Honestly, I'm a better cook than baker, but there are not many dishes that can indulge my insatiable love for chocolate so sometimes, I turn to baking. Well, actually that's a bit of a lie. There are quite a lot of chocolate-based dishes out there (from foie gras, chocolate pasta, chocolate covered chicken wings, chocolate oxtail stew to what I believe would be my personal kryptonite once I finally make them, chocolate-covered bacon) but I'm not ready for any of them just yet.
Today, we're going to do a study of the perfect manipulating tactic (up there with compassion and generosity): cupcakes that can and will kill. I am yet to meet someone who'll say no to cupcakes. I am also yet to meet a person who will turn down a box of cupcakes lovingly baked and boxed for his/her consumption. Cupcakes are the new red roses, I swear. Also, it's deceptive. Was it thoughtfully sent because you are liked or was it given to you so you can destroy your waistline with your own volition? Tricky, tricky.
No, seriously, this is just a pseudo-process post of a small baking session I gave in to because I had nothing better to do (actually, I did but in typical fashion, I didn't want to do it so I baked instead). Warning: Too much chocolate is bad for asthmatics. Believe me, I know. Let's begin.
The first step is to gather the chocolates you have lying around at home. Typically, I use chocolates that I don't like eating on their own. An example of chocolates you devour in its purest: Royce' Nama Chocolate with Cherry Marnier, an assortment of Lindt Lindor truffles and Patchi chocolates from Beirut. Chocolates you use for baking projects: Please see picture above. It's a simple analogy, really:
Next, pick out the basics. These are chocolates that do not have nuts or rice krispies in them. I have a fondness for dark chocolates so the majority of chocolate blocks in my cupcakes are dark. Special dark, actually. Mildly sweet, they have the flavor and consistency of baking chocolate.
Then, you have to strip the chocolates off their wrapping paper. That sounds so dramatic but whatever. The fun part is that you have to take a knife and chop these beautiful morsels into even tinier pieces. Delightful, really. This is the highlight of the whole baking process, if I may say so myself.
Chopped chocolates deserve three gold stars! My papa used to tell me that the stars and moon follow me around because I'm a very good little girl, and that they will stop following me if I misbehave. When I started getting stars in school, I immediately thought I must be very, very good to get so many stars around me. Thus, the birth of my inflated ego. That is a totally unrelated note but whenever I cook or bake, I get a tad nostalgic and I remember my father. I remember the disapproving look on his face which lasts up until he eats whatever it is I just made. :) Oh-kay, moving on...
This is what it looks like when you're done mixing. Strong-willed people are able to keep their fingers off the sides of the bowl. I have to say, I am not one of those people and although it probably puts me at risk for salmonella poisoning, I will keep tasting the batter for as long as I'm baking. The little things, people. Enjoy it.
See how Max from 2 Broke Girls does it? I'd like to think I bake like her but then she's from Brooklyn and I'm a broke girl from the Third World. Also, she has a killer rack and I just walk along the lines of killer whale. By the way, this show is so good. It's even better than New Girl. It will also leave you craving for cupcakes and/or a chance to punch hipsters in the face.
The cupcakes go into a preheated 325F oven for exactly 20 minutes. My oven is a little wonky so I check every ten minutes and turn the sides of my baking pans for even cooking. When done, your butter cupcakes should be a nice golden brown.
The cupcakes should taste fine on their own. The best part is when you bite into the cupcake and you taste the buttery cake and the bits of dark chocolate all at once. Eeez fantastic.
The last part is leaving the cupcakes to cool on a rack but since I'm a lazy ass, I just leave them on a big plate to set. Of course, my sister had to talk me into making a small bowl of marshmallow icing for her own set of cupcakes (I gave her six). I don't pipe icing very well so I just use a spoon.
When in doubt, add marshmallow icing! Personally, I think my butter cupcakes taste better without frosting. For me, they're best paired with coffee. ♥
There you have it, 24 pieces of cupcakes and an asthma attack waiting to happen. :) Butter cupcake recipe, as promised, is under the cut!
Butter cupcakes, a recipe
This is a simple, fool-proof recipe for butter cupcakes or butter cake. Happy baking! (Oh, and you can find best butter cupcake tips here if you like doing things perfectly.)
What you need:
200g butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
2 1/2 cups self-raising flour, sifted
1/2 cup milk
Here's what you should do (or if you're lazy, dump everything and mix with a mixer as seen above):
(For formality's sake, we'll use a standard recipe that Betty Crocker will approve of)
Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced oven. Line muffin or mini-muffin pans with paper cases. Using an electric mixer, beat butter, vanilla and sugar in a small bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs. Transfer mixture to a large bowl. Stir in half the flour. Stir in half the milk. Repeat with remaining flour and milk until combined. For 1/3 cup-capacity muffin pans use 2 level tablespoons of mixture. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes. Alternatively, for 1 tablespoon-capacity mini muffin pans use 1 tablespoon mixture. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Stand cakes in pans for 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
A few points:
1. Marshmallow icing recipe can be found here. I added a bit of red food color to get a light pink fluff.
2. I didn't include the chocolate bits in the recipe but obviously, if you want chocolate bits, add chocolate bits. This recipe also works well with cheese bits.
