep this project going, I anticipate I am going to be buying some ingredients weekly, like eggs, butter, and cupcake papers.


• I will never again make any batch of cupcakes into mini cupcakes unless the recipe instructs me to, and if that occurs, I will be buying another mini cupcake tin. A bigger mini cupcake tin.


• I have to find some way to make the amount of frosting I have cover the cupcakes I have without leaving superfluous frosting.


• I have to find some way to get rid of the 112 mini cupcakes that are sitting in my kitchen right now. Does anyone know a cleaner who will come in with a bag full of milk bottles and make them all disappear?

As a wrap-up for this post, here is a shot of my arm after I finished cleaning the kitchen.

I had been sitting at my computer for 20 minutes before I noticed it.