Birthday Cupcakes

Covered with plastic for the delivery.

Well, it has been a while since I baked something with white flour and white sugar, but a friend was having a birthday and she needed some cupcakes to help her celebrate her day.  I set aside some time Sunday to bake and decorate, and took twice as long as I thought I would.

To start with, I made a chocolate cupcake with cream cheese centers, and filled them way too much, the first batch were so big they all stuck together and it looked like one big cake.  I cut them apart, put them aside and started on the second batch.  They turned out just the right size.

Then I decided this was the perfect time to pull out my never-before-used Russian decorating tips. I watched a couple You tube videos on how to use them and I made buttercream just like the recipe on Pinterest called for, how hard could it be? Well, I could not get those damn flowers to stick to the cupcakes...the buttercream was just too tight.  So I went to plan B and added more cream to the buttercream and winged it with the other tips I had.  They weren't wonderful, but they were o.k. and I decided I needed to bake more often and practice a bit more.

While I didn't have one, I was told they were delicious.  So if you need a good chocolate cupcake, this is the recipe for you.  And I have some Russian decorating tips I can lend you, but I think they might be defective, I'm just saying.

Dave delivered them for me, I forgot to take a picture at home!

Chocolate Cupcakes
makes 24 (not 12 like I tried the first time)

2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350˚F.  Line 24 cupcake  tins with liners.  Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and whisk together.  Add all the wet ingredients and mix on low for about 30 seconds, then on med-high for 2 minutes.
Fill  cups 1/4 full.

For Cream Cheese filling
8 oz. cream cheese
1/4 Tbsp. sugar
1 egg

Cream cream cheese and sugar together until well combined and smooth.  Add egg and mix until completely incorporated.

Spoon a dollop of cream cheese on top of cake batter in each cupcake well, dividing evenly.

Top cream cheese with cake batter filling the cups about 2/3 full (not too full or they will rise and grow into one giant cupcake!)

Bake for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cool in cupcake tins for 10 minutes, then remove to a wire cooling rack and let cool completely.

American Buttercream

2 cups butter
1/4 cup vanilla instant pudding mix (or cornstarch if you don't have pudding mix)
2 Tbsp. heavy cream, plus more for consistency
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla extract, or flavoring of choice
2 lbs. powdered sugar

Sift your powdered sugar into a large bowl - do it or your frosting will be lumpy, yech.
Mix butter, pudding mix, 2 Tbsp. cream, salt and vanilla together until very smooth.  Add powdered sugar by spoonful to incorporate slowly.  Mix until smooth but do not whip, you don't want air in your buttercream.

Color with gel colors of choice, if desired, and decorate or use white and frost.

August 7, 2019  Sunrise 5:10 am  sunset 10:39 pm  Temp. 66/ L 48°F

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