Chocolate Cupcakes with White Chocolate Marshmallow Buttercream Frosting

Cassidy decided to take a break from her hunt for the perfect white cupcake recipe and give chocolate cupcakes a try. Oh. My. Goodness! These are, by far, the best cupcakes she has ever made and quite possibly the best chocolate cupcakes her mommy has ever tasted. Cassidy took them to a family get-together (her first get-together with her awesome new cousins!) and let the fam critique them. Their response: LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! They thought the frosting was really, really yummy, but mostly they couldn't get over how incredibly moist these cupcakes were. They were so moist that they really required a fork, but it was worth the slight inconvenience to indulge in these melt-in-your-mouth chocolate babycakes.

All day they asked, "Babycakes, what's the secret to these incredibly moist cupcakes? How did you do it?"

Cassidy remained tight lipped . . . until now.

 Cassidy is as cute as a cupcake in her little cupcake dress, 

and she even has a cupcake rattle. She's ready to bake!

 Cassidy sifts the dry ingredients: sugar, flour, and baking soda.

 "Let me make sure this is done correctly, Mom"

 Cassidy sifts the cocoa. It's a messy job.

 We mix the dry ingredients to ensure the baking soda is incorporated.

This is an important step to cupcakes that rise evenly.

 Cassidy really isn't sure this secret ingredient is a good idea, 

but she decides to go for it. It's mayonnaise!

There's also grape jelly in there!

 Then, she had a bath.

 Then, she rolled over from her back for the first time!

She's pretty, she can bake, and she can roll over.

This girl can do it all!

 Now, she's too tired to bake anymore tonight.

We put the batter in the fridge.

 That worked out great, because the next day, 

Dada joined the fun!

 Cassidy and Daddy make the frosting.

 

Just a little taste couldn't hurt.

 Got marshmallow fluff?

 Baking is fun!

 Licking the beaters

 Cassidy is back in the tub! Daddy is giving her a bath while

Mommy finishes the frosting. 

 Babycakes

 Chocolate Cupcakes with White Chocolate Marshmallow Frosting

 Aunt Shana enjoys them.

 Cousin Bryce is so silly, but he likes them too!

 

Uncle Brian is speechless over how good they are, and

Auntie Brooke is delighted!

Auntie Brooke and Aunt Sherry give them a thumbs up!

 The three little babycakes together for the first time.

Now, this is a party!

Chocolate Cupcakes

1 cup white sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa (Cassidy doubled this to 1/2 cup)

2 tsp baking soda

1 cup water

2 TBSP grade jelly (room temp)

1 cup mayonnaise (room temp)

1 tsp vanilla extract (Cassidy doubled this to 2 tsp)

1/4 tsp salt (The recipe didn't say to do this, but Mommy thought it was a good idea.)

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Marshmallow Buttercream Frosting 

From What's New Cupcake?

3 sticks unsalted butter, room temp

2- 7oz. containers marshmallow fluff

1/2 cup confectioner's sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup white chocolate chips, melted (That was Mommy's idea.)

A Cupcake Princess

 The Easter Bunny loves cupcakes, too!

 My first Easter basket is full of cupcake books and cupcake clothes, 

but all I want to play with is this shoe.

 Mommy took my shoe! Give it back!

 

Well, actually, this paci is nice!

 This looks like a good book.

 Oh, no! Who ate the pretty cupcake?

 The Cupcake Princess

 

Cassidy Nicole

6 Months

Rubber Ducky Cupcakes

For a little Easter fun, Cassidy baked some Rubber Ducky Cupcakes from the book What's New, Cupcake? by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson. She made All-Occasion Downy Yellow Butter Cake from The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. The frosting is Vanilla Frosting by Giada De Laurentis's cooking show GIADA AT HOME.

 

Cassidy separates the eggs.

 

There's just no way Cassidy can bake cupcakes on an empty stomach.

Combining the milk, eggs, and vanilla

Cassidy sifts the dry ingredients. Yes, she's using the spaghetti strainer. It works!

Mixing the dry ingredients so the leavening (baking powder) gets fully incorporated.

Adding the butter to the dry ingredients

Mixing! Of course, Baby Cakes is on Mommy's hip and away from that scary mixer!

She adds the egg and milk mixture in three segments, 

allowing the eggs to be completely incorporated.

Busy filling the cupcake liners

Tada!

Cassidy stays busy while the cupcakes are in the oven.

Cassidy naps through CUPCAKE WARS 

while her assistant makes the frosting.

Vanilla frosting

Marshmallow duck tails and doughnut hole duck heads

Cassidy was unable to appear in these photos because she was 

asleep in her daddy's arms while her sous chef assembled the ducks.

Cupcakes dunked in melted yellow frosting

 

M&M eyes and orange Starburst duck bills

The duckies' eyes look a little bugged out! The book called for mini M&Ms, 

but Cassidy just used the regular sized M&Ms that she already had on hand. 

The duck bills are formed from 1/2 a Starburst microwaved for five seconds.

 

Quack! Quack!

All-Occasion Downy Yellow Butter Cake

6 large egg yolks at room temperature

1 cup milk

2 1/4 tsp vanilla

3 cups sifted cake flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 TBSP + 1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

12 TBSP softened unsalted butter

Step 1: Combine the egg yolks, 1/4 cup milk, and vanilla in a medium bowl.

Step 2: Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Step 3: Add the butter and the remaining milk. Mix for two minutes.

Step 4: Add the egg mixture in three batches.

     Cassidy altered the recipe just a bit. Instead of whole milk, she used buttermilk, mostly because she had it on hand and needed to use it up. Instead of cake flour, she used all-purpose flour, again, because that's what she had in the pantry. Cassidy substituted the butter for margarine. She's been using real butter for all of her recipes, but she recently read that substituting some of the butter in a cake recipe for oil can produce a moister cake. So, she decided just to try all margarine. Besides, it's so much cheaper! 

     Cassidy baked her cupcakes for 18 minutes until a knife inserted came out mostly clean, but the cake still appeared slightly underdone on top. Of all the cake she has baked so far, this recipe was by far the moistest and had the best flavor. It was the perfect cake choice for Rubber Ducky Cupcakes.

Vanilla Frosting

1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature

1/2 cup whipping cream

4 tsp vanilla

4 TBSP water

6 cups powdered sugar

Step 1: Combine butter, whipping cream, and vanilla with an electric mixer.

Step 2: Gradually beat in powdered sugar and water until light and creamy.

Cassidy plans to try these cupcakes again sometime, or maybe just another cupcake creature from What's New, Cupcake? The duckies turned out really cute, but she definitely needs a little more practice. It wasn't as easy as it looks!

Research

Cassidy and Mommy did a little cupcake research today. Hey, we have to check out the competition, right?

Cassidy does a cupcake taste test.

We went to Gigi's Cupcakes in Evansville, IN and picked up their Coconut Cream Pie cupcake. It's "coconut cake filled with coconut cream filling, topped with coconut cream cheese frosting and graham cracker crumbs." Cassidy thought this cupcake was yummy. However, she doesn't think it would make it on Cupcake Wars. The judges always say that the cake should be light and fluffy. This cupcake was dense, more like a muffin. It tasted great, though, and Gigi's cupcakes are always fun to eat because they look so pretty and girly. The coconut cream cheese frosting was definitely the best part. It was light and creamy and had a great flavor. There was one big disappointment, however; they seemed to have forgotten the coconut cream filling. Cassidy's cupcake had no filling. 

One day soon we'll attempt to copycat these coconut cream pie cupcakes and link back to this blog.