Fudge Puddles

I am going to go out on a limb here and say... this might be my new favorite recipe. No, it's not a cupcake. But it's not quite a cookie. You might be blown away by exposure to pure awesomeness.

The cookie stand at the mall where I grew up sometimes had "peanut butter cup" cookies, which are peanut butter cookies filled with chocolate fudge/frosting. It has been always my favorite thing to get. But, sadly, I don't live there anymore, and have gone quite a few years without being able to enjoy them. But then, I found this recipe and have re-created them, almost exactly! And the bonus: this recipe is incredibly easy to make. Let the world rejoice with yet another way to enjoy the classic chocolate/peanut butter combination!

FUDGE PUDDLES

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Get out your mini muffin pans (this recipe makes approx. 48 minis - you could also make them in a regular size, but then people won't eat as much... just a thought!) I greased my pans to ensure that I could easily remove the cookie. You could also use liners. Or do nothing and risk it. It's entirely up to you.

For the cookie:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

Cream the butter, peanut butter and sugars together. "Cream" is kind of a misnomer here - it will not get light and fluffy like a normal butter/sugar combo will. Instead, just mix it until it all looks cohesive and is one color.

Add the egg and vanilla - mix.

Add the sifted ingredients and mix again. You will get a very yummy peanut butter cookie dough at this point.

Now, form the dough into 1-inch balls. Place into the muffin pans.

I baked mine at 325 for 12 minutes. This is because my oven is old, bakes unevenly, and likes to destroy desserts. If your oven is not the spawn of Satan, you could probably leave them in for 14-16 minutes. You want them to just start turning golden.

Once you take them out of the oven, you need to immediately make the "wells" for the fudge. You should have peanut butter cookies that look like small muffins. Using a melon baller, a mortar and pestle, or any other object that fits the bill, press a divot into the center of each cookie-muffin. (Cookie-muffin... that would be a really fun term of endearment. I wonder how long I can use it until my husband tells me to knock it off?) Anyway, you want to press it down far enough to get a good amount of fudge in there, but not so far that you can push through to the bottom. If you push down and your cookie becomes almost transparent, don't go as far with the next one:-)

Let them sit in the pan for about five minutes, and then remove to a wire cooling rack.

Now it's time for the amazingly awesome fudge frosting!

FUDGE

• 1 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup pecan halves (optional)

 In a double boiler, melt the chocolates together.

 

Make sure to stir it constantly. This won't take too long, but be patient and make sure you get it really smooth!

Add the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla. Stir quickly to combine.

Your mixture should now be getting pretty thick. At this point, you can fill the peanut butter cups with your fudge-like chocolate frosting mixture! There are several ways to do this. For my first attempt, I just spooned it in using a tablespoon. It still tasted great, but I wasn't entirely satisfied with the way it looked:

I also found that the chocolate kept getting firmer and firmer the longer it took to fill, so I had to keep mixing it up in the bowl after every few cookies were filled. For my second attempt, I used a decorating tip and my handy-dandy "Dessert Decorator Pro" (a combination of gifts from both my mom and mother-in-law). Using a very large tip (so the thick chocolate wouldn't get stuck), I was able to fill the cups much faster, with much less mess, and I didn't have to worry about it firming up (because the chocolate that was waiting to go into a cup was still being moved through the decorator, it stayed soft until entering the peanut butter cup). If you don't have any fancy decorating tools, I might recommend using a gallon-sized ziploc bag. Fill it with the chocolate, cut a hole in one corner and fill that way. 

This was my finished product:

Enjoy!

Extreme Chocolate Cupcakes

I have a slight problem. When I bake, I don't always take notes on what I did. I put up the pictures into a draft blog post, but don't write down exactly which recipe I used, or how I modified it. Take this post as an excellent example. In January, I made cupcakes for a young boy who only likes chocolate. So I made triple chocolate cupcakes and an extreme fudge frosting, topped with a various assortment of chocolate sprinkles. But how did I make these? I have absolutely no recollection. But I thought they looked pretty, so I am sharing them here anyway. Sorry to be less-than-helpful, but hopefully one day I will remember which recipe I used. All I can remember is that I ran out of the types of chocolate I needed, so I had to modify the recipe to make it a little different. I was hesitant about the turn-out, but the feedback was great. Other than that, I have no clue. But here are pretty pictures:

Okay, these weren't for the little boy - they were for a friend's birthday. But made from the same batch, just topped with pink pearl sprinkles instead of colorful chocolate ones.

