There's just something about cupcakes
that brings out the kid in all of us.
But when it comes to kids and cupcakes, let's get serious,
it's all about the frosting.
But you have to have something to put the frosting on,
and that's where I'm going to start:
my delicious moist chocolate cupcakes.
I've got one cup of all purpose flour
that I'm sifting with three quarters of a cup of sugar,
and half a cup of Dutch-process cocoa powder.
I've got two teaspoons of baking powder
and half a teaspoon of salt,
and I'll give this a quick sift into a large mixing bowl.
Really, these cupcakes are as easy to make
as a batch of muffins.
I've got half a cup of sour cream here,
and three whole eggs.
I also have half a cup of vegetable oil.
And even though I love butter in the frosting,
I find using oil in the cupcake itself
makes it really moist and tender,
and it also holds it shape
so you can peel away that cupcake paper easily.
Teaspoon of vanilla, and a whisk,
I'll pour that in all at once,
and I'll whisk this slowly at first,
and then you wanna give it a good stir.
You can use electric beaters or a mixer if you want,
but this is easy enough to make by hand.
You can tell when you've got your battery blended,
'cause it goes from being matte looking to nice and glossy.
This recipe makes an even 12 cupcakes.
The good news is it batches up easily
so if you're hosting a cupcake party and you need lots more,
well, you can double triple, quadruple, and you're all set.
You wanna to fill them about two thirds full.
There we go.
How easy was that?
Now, I've preheated my oven to 350,
and these take about 25 minutes.
And to check the doneness,
you check them just like you do a cake,
insert a skewer in the center of the cupcake,
if it comes out clean of crumbs, you know you're set.
And here are the cupcakes out of the oven and cooled,
and that's that lift in the center I was talking about.
Perfect, perfect cupcakes.
Now, this frosting is a classic cupcake buttercream.
Sometimes it's called an American buttercream,
and I'm starting out with one cup of unsalted butter
that softened to room temperature.
I'll give that a little whip first.
(loud whirring)
I've measured out four cups of icing sugar.
So first I'll add half of that amount,
beat it in starting on those speed.
(quiet whirring)
I'm using the stand mixer.
Of course you can make this frosting using electric beaters,
but you can't do it by hand.
You really need the motor
to make this frosting nice and fluffy.
(quiet whirring)
All right, at this point you can see
it's starting to get a bit fluffy,
but it's still rather firm.
And I'll be honest,
if you tried eating it right now,
you would get that grit of the icing sugar.
So to dissolve that a little bit,
I add two tablespoons of milk and I add a little vanilla,
and because I make my buttercreams using unsalted butter,
that way I'm in charge of the salt,
I do like to balance the sweetness
with just a quarter teaspoon of salt.
(quiet whirring)
Okay.
I'll add the coloring by hand.
I think I'll go for a peach.
Let's see what happens.
If you want to make your buttercream ahead of time,
what you can do is chill it,
but you have to bring it back to room temperature
and re-whip it before you use it.
So, frankly, I prefer making it
right before I plan on frosting my cupcakes.
I've got a large star tip
and let's just pipe away.
It is all about that sort of ice cream cone effect
of the frosting.
A few sprinkles on top,
and I'll leave your frosting cake ratio up to you.
You know if kids are decorating the cupcakes,
it's gonna be more frosting than cupcake.
You can't have a bad mood if you have a cupcake.
I find making cupcakes as much fun as I do eating them,
and when you see the smiles on everyone's faces,
not just the someone special who's having a birthday,
you'll feel good at taking the time to bake
for such a special occasion.
Enjoy the birthday party.