Thursday, March 22, 2012

Little Bites

Pin It


I did some baking earlier this week and had some delicious left over icing in my refrigerator calling my name.  I gave in today and made some mini bite cupcakes. After all , we can't let icing go to waste, I think it's an unwritten baker's code ! I've made these cupcakes before and posted about them here .  This recipe has become my go to recipe for chocolate cupcakes. They have a deep dark chocolate flavor with a moist beautiful crumb. I usually follow the recipe exactly as written but I didn't realize I was out of mayonnaise so I substituted Greek Yogurt -they were just as delicious . The recipe is from the book :Sarabeth's Bakery:From my Hands to Yours.  Black Beauty Cupcakes-don't they sound gorgeous and mouth watering and well, elegant for cupcakes ?  They are all of that and more .


Sarabeth's cookbook contains so many incredible recipes- I highly recommend you  add it to your cookbook library. Her blog also has some recipes to tide you over until you buy the cookbook !


You can find the recipe  at About.com Entertaining (The chocolate ganache frosting recipe that Sarabeth uses for these  is included with that recipe) .  I used Cream Cheese Icing with Lyle’s Golden Syrup for my frosting.

Black Beauty Cupcakes
Makes 12  regular size cupcakes or 36 mini cupcakes

Ingredients:

Softened unsalted butter, for the pans
½ cup cocoa powder plus 2 tablespoons Dutch-processed cocoa powder, divided*
1 ½ cups plus 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour, divided *
1 cup hot water
1 cup superfine sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
¾ cup mayonnaise
*If you are using muffin/cupcake liners you can eliminate the 2 additional tablespoons of cocoa powder and flour

Preparation:

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350°F.
2. To make the cakes, butter the insides of 12 muffin cups or use muffin liners. .(If you are using muffin/cupcake liners you can eliminate this step)-Sift together 2 tablespoons of the cocoa and 2 tablespoons of the flour. Dust the insides of the molds with the cocoa-flour mixture, and tap out the excess
3. Combine the remaining ½ cup cocoa powder and the hot water in the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer. Whisk to dissolve the cocoa. Whisk in the sugar. Attach the bowl to the mixer and fix with the paddle attachment. Sift the remaining 1 ½ cups flour, the baking soda, and salt together. With the mixer on low speed, in thirds, add the flour mixture, alternating with two equal additions of the mayonnaise, and mix, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, until the batter is smooth. (The batter will seem a little thinner than usual.) Using a 2 ½-inch-diameter ice-cream scoop, divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.
4. Bake until a cake tester inserted in a cake comes out clean, about 20 minutes(for the minis about 12-15minutes). Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Gently unmold the cakes onto a rack, and let cool completely.
 (The cupcakes can be made up to 1 day ahead, covered with a cake dome, and refrigerated. Serve chilled or at room temperature.)


I found this fabulous frosting  recipe over at Hey Good Looking What you got Cooking and it's a perfect not too sweet vanilla frosting .

Cream Cheese Icing with Lyle’s Golden Syrup*
1 (8 ounce) package of Philly’s Cream Cheese softened
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 Tablespoon Lyle’s Golden Syrup(if you can't find Lyle's you can substitute honey)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Combine all the ingredients in a medium sized bowl and cream together until smooth. I used a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip to decorate these cupcakes.


Most of these went to work with J this morning,but of course I kept a little secret stash for us. And I'm getting ready to have one now with an iced cold glass of milk.  A great way to chase away the grey skies in Seattle !