Thanks for being patient with by inability to document things. :-)

Hidden Heart Cupcakes

Okay, okay, I know. Valentine's Day was over a month ago. But I wanted to share this cute idea (and fun new website!) called Bake it in a Cake.

Here are some pictures of my efforts trying to make "hidden heart" cupcakes with regular yellow cake batter and this ridiculously awesome chocolate frosting.:

Separating the batter for the hearts.

After cooking a small red cake, I used a small heart-shaped cookie cutter to create the inserts. I don't think it was small enough in the long run, but it worked for the initial experiment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can probably see my dilemma - the hearts aren't even close to covered by the batter. And, they kept floating and wanting to lay on their backs! I tried to pour small amounts of remaining batter on top of them, but the cupcake didn't rise enough to completely cover them, so then it just looked weird. This is why I named them "hidden heart" cupcakes - this way, everyone knew there was a heart somewhere in there, but not exactly how it was oriented. It was like a treasure hunt. (This solution actually worked out surprisingly well).

I frosted them with chocolate, because I firmly believe that chocolate is one of the greatest things on earth. This is not as gourmet as the original recipe, but they still tasted delicious!

For some reason, the formatting is all over the place on this post. I apologize - I don't really have the patience to figure it out today, so hopefully it doesn't drive you too nuts:-)

Enjoy!

Cake Batter Bark

 

A friend posted a link to this recipe on facebook, and I immediately had to try it. Even though it goes against my "cake batter from a box" rule, I made an exception since I wasn't actually making cake. I made a few minor changes (basically, I dumbed it down a bit so it could be made in 10 minutes or less), and my first batch was devoured in approximately two hours (there were only four of us here at the time...) Every time I've made it, I've tried something a little different, but by far the best version was my second (which is what I have pictures of here). But first, the much fancier food blog that tells you how to make it: How Sweet It Is.

The changes I made for time & handiness sake: 

I used melting chocolate wafers. With these, once the dark chocolate layer is melted and spread out onto the pan, work quickly with the white chocolate. If you let the dark chocolate harden all the way (or put it in the freezer), then the white chocolate won't adhere to it. I also learned, however, that if you do it too quickly, the chocolates mix together and you get mottled bark. It's a delicate balance.

Once I spread the dark chocolate and melted the white chocolate, I added a whole lot of cake batter. Three teaspoons didn't do much to give it a cake batter taste, so I kept adding until I could taste cake over white chocolate. This was a startling amount of cake batter, but it still tasted great. Just be forewarned that this will make your white chocolate very thick and difficult to mix & spread.

Perhaps the problems above could have been avoided if I had actually followed the recipe and used "real" chocolate. But it still tasted great, and I used what I had on hand, so it was a win-win.

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

Based out of the book One Cake, One Hundred Desserts, these yummy cupcakes are very sophisticated but taste just like a Reeses with a different texture. This recipe makes 12-14 cupcakes.

Prepare a batch of peanut butter mousse. Put it in the fridge to set.

The Cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 350. Line cupcake tin with muffin liners.

You can use any chocolate cake recipe for this, but here's the one I used from the book:

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder, whisked to remove lumps
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 2 pieces
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs, room temp
• 3 large egg yolks, room temp
• 3/4 cup sugar

This cake has a lot of steps, but is very yummy and not nearly as complicated as it appears:

