It's late. I'm tired. But the cupcakes are done and I think they're pretty good. The peanut butter chocolate chip cake recipe was great, very easy to follow, and worked well when doubled (I never learn my lesson--though to be fair I had to double it because I needed to give D some to bring to his co-workers Colleen and Chris and there are hungry people at my office too, 12 just wasn't going to cut it). It made 24 very cute cupcakes (they didn't rise that much though, so I'd fill up 3/4 of the way not 1/2) and I think the cake is pretty moist with a nice "crumb" whatever that means. I don't think they are that peanut-buttery though. I'll have to try them again tomorrow when I have a fresher palate. Also, I'm not sure I did the right thing by following D's suggestion that I use the Ghirardelli semi-sweet morsels in the cupcakes instead of the Baker's semi-sweet chocolate chunks (mmm, chocolate chunks). I think the Ghirardelli chips burned a little (which is ridiculous at 350 degrees) so there's a kind of scorched chocolate flavor to the cake. This could be my over-tired imagination, we'll see tomorrow.
Sour Cream Frosting of Doom
Holy hell, the sour cream frosting was cursed. First of all, D convinced me that I didn't need to improvise a double-boiler to melt the chocolate--he always melts it for fondue on a low flame and adds some milk and it's fine. Well, silly me, I thought I could do this too, but no the gods are against me. So I put a cup of the scorchy Ghirardelli morsels and a cup of the Baker's chunks (didn't have enough of the first left) and added a little milk and it melted great for about five seconds and then became this weird chocolate paste thing. I'm sure Alton Brown has some chemistry experiment explanation for this, but I got freaked out and D took over. Even after he added what was probably a half cup of milk and had it on medium heat, it was still a little chunky (not the good kind anymore). I decided to just push forward and opened up the sour cream D fetched for me today at the super. It was literally the consistency of cottage cheese. Suffice it to say we threw that out and luckily had some low-fat sour cream left from latkas we made the other day (yum!). So, I added that to the chocolate and tasted it. D and I agreed it tasted like the sum of it's parts, some sour-ass chocolate. Or chocolaty sour cream. Either way it was bad. I double checked the recipe then looked for others on the web and they confirmed that that was all there was to it. No sugar? It can't be. When I remembered to add the vanilla it got a tiny bit better. Finally, I decided to add some powdered sugar and see if I could get that horridly sour aftertaste gone. It didn't help, not to mention I don't think it would have ever sat up. In the end, I dumped the entire thing in a grocery bag and it looked for all the world like a doggy poop bag. Double ick. So much for sour cream frosting. There's no accounting for personal chocolate taste, but why would you want your frosting to be sour? Maybe it would be better with really fancy chocolate and whole fat sour cream? I wouldn't risk it though.
Despite that fact that I was pretty pleased with the chocolate buttercream frosting I'd made the night before (and D even talked it up to Colleen and Chris over dinner), I thought I'd try my luck with web recipes once more and found this:
Opal's Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting
6 ounces Package chocolate chips
1/2 cup Butter or margarine
1/2 cup To 3/4 cup sifted -- confectioners sugar
1 1/4 cups Peanut butter
FOR FROSTING:Melt chocolate chips and butter in a double boiler. Add confectioners sugar and peanut butter and beat until smooth. Chill for about 15 minutes or until frosting is of spreading consistency.
The Chocolate Peanut Butter ones are on the right (see, peanut chunks)!
Peanut buttery goodness!
Oh my, it's true. This time I actually improvised the double boiler (D had finished the dishes and was in the living room reading by this time) plus it was easier to not burn the chocolate with the stick of butter happily melting into it. And I actually tossed the sugar through a sieve, though I don't think this really matters. The only sticking point here is that I only had chunky peanut butter from the cake recipe. I figured what the hell, people like sprinkles, why nut chunks of peanuts. I used the whole 3/4 cups of powdered sugar and it was just right, super peanuty, sweet but not cloying (though I might not be the best judge), and with a nice crunch. I tried this on the cupcake and think the whole thing worked very seamlessly together, a very one-flavor approach, which is why I'm not certain how the actual cake tastes. I didn't try it with the buttercream yet, but I think this will be the more subtle cake, a hint of peanut butter, a few surprise chocolate pieces, and some nice licking frosting on top. Did I mention frosting ought to be licked? This is my main reason for disliking The Cupcake Cafe's frosting. I think they use more butter than they do sugar and the whole thing is not very lickable, or if you do try to lick it, it just tastes like butter. I'm sure lots of folks disagree and it's hard to argue with the beauty of their frosted flowers.
I'm a more down-home cupcake eater. I like Billy's Bakery the best, though I haven't made a tour of NYC cupcake purveyors.
Despite my waking D up singing the theme music to Deliverance and annoucing the Dueling Frostings: Chocolate Peanut Butter Chunk vs. Chocolate Buttercream he passed on trying the cupcakes tonight. I'll have to take a poll at work tomorrow and see which one wins out. I'm guessing it will be the peanut butter one, but you never know.
Here are the cupcakes frosted and ready for their field trip.
Silly cupcake, get down from there!
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