Devil's Food Cupcakes (To Cure All Ills)

The lull in blog posts has largely been due to two things; too much work (aka too many revolutions and natural disasters) and a small dose of broken heart.  Alas, Mr J and I have parted ways, so there will be no more tasty whole-animal-spit-roast events... at least until I figure out how to do it myself!

Given the sadness of recent times, both on my own part and for people around the world who have so tragically been affected by the earthquakes and tsunamis in Christchurch and Japan, I thought it was time for some sweet sweet baked treats.  I certainly felt a whole lot more together while I was measuring and mixing and melting and baking.  It's amazing how the process helped me move from feeling crazy out of control to a measure of contentment and healing.  Thus the power of cooking.

And so I bring you Devil's Food Cupcakes (To Cure All Ills), care of Martha Stewart's marvellous "Cupcakes" cookbook.  In retrospect, I should probably have read the recipe more closely before embarking on this one - it seemed simple, it involved chocolate and used up my yummy sour cream bought straight from the dairy man at the farmer's market a while ago.  Beyond that, I just assumed it was your basic, "cream butter and sugar, add eggs and flour, bake" kind of recipe.  But you know what they say about assuming!  This was in fact quite an involved recipe, and quite unusual for a "Martha" cupcake recipe in that it used butter rather than vegetable oil.

I guess the key differences between this and most of the other cupcake recipes I have used were the fact that I had to melt the butter and sugar together first, then whip it for 4 minutes while it cooled in my KitchenAid.  I also had to mix the sizable amount of cocoa with hot water into a deliciously chocolate-brown paste before adding it almost at the end of the recipe.  Sour cream was also added, replacing the milk.  The result was an absolutely delicious, dark chocolatey, rich and moist cupcake that will most definitely be a permanent feature in my repertoire.

I topped these cupcakes with a brown sugar cream cheese frosting (yum!!!!) and added as a final touch some crystalised violets my Mum bought me from Essential Ingredient yonks ago, which had been sitting rather forlornly in my pantry.  The result was very well received, despite some strange rising shapes reminiscent of souffles in some of the cups as a result of me using the fan forced setting on my oven rather than the classic bake setting.  You live and learn, don't you?  Guess that's the takeaway message from my week.

Devil's Food Cupcakes (To Cure All Ills)

Ingredients

- 3 cups plain flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons sea salt flakes (I like Maldon)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon bi carb soda
- 3/4 cup cocoa (Dutch process)
- 3/4 cup hot water
- 1 1/2 cups butter
- 2 1/4 cup white sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup sour cream

Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients
-  1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
- 8 ounces cream cheese (room temperature)
- 1 cup raw caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To start with preheat your oven to 170 degrees Celcius, and pop some cupcake cases in your pans - this should make approximately 36 cupcakes according to Martha's recipe, but mine made around 24 cupcakes - half large and half medium-sized.

Next step, pop all your dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, bi carb soda and salt) into a big bowl and whisk to combine - I know it sounds weird but whisking it really does keep it light, without having to sieve the flour.  But if you want to sieve it, be my guest - it may be even more delicious.

Now, in a second medium-sized bowl, use yet another whisk to combine your cocoa and hot water so it forms a deliciously glossy chocolate paste.  Yum!  Did I mention I am a fan of the whisk?  Just look at my collection of different sizes... I love the small ones for things like salad dressings.  But I digress.

So you've put your dry ingredients and cocoa paste to one side, and then set up your KitchenAid (other mixer or hand beater).  Now, melt on a medium-high heat the butter and sugar in a medium saucepan.  When it's melted, pop it into the mixer bowl and beat for about 4 minutes on a medium-high speed until it is cooled and getting fluffy.  (See, this is where it starts seeming like a particularly complicated recipe, for a cupcake recipe, but the results are worth it.)

Now add each egg, beating between each addition until they are completely incorporated.  When this is done, add half the dry flour mix, followed by half the sour cream, then the last of the flour, and then the last of the sour cream.  When it's all mixed, add in the cocoa paste and the vanilla.

Mix just until it's all combined and starting to look thick and unctuous.   Absolutely fabulous, this delicious batter will call you to leave rather more in the bowl than you have intended, just so there's more for you to lick at the end!

Now, fill the cupcake tins/liners to about 3/4 filled.  Pop in the oven for around 20-30 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.  Let them cool completely before you ice them.

While they are cooling, it is time to make up your icing.  Beat the butter and cream cheese together, then add the sugar and vanilla.  Easy peasy.  And super, super delicious.  It's certainly a crowd pleaser!

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

On a slightly more successful note (by comparison to my failed sorbet experiment), the happy ending to the weekend's tale of woe was the perfectly delicious Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting I baked on Sunday afternoon.

