The Cupcake Experiment

I did a trial run of Kaylie's birthday cupcakes on Friday, just in case.  I'm glad I did!  Adjusting this recipe to make cupcakes rather than a bundt cake was easy.  All I had to do was to use mini chocolate chips in place of the regular ones, and cut the baking time down to about 24 minutes (for a pan of 12 cupcakes).

I used an ice cream scoop to portion them out, and ended up with about 30 cupcakes.  Elora and each did a taste test, just to ensure quality.  They were delicious, just like that.  After all, when making the bundt cake, all I do is to sprinkle the top with a bit of confectioner's sugar and it's ready to serve.  But I want to make these cupcakes over the top, so I chose this frosting to go on top.

This is where I became very glad that I was doing a practice run.  First of all, the recipe makes a TON of frosting.   The recipes says that it makes enough to frost 36 cupcakes, but I think I could have done nearly twice that many.  (I guess I just don't use as much frosting as Amanda does.)  Unless you have a very large food processor, I'd recommend cutting the recipe in half, or doing it in 2 batches.  I ended up doing the first part (creaming together the butter, sugar and cocoa) in two batches in my food processor, then dumping it all into my big mixing bowl and doing the rest with my mixer.  It made a giant mess, and I got kind of frustrated with it there for a while, but my-oh-my, was it worth it!  "Decadent" is the first word that comes to my mind.  These things really are sinful.  And I had nearly 30 of them?  I was already planning to share some with Rebekah and her husband, but I decided that I needed to take a plateful over to my neighbors as well.  They're just too dangerous, and I don't have that much self control.  

A word to the wise, though.  I'd suggest storing them in the fridge (did you see how much butter went into the frosting??) but they aren't as good when they're cold.  Either let them come to room temperature before serving, or if you want only one, try warming it up a bit in the microwave.  15 seconds at half power does it for me.  

I so love my girls.