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Grease bottom of 11" x 17" inch jelly roll pan (or cookie sheet with sides), line with parchment paper or aluminum foil, and grease & flour the paper/foil
• Combine flour, cocoa, and baking powder in large bowl. Set aside.
• Heat the milk and butter in a small saucepan over low heat. As soon as the butter is melted, remove from the heat and add the vanilla. Set aside.
• Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer (or if using a hand mixer, the regular beaters), whip the eggs, egg yolks, and sugar in a large mixing bowl on high speed for 3 minutes. The mixture will triple in volume and turn a very pale yellow. Reduce the speed to medium and continue whipping for 3 minutes (if using a hand mixer, keep it on high speed). The mixture should continue to increase in volume and thicken.
• With the mixture on the lowest speed, slowly sprinkle 1/4 of the flour mixture over the eggs and mix until no trace of white remains. Repeat with the remaining flour mixture in 2 additions; reserve the empty flour bowl. When the flour is fully incorporated, the batter will be thick and stiff; if you let it pour off the whisk into the bowl, it will fall back on itself like a ribbon.
• Melt the chocolate in a large bowl (do this right before it's needed, so the chocolate doesn't set). Add the warm milk and butter to the chocolate and stir to combine.
• Pour half of the batter into the empty flour bowl. Pour the warm milk/chocolate mixture into the batter and stir quickly gently until chocolate is evenly distributed.
• Slowly pour the milk/batter mixture back into the mixing bowl, and using a rubber spatula, fold the mixtures together quickly but gently until fully blended. You will see tiny air bubbles appear on the surface; work quickly to prevent too much air from escaping.
• Fill each cupcake liner with 1/3 cup batter; it will come almost to the top. Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until the surface springs back when poked with your finger and a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out with a few moist crumbs but is not wet.
• Cool in the tins for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
• With a small knife, cut out a shallow circle of cake from the center of each cupcake and set aside. Divide the mousse among the cupcakes, then place the reserved cake atop the mousse.
• Serve, or store cupcakes in the fridge. Remove about 20 minutes before serving to take the chill off.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Bombe

A few months ago, I bought a book called One Cake, One Hundred Desserts. Its premise is simple: learn one cake recipe, and then modify it 100 different ways to create 100 new desserts. Of course, I felt the need to tackle the one that had the most amount of chocolate possible. This recipe was originally for a "Double Chocolate Mousse Bombe" - using milk chocolate & dark chocolate mousse - but being the peanut butter lover that I am, I adjusted it a little.

(Before we begin, a fun fact: "Bombe" typically refers to any type of bowl-shaped dessert. It will not cause an explosion in your kitchen. Unless you don't let the mousse set properly (which happened in my second attempt) and then it's just messy - like an explosion and a landslide mixed together. But still yummy!)

Step 1: The Cake

You can use any chocolate cake recipe for this, but here's the one I used from the book:

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder, whisked to remove lumps
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 2 pieces
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs, room temp
• 3 large egg yolks, room temp
• 3/4 cup sugar

This cake has a lot of steps, but is very yummy and not nearly as complicated as it appears:

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Grease bottom of 11" x 17" inch jelly roll pan (or cookie sheet with sides), line with parchment paper or aluminum foil, and grease & flour the paper/foil
• Combine flour, cocoa, and baking powder in large bowl. Set aside.
• Heat the milk and butter in a small saucepan over low heat. As soon as the butter is melted, remove from the heat and add the vanilla. Set aside.
• Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer (or if using a hand mixer, the regular beaters), whip the eggs, egg yolks, and sugar in a large mixing bowl on high speed for 3 minutes. The mixture will triple in volume and turn a very pale yellow. Reduce the speed to medium and continue whipping for 3 minutes (if using a hand mixer, keep it on high speed). The mixture should continue to increase in volume and thicken.
• With the mixture on the lowest speed, slowly sprinkle 1/4 of the flour mixture over the eggs and mix until no trace of white remains. Repeat with the remaining flour mixture in 2 additions; reserve the empty flour bowl. When the flour is fully incorporated, the batter will be thick and stiff; if you let it pour off the whisk into the bowl, it will fall back on itself like a ribbon.
• Pour half of the batter into the empty flour bowl. Pour the warm milk mixture into the batter and stir gently to combine.
• Slowly pour the milk/batter mixture back into the mixing bowl, and using a rubber spatula, fold the mixtures together quickly but gently until fully blended. You will see tiny air bubbles appear on the surface; work quickly to prevent too much air from escaping.
• Gently pour into prepared pan, gently spreading it into all corners of the pan with a rubber spatula.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the surface springs back when poked with your finger and a toothpick inserted comes out of the cake clean. Set the cake on a rack to cool.

Now comes the fun part: Assembling the Bombe!

