Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting and Temperature Experiment

 It dawned on me that there's a bake sale at school tomorrow. Bubby is graduating in June, and my days of school bake sales are ending. So, I couldn't pass up the opportunity! And with Valentine's Day coming up next week, it was a no-brainer to make chocolate cupcakes.  What could be easier, with pantry ingredients and a simple heart decoration, but sure to come out tasty and look enticing?

I used a recipe called "Classic Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting" from the Sally's Baking Addiction website. It's been changed since I printed it, so here is the recipe I used:

Cupcakes:

1/2 cup (42g) unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 cup (95g) all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 large eggs

1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar

1/2 cup (100g) packed light brown sugar

1/3 cup (80ml) vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line pans for 14 cupcakes.  Whisk cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt in a large bowl. Whisk eggs, sugars, oil and vanilla until completely smooth. Pour half of the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients then half the buttermilk. Whisk 5 times. Repeat and stir until just combined. Fill liners only halfway (and no more!) and bake for 18-21 minutes.

Vanilla Frosting

1 cup unsalted butter

4-5 cups confectioners' sugar

1/4 cup heavy cream

2 tsp vanilla extract

Beat butter on medium speed until creamy - about 2 minutes. Add 4.5 cups confectioner's sugar, cream and vanilla extract with the mixer running on low. Increase to high speed and beat for a fill 3 minutes.  Add up to 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar if too thin or another tbsp cream if too thick.

The new version of this recipe indicates that it makes 15 cupcakes instead of 14, as my printout said.  I found this to be true. Some of the cupcakes spilled over onto the rim of the pan a little bit, so next time I would definitely fill 15 liners.

For decorating purposes, I didn't want the cupcakes to dome. So I baked them at 330 instead of 350. They ended up being in the oven for about 25 minutes. It was weird, because at the 21-minute mark a toothpick was coming out clean, but they looked a bit "shaky" and not quite done, so I increased the oven temperature to 350 and added some extra time.  Even after 25 minutes, the tops looked weirdly undercooked. I cut one open and that wasn't the case at all, in fact they were actually a tiny bit dry.  I'm sure that once frosted, however, no one will be able to tell the difference. But I should have trusted that first toothpick.

There were 2 other cupcakes to bake after the initial dozen. These I baked at 350. I checked them at 15 minutes and they were already done. I really have to be careful with this oven. Sigh! The tops of these two cupcakes looked much better, ie "normal", and they didn't dome that much at all.  So, next time, I will just not mess around with the temperature.

When making the frosting, I whipped 4 cups of confectioner's sugar instead of the 4.5 cups.  But it was too creamy, so I ended up adding the additional half cup.  But whipping that started "breaking" the frosting, so I stopped whipping and didn't bother adding salt.  

For the decoration I piped a "blob" of frosting with a 1/2-inch round tip then pressed the cupcakes upside down onto parchment paper in order to get a flat top.  I placed them in the freezer for 15 minutes. You don't need any more time than that and in fact you don't want any more time than that in the freezer.  Meanwhile, I'd set some frosting apart to tint pink. A huge clot of pink coloring came out of the little bottle, so this frosting was very pink!  But, piped in a heart shape with two swipes of the big open star tip, the color contrast looked good. 

I wish I had done a better job piping the hearts, because finishing the stroke with this tip leaves a big chunky "cut off" part that I don't like.  I should practice that sometime.

There should be no problem frosting 15 cupcakes with this frosting recipe and this decoration, since I had almost a cup of frosting left.  I froze this very pink frosting for another project, and sent the cupcakes off to school with Bubby.  I hope he carries them safely to the bake sale!

Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting and Valentine's heart.