Because of my recently gained obsession with cupcakes, I have begun a quest to make good scratch cakes. I've found my go-to chocolate mix. It's light and moist and just chocolaty enough. I've found my white. It's light and moist and tastes exactly like a delicious sugar cookie. I've found my peanut butter aalthough I cannot attest to the way it tastes. I don't like peanut butter but I was told it tastes fantastic and is perfectly moist. And I have found a coconut. It is equally delicious in its own right. My last experiment was with a yellow cake mix.
Of course the main difference between a yellow cake and a white cake is the use of egg yolks. Some white cakes use only whites. Mine uses whole eggs. Yellow cupcake recipes use only yolks, thus the yellow color. The recipe I tried used 8 egg yolks and made a fantastic cake but it was only barely yellow. I added yellow food coloring to deepen the color just a bit. I think I needed to use extra large rather than large eggs, the bigger yolks would've likely made the color of the cake a little darker. I'm not giving you the exact recipe here, because I need that to remain my secret for job security. Google yellow cake recipes from scratch and you'll pull up dozens of perfectly good ones. You'll have to find yours through the process of elimination just like I have.
To begin with, of course, you have to cream together butter and sugar. Use butter, not margarine in baking a the flavor is much better. I use margarine in most other instances but butter only for my cupcakes and frosting. The key to light and moist cupcakes is to REALLY cream the butter together. This means a minimum of 5 minutes, ten minutes would be preferable if you have a stand mixer. I don't have a stand mixer. I have a $15 Oster hand mixer that I got as a household shower gift 11 years ago. I do my five minutes but usually not a lot longer than that. If you can do longer, do it. The longer the better. Your creamed mixture should be very pale. Like this:
This of course if followed by:
Add the egg yolks one at a time, mixing after each. I cheated and did 2 at a time because it took like 15 seconds to mix each one in. After the eggs, you'll add your flavoring, for this cake some vanilla extract. Use real vanilla, not imitation. It costs more but it tastes better.
At this point you should already have sifted together your flour and leavening agent, in this case, baking powder and salt. Almost every cake recipe will call for you to alternate adding the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture with a liquid. With this yellow cake, you'll add the flour mixture alternately with milk. I used buttermilk and increased it by 1/4 cup just to ensure the cake would be moist enough. You should begin and end with the flour mixture.
This is a horrible picture but this is what you end up with. Notice how pale it is? That's why I added the food coloring. Use a cookie dough or ice cream scoop to measure out perfect portions of dough. Cupcakes should not have muffin tops when you bake them, they're not muffins.
I frosted these cupcakes with a Chocolate Fudge truffle frosting I'd previously used on a peanut butter cupcake. This is the easiest frosting imaginable though it does tend to cost a bit to make. It will ice 2 dozen cupcakes if you're so inclined.
To begin with, pour 1 cup heavy whipping cream into a sauce pan. Bring to a near boil or scald. Meanwhile, chop up 12 oz. baking chocolate. I use semi-sweet because that's what I have on hand but you can use milk chocolate baking pieces if you'd like. The semi-sweet keeps the frosting from being overly sweet. Using milk chocolate would render a frosting that tastes exactly like a candy bar. Drop the chopped chocolate or chocolate chips into a heat proof bowl. When the cream has come to a near boil, pour it over the chocolate and stir until all of the chocolate has melted and the mixture is shiny
At this point, you have ganache. You could pour it over a cake and it would form a thin layer of chocolate. If you let it cool in the frig for 30-60 minutes, you could scoop it out and roll it into balls for truffles, hence the name. I didn't want to do that though, although I do enjoy a good truffle. I wanted whipped frosting so I put it in the frig to cool. When the chocolate, the bowl and the beaters were chilled but not too cold, it's time to whip it up. The idea is to incorporate as much air as possible. We want it to be light and fluffy. If the chocolate doesn't seem to be whipping up, put it back in the frig and let it chill a little longer. If you let it set too long, it will bet too firm to whip. You will be able to loosen it up and pipe it onto your cake or cupcakes but it will not be light and airy.
Of course you scrape the bowl as you whip to make sure you get all of that delicious chocolate. What you end up with is pure decadence.
This is what you end up with. To be honest, the chocolate was too rich and heavy for the lightness of this cupcake. It could hold up to the strong flavor of a peanut butter cupcake but it overwhelmed the yellow. Separately though, they were spectacular.
And this picture is just to tease you all.
And this picture is too cute not to include.
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