• Line a 1 1/2 quart bowl (a 1/5 liter Pyrex works well) with plastic wrap, leaving plenty of overhang on the sides. (When the cake is finished, you will use the plastic wrap to remove the cake from the bowl).
• When the cake is cool, run a knife around the edge of the pan and turn the cake out onto a large cutting board. Remove the parchment paper or foil. Trim 1/4 inch from each side of the cake (the edges tend to be dry). Cut the cake into pieces like this:

This might be difficult to see, but basically, you want a square large enough to cover the top of your bowl. You want 6 equal sized squares, and 4 triangles (when 2 are put together, they equal the size of one of the smaller squares). The easiest way to measure is to lay your bowl upside down over one corner and cut a square. Then extend those lines all the way across & up the cake so you have two large squares and two rectangles. Set one aside to be your big square. Cut the other three pieces into smaller, equal pieces until it looks like the cake above.

To line the bowl: place 1 small square on the bottom of the bowl. Place 4 small squares on top of it, reaching above the top of the bowl (see picture below):

Next, insert your triangle pieces to fill in the gaps. They should fit snugly. Then, cut the excess off the tops so all pieces are even with the bowl.

Exciting news: any cake you have left over is free to be eaten at this point! (Except your big square... don't eat that yet!)

Now, on to make the mousse. You might be like me, and want to make the most of your time in the kitchen. With this recipe, it might seem that the best way to do that is to make the mousse while your cake is cooking and cooling, but you need to resist the urge. Instead, wash dishes, read a magazine, dance around the house in your apron as your husband looks at you like you've lost your mind... whatever it takes. The reason is this: you want to be able to put the mousse in the bombe before it begins to set.

So, once your bowl is ready, get to work on your first layer of mousse. The first one you put in will be on the top. I chose peanut butter mousse this.  Pour into bombe until the bowl is about half full (NOTE: this recipe does not use all of the mousse mixture. Put the rest in the fridge to set for 1-48 hours, and enjoy it on its own at your leisure!)  Tap the bowl gently to distribute the mousse evenly, and then place in the freezer as you prepare the dark chocolate mousse.

Pour dark chocolate mousse over peanut butter mousse in the chocolate bombe (by now, the PB mousse should be firm enough that the dark chocolate mousse - which is still very liquidy - does not run through.) This does not use all of the dark chocolate mousse, so be prepared to have leftovers!

To finish assembly:

• Place the large square of cake directly on top of the dark chocolate mousse and press gently. Trim edges to make it a circle.
• Pull the plastic wrap over the top to cover.
• Refrigerate until set (at least 2 hours, up to 48 hours)

The final step is the glaze. You don't want to apply the glaze until about 30 minutes before you serve the cake. Make sure your cake is FIRM FIRM FIRM (the second time I made this, I didn't let it set enough and it all slide apart).

CHOCOLATE GLAZE:

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
• 2 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 1/4 cup corn syrup

Chocolate piles make me happy!

Bring a small pot of water to a gentle simmer. Combine all ingredients in a heatproof bowl that can sit atop the pot without touching the water. Place the bowl over the pot and stir until the ingredients are just melted and combined.

(This glaze hardens as it dries, and is also a good glaze for dipping fruit, or for topping ice cream. Store any leftovers in the fridge, and then melt in double boiler or in the microwave as needed).

Set the glaze aside the cool slightly while you turn out the bombe. Peel back the plastic wrap from the cake and turn the cake out onto a rack set over a baking sheet; you may have to pull slightly on the plastic wrap to get the bowl off. Gently remove the plastic wrap and discard.

Pour most of the glaze over the center of the bombe, letting it run down the sides. Using an offset spatula, spread the glaze in an even layer over the bombe, using the reserved glaze to fill any holes. Try to let the glaze do most of the work (good luck with that...) - the less you use the spatula, the less streaky the glaze will be. While the glaze is still wet, decorate the bombe with chocolate shavings, if desired. Let stand at room temp to set, about 30 minutes.

Use a large spatula to transfer the bombe to a serving plate. Serve immediately with whipped cream and fresh raspberries (if you're into that sort of thing).

