Finally, I took action. I whipped up a batch of Martha Stewart's Easy Chocolate Cupcakes, then a bowl of Meringue Butter Cream and made twelve little cakes of my own.
First, a note about these two recipes. The cupcakes came out dense, moist and almost like a lighter version of a brownie. It's the sour cream that keeps them from becoming dry and when added to cocoa powder, gives the cakes their chocolately sharpness. And the buttercream... when people ask my favorite cake topping, (a question that comes up more often than you'd think), my stock answer is cream cheese frosting. It's a fairly well-known standby that says you like a little sweetness, but you're not a high-maintenance person. But really, deep down, I'm the kind of girl who likes a fluffy not-so-sweet buttercream that takes 192 steps to make and involves temperature regulation down to a degree, double-boilers, and something called a chinoise. The kind of frosting you only get on a slice of wedding cake once a year.
Ah, but this Meringue Butter Cream recipe was just such a thing... sans chinoise. It did have a handful of fussy little steps, but the result was well worth the effort of trying to whisk a bowl of temperamental egg whites over a simmering pot of water while holding the instant-read thermometer in my teeth. I've heard that other buttercreams use corn syrup, which is not a favorite ingredient of mine. This one had just granulated sugar. Here is the finished buttercream in it's pristine white state. It's so good it will make a grown man cry.
And the finished cupcakes themselves. I colored the buttercream with a little Wilton paste that I found in the spice cabinet that had to be at least three years old. They were from whenever it was that Trevor had a planet-themed birthday party, and a little grainy. Time for a few new jars. I intended to make the cakes rose and cocoa, but I ended up with mauve and latte. Close enough for horseshoes. They're heavenly.
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