I first saw these cupcakes a few months on Bakerella's blog (check her out, she's amazing!) and my interest was peaked. But I forgot about them. Then a few days ago while on CakeCentral, I noticed a picture of some under "Most Saved Pictures." That was it! I just HAD to try these! I found a few recipes online and figured out which one I wanted to try. I ended up going with a basic recipe that I tweaked a bit.
So I started off by making my favorite, go to chocolate cake recipe. I made 24 cupcakes. (Quick hint I learned on CakeCentral. If you want a nice dome on your cupcakes, preheat your oven to 400 degrees F and then turn it down to 350 degrees once you put your cupcakes in. Perfect dome every time). After they were out of the oven and slightly cool, into the freezer they went!
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| CUPCAKES! |
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| Excuse my pasty, white hand. |
Here's where it got a bit time consuming. After the double boiler, I popped the bowl on my mixer (which I LOVE LOVE LOVE and have named her Stella) and started it up to medium high. It took Stella about 15 minutes to whip the egg whites and sugar into a beautiful meringue. If you have a hand held mixer, you do this step while the bowl is still on the double boiler. Be prepared, it's gonna take awhile. After I saw stiff peaks forming, I added some vanilla and mixed again. After a minute or so, I stopped Stella and put in a full jar of Marshmallow Fluff. Back on medium high for a few minutes.
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| Stiff (yummy) peaks! |
Perfect. And delicious!
I filled my piping bag and used a Wilton #12 tip to pipe the "hi hat" part of the cupcake. Just your basic swirl.
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| Whirls' Swirl. Holler. |
Once I got them done, I popped them back in the freezer for 20ish minutes.
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| Chilling out in the freezer. |
While they chilled, I melted 12 ounces of chocolate chips with 3 tablespoons of my oil in the microwave and put it in a cup sized Pyrex to cool.
I took a cupcake out of the freezer and turned it upside down and plunged it into its chocolatey bath. Yeek! I was terrified! But it all worked out okay! I love them!
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| Here goes nothing! |
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| Whew! It worked! |
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| Before |
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| After |
A few things I learned:
1. Adding Marshmallow Fluff to my meringue made it taste great but made it a bit soft. Even with cooled chocolate, my swirls melted a bit and lost their swirly shape. They're more Bowler Hats than Hi Hats, lol. I think if they would have stayed in the freezer for an hour or so they would have held their shape better. Oh well! Next time I guess. I definitely plan on making some for Cakeapolooza.
2. The amount of icing is only good for 18 cupcakes, not 24. So you'll have 6 lonely, topless cupcakes left over.
3. Something about my freezer makes cupcakes commit suicide. Maybe it was the cold, maybe it was knowing that their fate was to be plunged head first in a vat of chocolate, either way I had two jumpers =[
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| The jumper =[ |
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| Oscar helped clean up the frosting. |
4. I am DEDICATED to this blog and my "art." I tasted a naked cupcake, I tasted one with the marshmallow meringue and finally, I tasted a finished one. Yep. I love you guys that much I MADE myself try one each step of the way.
Anyway, I remembered to take LOTS of pictures, but as it turns out, my camera is on the fritz again. It and I have an on-going argument about uploading pictures so I'll try my best to get them up shortly. Hope you enjoyed this, even without pictures.
Next project: Stacking an 9 inch round on top of a 6 inch round as practice for my entry in the Great American Cake Show in Westminster next month.
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