NOTE: The glaze will be very shiny once it hardens. Once refrigerated, it loses some of its luster. It will develop a matte-like finish in the fridge, and will regain some of its luster once it returns to room temperature. However, it will never get quite as shiny as it was at first, so plan accordingly. Oh yes, and - it's delicious!

Overwhelmed yet? This is a lot of steps, but completely worth it when it turns out well. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Mousse

This recipe is great alone, or when used with anything chocolate!

• 8 oz cream cheese, room temp
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup sugar

Using the whisk attachment on your mixer, whip the cream cheese on high speed until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes, stopping once to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add the peanut butter and mix on low speed until just combined, taking care not to deflate the cream cheese.

Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl, and clean the mixer bowl.

Whip the heavy cream and sugar together at high speed to soft peaks (meaning that peaks form, but fall back into themselves - "stiff peaks" are when they remain pointing up towards the sky. You don't want those for this recipe, but I am always overzealous in my mixing and overestimate the amount of time needed to make soft peaks. So far, I haven't noticed any complaints because of this).

Add 1/3 of the whipped cream to the peanut butter mixture and gently stir until combined.

Add 1/2 the remaining whipped cream and fold gently until no streaks remain; repeat with the remaining cream.

It sounds delicate, but tastes great! The cream cheese helps it from becoming overly sweet.

Enjoy!

Dark Chocolate Mousse

I love recipes that sound fancy, taste great, and aren't difficult. Here's a good one:

• 6 oz semi-sweet chocolate, coursly chopped (I'm lazy and just use chocolate chips - it takes longer to melt that way, but saves me the trouble of trying to chop chocolate chips into course pieces)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons brewed coffee, dark rum, or water (I had neither coffee nor rum on hand, but water worked just fine)
• 1 cup heavy cream

Using a double boiler, combine chocolate, butter, and coffee/rum/water in a medium heatproof bowl set over the pot of simmer water (don't let it touch the water!) Stir until chocolate and butter are just melted and the mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and set aside.

Whip the cream at high speed to soft peaks for about 1 minute.

Fold 1/4 of the cream into the chocolate until combined but not fully incorporated and some streaks remain.

Repeat with the remaining cream, mixing to fully incorporate when adding the last quarter.

If making a pie or cake bombe, pour immediately into crust and then refrigerate. If serving solo as a dessert, refrigerate for at least 2 and no more than 48 hours.

Sorry I don't have any pictures of this - it was eaten too fast:-)
Enjoy!

Owl Cupcakes

I made these guys to display at our Outdoor Education booth during a teacher conference last November. They helped in getting people to stop by our booth that normally would not have, and it gave me an opportunity fuse two of my passions together. Here's how I did them:

You can use any kind of cupcake, although I recommend chocolate. You will also need a nice, thick chocolate frosting to help hold things together. I put a base layer of chocolate frosting down first.

The eyes are Oreos. Simply put a couple of Oreos in the microwave for 10-30 seconds (depending on how many you put in at a time). Your goal is to soften the cream, not melt it! Once it's soft, separate the cookies so one side has cream and the other does not. This can be challenging if you get a stubborn Oreo. I used a paring knife to help guide the cream, and if it breaks up a bit, I just patched it back together while it was still warm.

Put a little frosting on the back of the cream-side Oreos, and place on the cupcake.

The irises are chocolate melting wafers, although Junior Mints will work, too. Again, a little frosting on the back and stick them on the Oreo to make whatever kind of expression you want. You can add a white frosting dot for the pupil. if desired.

For the ears, use the "naked" Oreo halves. Simply cut them in half and use frosting to adhere them to the top part of the cupcake (make sure you overlap enough onto the cupcake so they don't fall off!)

The nose is a banana Runt. (My husband particularly enjoyed this part - since I bought a whole batch of Runts and only used the bananas, it left plenty for him to eat!)

To make the "fur", use a small circular tip and pipe tiny sections. You want to pay particular attention to the ears, and I recommend doing at least around the edges. You can cover the entire face in fur if you're that patient (I did this for a few of them and then ran out of time and patience, so just did the edges.)

You can also do this with mini cupcakes, using mini Oreos and Junior Mints, to create a whole owl family.

Enjoy!

