Cupcake Science Fair

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

So I did the cupcake science fair yesterday. Made some more of the chocolate filled cupcakes (Exhibit B) from the Martha Stewart recipe and tried

two new kinds of cupcakes, as I was in a raspberry chocolate mood (Exhibits A and C).

Exhibit A -- Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes: Recipe called for frozen raspberries and room temperature everything. Very easy recipe (which I would give you the link to, but have forgotten it) and things pretty much went without a hitch. Will fill the cups more next time. Oh, and I used cake flour (see explanation for Exhibit B) and I think they are a bit too cakey. Raspberry flavor is good . . . not quite chocolaty enough though. Maybe add some chips. And they seem to be dissolving, so they might be the "serve right away" kind of cupcake. I dusted with powdered sugar and it seems to have disappeared overnight . . . helping with the dissolving theory. They taste AWESOME though.

Exhibit B -- Vanilla Filled Cupcakes: My siblings gave me a lot of shit about the first batch, so I took their suggestions. Tried cake flour on my brother's suggestion (as he used to own that bakery and all). Found that vanilla beans are very reasonably priced at Trader Joe's and so used two this time. Beat the hell out of the sugar (as I do not have a mixer . . . well, I have one somewhere, I think, maybe, packed up in my Northville apartment junk . . . but when you move into a house with no kitchen and then buy new everything for your new kitchen because you deserve it after the tar floor debacle, well, okay, so I don't know if I have a mixer or not). Result: Cupcakes are not all that much more fluffy. Maybe minorly fluffy. Approaching fluffy. And the one cupcake that I "taste tested" the chocolate had sunk to the bottom and stuck to the paper cup. So maybe the all purpose flour brickness was to hold up the chocolate. And they still taste good. Just need some milk.

Exhibit C -- Raspberry Chocolate Cupcakes deux: I was excited about this recipe . . . well, the tablespoon of vinegar was a little weird. But just using raspberry preserves to fill them? Cool. Cause that comes in a jar. Already made. And the recipe has you fill them before you bake them. So no cutting up your cupcakes or piping. Because piping would mean more kitchen gadgets . . . and we just talked about the box of kitchen gadgets in the basement. So you make the chocolate cake and then fill the cups with one tablespoon, then one teaspoon of preserves, and then another tablespoon of cake. Great. Except that there wasn't enough cake. And a teaspoon of preserves is a lot of preserves. And when they baked? Huge mess. Volcanoes of hot raspberry syrup. And then there was the falling in like craters. They were not pretty. And do not taste as good as Exhibit A. Solution? Frosting. Lots of frosting. So basically they are paper cups filled with frosting, with a raspberry on top. But hey, some people like that.

So if you like frosting, ask me to drop off Exhibit C. If you have milk (I don't drink milk and therefore usually don't have it in the house) go with Exhibit B . . . and if I really like you, you can have some of Exhibit A. Give me your order and I will leave them on your porch.