Gradutation Cupcakes

My little sister Faith graduated from high school this month and for her present I made 60 cupcakes, three different types. The first one she requested was a chocolate cake with mint buttercream frosting. I had made these before for a birthday party we went to and she loved them. Her second request was a mocha cupcake. The third one she let me pick. I called this one "surprise cupcakes."

I feel like every time I make chocolate cake it turns out dry. I don't have a single chocolate cake recipe I'd want to make again. Randomly, as I was thinking about this, I was talking to my best friend and she mentioned some chocolate cupcakes she had made that were the best she'd ever had, so I asked for the recipe. She googled it and found a recipe called better than sex chocolate cupcakes. But she told me to add a little bit of flour because hers was too thin. So I made them with 1 cup of flour instead of 3/4 cup and they were not too thin, on the contrary they were a little thick so I added a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil to the mix. They baked nicely, but were still a little dry. Turns out hers were thin because she used melted butter instead of softened butter, which makes a world of a difference. Next time I need chocolate cupcakes I'll try the recipe again but with only 3/4 cup flour.

For the mocha cupcakes I used Martha Stewart's recipe from her cupcake cookbook. It is almost impossible to find instant espresso powder, the grocery store had 100 kinds of instant coffee but no instant espresso, which I find surprising. So I got some that was a hispanic brand of instant espresso coffee, at least it had the word I was looking for. The cupcakes baked up beautifully, the most rounded dome on every single one, I almost didn't want to frost them! But again they were a little dry, even though I added a couple tablespoons of oil to these also. I think I'm going to have to start making my own cupcake recipes with a ton of oil in them so they actually stay moist like they're supposed to.

For the mint and mocha frostings I started with the same base- Swiss meringue buttercream. This is a more elaborate frosting, and I was trying to avoid doing it but Faith had specifically asked for the mint frosting that tasted like a cloud, and for that I had to use egg whites. This buttercream starts with whisking egg whites and sugar in a bowl set over a pan of boiling water, so it acts like a double boiler, but as soon as the sugar dissolves you put the bowl into the electric mixer and let it whip for 5-10 minutes until it's not hot anymore. Then you whip in an entire pound of butter. Frosting basically is just sugar and butter, but with the egg whites it is so light and fluffy, and it's firm to it'll keep any shape you pipe it in. I divided this mixture in half; one part I added peppermint extract and green food coloring, the other half I added more instant espresso powder. Both turned out perfectly.

Now onto my surprise cupcakes. With two kinds of chocolate cupcakes already I wanted to do something fruity, but Faith rejected most of my ideas. So then I thought of doing a cupcake like a jelly filled donut. I made yellow buttermilk cupcakes using the recipe from Martha's cupcake cookbook again (I use it almost any time I need to make any kind of cake). They actually baked the worst out of the three I was making. I made twice as many of these at one time so maybe the heat didn't circulate in the oven like it should have, but they all had muffin tops and spilled over the edges and none of them had beautiful domes like the other two batches. They still tasted pretty good, I think buttermilk makes anything taste better. After they had cooled I cut cone shapes out of the middle of each cupcake and filled it with my favorite raspberry jam. Then I made simple fluffy vanilla frosting- just butter, powdered sugar, and a little vanilla- and piped it onto the cupcakes to cover the filling so no one knew it was there. I thought these turned out great, exactly what I wanted and the twist Faith had asked for.

Overall it was a successful catering job for a party, although I didn't get paid I also didn't have to buy a present, because the ingredients and the time it took were expensive enough. And I'm always pleased when people like what I've made.