I have always loved the combination of the earthy vanilla-chocolate sweetness of red velvet cake topped with the sour creaminess of the cream cheese frosting.  I also get a kick out of the contrast between the dark, red-brown colour of the cake and the whiteness of the icing.  But I have been a bit scared of making a red velvet cake myself, though god knows why because this was pretty straight forward recipe (even if it did make an exceptionally large number of cupcakes).  I think largely as a result of Saturday's sorbet trauma, I chose a recipe from Martha Stewart's Cupcake cookbook and stuck to it to the letter - I was not disappointed by the results!

The recipe helped me to conquer two kitchen-related fears:
1) using large amounts of vegetable oil rather than butter in cakes, and
2) recipes involving vinegar.
I'm not sure whether all the blog-o-sphere whinging about Martha's recipes relates only to her online site, but this recipe was seamless, well explained and absolutely delicious.  It's the second recipe I have cooked from this cookbook, and both have turned out beautifully.

The cupcakes also gave me an opportunity to use one of the many items in my kitchen I unearthed in the New Year and pledged that I would not neglect for another year!  Yippee!!  So, now these gorgeous red and white cupcake papers have had a work out and boy are they convenient when you have a recipe that makes enough batter for 38 full-sized cupcakes and you only possess one 12-cupcake tin to bake them in.  I did 12 in normal white cupcake liners in my existing tin, and the other 12 in the red-and-white stand alone cups I had purchased about a year ago and never used.  Both shapes worked really well and to great acclaim when I presented them at a Sunday night BBQ and today at the office morning tea.  Snaps to Martha!

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups sifted plain flour
1 1/2 cups neutral flavoured vegetable oil (I used sunflower oil)
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon sea salt (the little bursts of saltiness work perfectly with the frosting)
2 tablespoons cocoa powder (the darker and more expensive the better)
2 large eggs (the recipe says room temperature, but mine were out of the fridge and it was fine)
1/2 teaspoon red paste food colouring (you need to use a hell of a lot more if you only have liquid stuff)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons white vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate soda

Frosting ingredients

1 cup butter (unsalted and softened)
12 ounces cream cheese (also room temperature - helps to whip it up real good!)
4 cups icing sugar (yes, 4 cups.  I know.  This makes one hell of a lot of frosting)

Let's start with the easy stuff - heat your oven to 175 degrees celcius.   Now, line your cupcake tins with pretty, pretty liners.

Now that you're organised, go sift your flour, salt and cocoa and whisk together until combined.  Pop the dry mix aside while you get out the Kitchenaid and deal with the wet ingredients.

Whisk the oil and sugar together until they're all combined, then add in your eggs one at a time, whisking together properly between each.  Add in the food colouring (beware, it will stain your fingers and your tea towels.  It's water soluble, so don't panic) and vanilla extract, and mix until combined - and a lovely bright red colour.

While your speed is low, add in a third of your flour mix, then half your buttermilk.  Then a third of your flour mix, followed by the other half of your buttermilk. Finally, add the last third of your flour mix and only use the mixer for as long as necessary to combine.

Now comes the fun chemistry part of the process.  Mix the bicarb soda and vinegar in a separate bowl and watch it fizz and foam.   Add quickly to the batter and mix for only ten seconds.  I don't know why the ten seconds (or the vinegar-soda mix for that matter) is necessary, but don't question the genius - this tastes amazing when it's done.

Okay, now fill your cupcake liners two-thirds of the way up and bake in the oven for around 20 minutes.  Test with a cake tester before you remove from the oven, to make sure it's cooked all the way through.  I used the "classic bake" setting on my oven, rather than the fan-forced oven setting and it worked a treat.

When they're done, pop them out of the tins and onto some wire cooling racks until they are completely cooled through.

Now, onto the cream cheese frosting - which was super easy (as long as your butter and cream cheese is room temperature)!  My expert cupcake-making-red-velvet-baking friend had advised me to ensure I whipped the butter and cream cheese first, before adding the icing sugar, otherwise it turns all soupy and doesn't taste nearly as nice.  Fortunately, that was exactly what Martha's recipe required...

Beat your butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy.  Add in your icing sugar, one cup at a time and making sure each addition is properly and smoothly whipped into the butter and cream cheese.  And that's it - done.

Ice your cupcakes and eat immediately.  Or not.  You can keep the frosting in the fridge for up to 3 days, and the un-iced cupcakes too - just make sure you return the cupcakes to room temperature before you serve them.

And they were a total hit.  Musky, earthy not-quite-vanilla-not-quite-chocolate with all the creamy, sweet-sour counterpoint of the frosting.  Highly recommended.