Think of it as a Miniature Cake

I have a confession to make. I don't like cupcakes(!). I also don't like muffins, but let's save that for another post.

Considering they are both baked in the same tin, one could assume my dislike centers around their shape or size. One would be wrong. I'm all for baking and eating convenient hand-held pastries. What I'm NOT for is convenient hand-held pastries that are dry, stale, or worse too sweet. Herein lies the problem. Nearly every cupcake I have ever consumed has fallen into one or more of those categories.


In the 90's there was a popular TV show about 4 thirty-something women living, loving, dating, and breaking-up in perhaps the greatest city in the world (I'm not at all biased). One of their hangouts was this bakery. Which is now famous for it's cupcakes. Which are not very good. They filmed one scene with the main character eating a cupcake and years later the whole country is still feeling the affects of the craze started in that little Greenwich Village hotspot.

Why am I writing a post about cupcakes if I don't like them, you ask? That is a fine question. In fact I asked it of myself just before sitting down to type this. Here is the answer: It just so happens that a friend of mine had a birthday party last week. When invited to this birthday party I immediately began to scour my brain, cookbooks, and fellow blogsites for "just the thing" to make. First it was going to be a fantastic 3 layer Tres Leches cake. Ooh! how about miniature Hazelnut Panna Cotta with Blackberry Compote. No, definitely Key Lime Bars. Brownies. Biscotti? . . . you get the idea. In the end what it boiled down to was logisitics. This birthday was a joint party for my friend and his housemate which meant lots of people, lots of beer, and not a lot of places to sit with a proper piece of cake on a plate and eat it. This was just the situation for a convenient hand-held pastry.

I'd like to be able to tell you that the cupcakes I took to his party were the best cupcakes ever. They were not. They were little morsels that disintegrated into a pile of crumbs the instant you peeled the wrapper off. They were so wimpy that you basically had to use the blob of chocolate frosting inevitably stuck on your fingers to mash around on the paper and retrieve as many crumbs as possible before jamming the whole mess in your mouth. Not a pretty site. This is not what to take to a birthday party for a friend who is also a baker!

Such things happen when a girl gets all her pastry recipes from either coast and winds up in the middle of the country 5,000 feet above sea level. Surely I'm not the first to tell you this: things do not bake the same here. Sure there are some tips and tricks to high altitude baking, but the real trick is that there is no golden rule. Each type of baked good and/or recipe requires slightly different tweaking, making me a very frustrated little baker with a lot of sorry looking pastries coming out of my kitchen.


I am determined not to give up. The dream of my bakery has become good motivation to stick with a recipe and keep tweaking and testing until I get it just right. This time I was lucky enough to get it figured out on the second try. As I sit here typing there are just shy of 3 dozen mini cupcakes basking in the glow of perfection mere inches from my computer. Ahhh, the sweet smell (and taste) of success.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting


This recipe yields batter for one 9-inch single-layer cake OR about 4 dozen mini cupcakes (I'm not sure how many full sized cupcakes it would make, clearly I didn't do due diligence with this recipe!).

 I apologize that this recipe is in weight rather than volume measurement, I forget that not everyone has a kitchen scale kicking around in the cupboards. I will do my homework over the next few days and try to get some volume measurements posted on here.


2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 oz unsalted butter, room temperature
8 oz sugar
6 oz cake flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda (if you live at sea level, double this amount)
pinch of salt
4 oz full fat sour cream
1/2 c whole milk


Preheat oven to 325 F. Place a rack in the upper-middle portion of your oven.


In the bowl of an electric mixer combine butter and sugar. Using a paddle attachment cream on medium speed for 5 minutes. Add vanilla extract and eggs one at a time, mixing until incorporated. Stop and scrape your bowl well. Beat on high for 1 minute. Sift together cake flour, baking soda, and salt. Add flour mixture in thirds, alternating with the sour cream (in two batches), so that you begin and end with flour. Slowly pour in the milk while mixing on low speed. The batter will be runny and somewhat separated. Wait for it to begin to come together then stop and scrape the bowl thoroughly. Mix on low speed for one more minute.


If using a cake pan, grease it and place a circle of parchement paper on the bottom and grease that as well. If you are using muffin tins line them with paper liners. Fill each tin 2/3 full.


For mini cupcakes bake 12-15 minutes, turning about 3/4 of the way through. The bake time for full size cupcakes will be longer, probably 20-25 minutes and a cake may take 30-40 minutes. The best way to know if your cupcakes or cake is done is to gently press the top with your finger. The batter should be firm yet springy. If the spot you pressed holds an indentation the cake needs a few more minutes in the oven. You can also test with a toothpick or skewer, it should come out clean.


Chocolate Frosting

One of the best, and easiest frostings to make is chocolate ganache. You can be patient and let it sit and firm up at room temperature overnight, or place it in the fridge for a bit to speed things along. You can also chill it just slightly in the fridge and then whip it with a mixer until you get a light fluffy mousse-like frosting. You can also flavor it a number of ways if you like by steeping orange peel or coffee beans, etc. in the hot cream before adding it to the chocolate. The possibilities are nearly endless.

You may have some ganache left over; it is delicious straight from the fridge on a spoon or add a couple spoonfuls to a cup of hot milk for hot chocolate, or melt it and use it as a chocolate fondue for fresh fruit.


8 oz bittersweet chocolate (60% or higher)
8 oz heavy cream
flavor of choice (optional)

If your chocolate came in a large piece chop it into pieces no larger than a quarter. Place chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl.

In a small saucepan heat heavy cream and flavor ingredient (if using) just to a boil. Keep an eye on it; cream can boil over in an instant and it's a mess you don't want to clean up! If you are using a flavor, turn off the heat and let the cream and flavor ingredient sit for 10-30 minutes, this is called steeping. Vary the time based on how intensely flavored you want your frosting.

If you steeped your cream, reheat it just to a boil. Slowly pour the hot cream through a strainer over your bowl of chocolate. Allow the chocolate and cream to sit for a few minutes so that the chocolate can soften. Gently whisk the chocolate and cream together, using small concentric circles. Mix until smooth.

Place a piece of plastic wrap right on the surface of the ganache and leave out at room temperature overnight or place in the fridge for a while, stirring from time to time as it thickens. Be sure not to let it get too hard around the edges between stirring or you will end up with chunks in your frosting and it will be hard to pipe.

When frosting is a spreadable consistency spoon it into a piping bag fitted with a large star-tip and frost each cupcake with a gentle swirl motion, letting pressure off the bag as the tip comes around to where you started; this will stop the flow of frosting and make a nice little point.