real life test kitchen: classic cupcakes
Last weekend my husband, the chef in our household, decided to give us a treat and test out a new recipe: homemade chocolate cupcakes. He turned to Cook’s Illustrated – his source for any and every basic, classic, reliably good recipe. First stop: the grocery store. We had everything we needed except heavy cream, sour cream, and a week’s supply of butter. The only piece of equipment we were missing was a double boiler; instead, he improvised, holding a smaller pot over a larger one to melt the bittersweet chocolate. It worked like a charm. They baked up easily, nothing burned, the house smelled great. For the frosting, Josh made their vanilla buttercream recipe. We separated half the frosting when done, and to the remaining frosting added a few drops of fuchsia food coloring bought on a whim a while back at Sur La Table. The only strike against this treat was that the muffin cups (is that what they’re called?) were too damn big and stuck out over even the frosting layer — so they weren’t as pretty as they could have been. Oh well, they still tasted great. Sweet success! — Beth J.
ahh cupcakes! you just can never go wrond with the yumminess of a cupcake!
CUPCAKES!!! GooooooD…. YUM…
Well, they certainly LOOK yummy! I am sure the are!! Love weekend baking! Especially when it is raining!
Uh, re the “too big” muffin cups … perhaps it would be best to take the paper off before frosting the muffins, particularly if the finished muffins don’t rise high enough … muffin cups come in a pretty standard size, so perhaps the recipe is at fault … or you didn’t fill the cups with enough batter …
Dig the magenta food coloring. While you’re cupcaking — This is awfully “cute”, but really it’s would be pretty enough with the cupcakes I think I can suppress my desire to be cool long enough to just enjoy it. Check it out : http://www.kitchenkrafts.com/product.asp?pn=CD0307 and also http://www.kitchenkrafts.com/product.asp?pn=PP1520.
Terrific that you’re doing this blog! I’m a former Budget Living fan AND a recently laid off magazine editor myself.
Double boilers seem like such a relic of the past! You don’t need one to melt chocolate. Just use the microwave. I’ve melted high quality chocolate on high without scorching it (one minute at time, just keep checking) but if that makes you nervous you can microwave it at a lower power. The microwave is also great for softening butter. (A few seconds on low power is all you need to get stick of butter at room temperature.)
Before serving THIS batch if it’s not too late, why not peel off the backing, turn it upside down and flatten on the plate, then plop the cupcake on top. Add a yellow/purple pansy or two for a colorful and distracting presentation and no one will ever dream you skimped on the batter.
I love Cook’s Illustrated’s book “The New Best Recipe.” There’s also a baking book, and a version with a different title that’s been repackaged to look like the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (that is, in a 3-ring binder) but that presumably has most of the same recipes – all their cookbooks have a lot of common recipes, or rather it seems like recipes from all their books end up in “The New Best Recipe.” Anyway, I never understand why people don’t rate it higher as an essential cookbook – it’s great. Most people who don’t seem to appreciate it are big fans of “How To Cook Everything”, a book I can take or leave (come on, Bittman, like I’m going to poke holes in the eggs before I boil them?)