The pressure to bake one big fabulous cake gives me the jitters — as if perfectly-formed rosettes and a swirling message written in pink icing are written into every recipe. But I think I created more work for myself by making mini cupcakes for Birdie’s first birthday because multiples require many, many, many minutes more for the spooning of batter and the frosting of cake. And a tip I tried about making a pastry bag out of a Ziploc bag was a disaster.

My main concern about these cupcakes, though, was the chocolate frosting — my favorite part of any cake. In a fit of late-night lunacy, I tested three recipes to find the one that had the best creamy, chocolatey childhood-nostalgic taste. I tried a sour cream + chocolate delight (but it was too sophisticated), one version that called for corn syrup (was that what made it so syrupy?), and the final pick — a chocolate butter frosting from an old Better Homes & Gardens cookbook. It was the right match for Betty Crocker’s yellow cake (in my defense, the clerk at the local kitchen shop made a strong case for going with a classic mix) and lots of colored sprinkles. Turn the page, for the recipe. — Megan K.

Better Homes & Gardens
Chocolate Butter Frosting

*Recipe Note: This recipe calls for an insane amount of powdered
sugar — too much for my palate. I took roughly 1 1/2 cups out. I
recommend adding the sugar a bit at a time until the frosting reaches
the right level of sweetness for your taste. By the way, for the crowd
of 40 or more at Birdie’s party, I tripled this recipe and had extra
for fridge storage.

1/3 cup butter
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 cups sifted powdered sugar (*Note: I subtracted roughly 1 ½ cups of
sugar from this amount)
¼ cup milk
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
Milk

1. In a mixing bowl beat butter till fluffy. Gradually add ½ cup
unsweetened cocoa powder and 2 cups powdered sugar, beating well.
Slowly beat in the ¼ cup milk and vanilla.
2. Slowly beat in remaining powdered sugar. Beat in additional milk,
if needed to reach spreading consistency.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 at 5:01 am and is filed under cooking, living with kids. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.