The Ultimate Chocolate Frosting

I love chocolate. I love frosting. I love chocolate frosting. But for the most part, homemade chocolate frosting usually leaves me feeling... well, not in love! I've tried several. Some have been horrible, and I have not posted them. Others have been passable, and good for unique reasons (for example, the one used in the Halloween Haunted House was really thick and fudgy, stiff enough to sit out all day on display and really hold onto sprinkles or other decorations). But that delicate, light chocolate frosting that I love to eat straight out of store bought cans eluded me on the homemade front... until I found this recipe. It was originally billed as an icing for cookies, but with a simple modification it has become my new go-to chocolate frosting recipe. This way, I get all the taste satisfaction of the store-bought frosting, without all of the crazy preservatives and chemicals that go into them. I always find that things taste extra-good when you can pronounce all of the ingredients!

THE ULTIMATE CHOCOLATE FROSTING

• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2-4 tablespoons milk
• 1-2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted

Mix together all the ingredients (start with just 2 tablespoons of milk). Slowly add more milk as needed to reach desired consistency.

The only modifications I made to the cookie icing recipe were to add a little more milk, and unsweetened chocolate. I find that solely using cocoa doesn't allow for a very rich chocolate flavor, so adding the unsweetened melting chocolate helps round it out.

Enjoy!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

While this post may appear to be about the cupcakes, the star of this creation is really the frosting. Before making this recipe, I had only eaten red velvet cake once before. Since I'm not a big fan of artificial coloring, I was hesitant to make it, but when Valentine's Day came around, the desire for lots of red just overwhelmed me and I gave in...

 For the cake, which was very moist and very red:

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons cocoa
• 2 - 4 tablespoons red food coloring
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar

This recipe makes about 24-27 cupcakes, or a two-layer 9" round cake.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease pans or fill cupcake pans with paper liners.

Cream shortening and sugar together very well. Add eggs and beat well.

Make a paste of cocoa and red food coloring. (NOTE: the original recipe I found said to use 4 tablespoons, which I used. The cupcakes were bright red, and ended up having a slight aftertaste that I attribute to the massive amount of artificial coloring. I'd recommend starting with a lesser amount of color, and then if you don't get the desired red tint, or the cake doesn't seem moist enough, add more sparingly.)

Add paste to shortening & sugar mixture.

Mix salt, vanilla, and buttermilk together. Alternate adding this & the flour into the creamed mixture.

Now here's the fun part: mix baking soda and vinegar together. Add gently to cake, and fold into batter. Be careful, and work quickly! This is what actually causes the cake to rise, so you don't want to delay too long after adding these to get your cake into the oven.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake for 15 minutes. Check every 2-3 minutes thereafter. If you bake this cake too long, it will be very dry, so check it early and check it often. (I know this goes against conventional wisdom about the cake falling when you open the oven door, but I didn't seem to experience any adverse effects.) 

For the most amazing icing I've ever tasted in my life:

• 5 tablespoons of flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine flour & milk, and cook over low heat until thick, stirring constantly. This process takes a while. You want it thick enough to form a paste, with no runny liquid to be seen. Once thick, remove from heat and allow to cool completely at room temperature.

Cream sugar, butter, and vanilla together for 10-20 minutes. WHAT? I'm sure you must think this is overkill, but trust me - this recipe uses granular sugar, not confectioner's sugar like most frosting recipes. Creaming the mixture for such a long time helps eliminate any sugar grit in the finished product, and makes the frosting extra light. (Thank goodness for my Kitchenaid! I put it on to cream and then was able to wash almost all of my baking dishes AND frost another batch of cupcakes while I waited for this mixture to fully cream.)

Add flour mixture (now completely cool) to sugar mixture, and beat until a good consistency. (If you add them together before the flour mixture cools, your frosting will be runny!)

Put onto a completely cooled cake, and enjoy! This icing is incredibly light, and many people have suggested it is the traditional frosting for red velvet cake (as opposed to the popular cream cheese frosting, which is really best for carrot cakes and spice cakes). I thought the lightness of the frosting helped highlight the moistness and cocoa flavor in the red velvet cupcakes. It melts on your tongue, and was absolutely divine. If you're willing to put the work into it, it's well worth it!