Road-testing: Cupcakes for College
There’s nothing quite like the journey of the last child to college. In my case, my little sister (a good 10 years younger than me) is off to Southern California. We both can’t imagine what kind of wacky adventures she’ll have down there. I hope to hear at least a few times from her this coming semester (but I’m not going to hold my breath!). My sister has been, in many gleeful ways, my partner in crime. In her honor, I’m making cupcakes. Ever since my wedding last summer, cupcakes have become the best way to celebrate special events. In my mind, there’s nothing better than getting your very own, mini cake. Sometimes you just don’t want to share!.
This time I decided to road-test the Barefoot Contessa recipe for Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting. A lot of time was spent shooing hands away from the dessert platter. That alone told me that this recipe is worth making again and again. The peanut butter frosting was easy to make and it tasted exactly the way you want peanut butter frosting to taste–creamy and chock full of peanut butter goodness. Tip: let the peanut butter frosting sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before you decorate the cupcakes so it reaches a more solid consistency. For frosting decoration, I use a large plastic bag (gallon size) and cut the corner off. This makes it so easy to pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes plus you can throw the bag away afterwards.
The cupcakes were pretty simple too. There are two separate bowls of ingredients to mix into the butter-sugar combination. It really helps to have a sturdy, standing mixer like a KitchenAid. The butter-sugar mixture is mixed first then you add in a buttermilk-sour cream-coffee mixture and alternate with the flour-salt-cocoa powder mix. The resulting batter is very smooth and airy. The cupcakes themselves taste very rich (use the best cocoa powder that you can get….I love the Scharffen-Berger cocoa powder).
So we ate the cupcakes and they were enjoyed by all….as you can see!
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