Sunday, September 14, 2008
cute la!
sunday night. not this one but similar and i start perusing food blogs. lots of cupcakes to be seen and then i want one, too. but all the local cupcake places were closed and i had not been out shopping for ingredients in a while. then i came across a pretty picture of a flower topped cupcake. it was so cute and had very few ingredients, making just a small batch of low fat cupcakes. perfect for a late sunday evening urge to bake (and really, to eat cupcakes).
i grabbed everything i needed from the cupboard and checked on the status of my powdered sugar and butter levels (no low fat buttercream round these parts). done and done, it was go time for this new, quick recipe.
smooth, glossy cocoa
low fat chocolate cupcakes (4goodnesscake)
3/4 c flour
3/4 c sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
6 tbsp buttermilk
1 egg
1 egg white
1. combine flour, sugar, baking powder & soda, and salt, set aside
2. with an electric mixer, combine cocoa and 3 tbsp hot water until a thick paste forms
3. add butter, buttermilk, egg and egg white and beat until combine
4. whisk in flour mixture until smooth
5. spoon into 12 baking cups and bake at 350 F until toothpick comes out clean (about 20 min)
ready to bake!
some things to note: i had no buttermilk so I added vinegar to regular milk and stirred it up. it was haphazard and i can't say exactly how much was added in the end because my first ratio was way too sour so i poured some out and added more milk. i guess it was probably 5 tbsp milk and 1 tbsp vinegar (or a little less).
i also used new "nut cup" style papers. tres chic in the cupcake word, i guess. i filled them slightly too full and wound up with only 11...then a few of them overflowed while baking. in the future, i'll fill them up only half way rather than close to 3/4. you can get these papers at joann's right in the baking aisle now, so the trickle down factor has occurred.
a good fill amount makes a perfect little dome
these baked up quite nicely. they had nice, rounded tops that didn't deflate much out of the oven. the nut cups don't need to be in cupcake pans because they are freestanding, so i just put them on a cookie sheet - it was possibly easier and result in more uniform domes because i didn't have titled liners to mess with.
i allowed them to cool and topped them with basic vanilla buttercream. since i have yet to purchase large star tips, i am still piping from a snipped-top ziplock. i do have "real" bags and small tips, but sometimes it's just as easy to get the ziplock out. then, because i like candies and husband likes chocolates, i made some with rainbow non perils and some with shaved milk chocolate. le cuteness!
low fat verdict: pretty good. as far as difficulty (none) and simple ingredients (check), these were decent cupcakes. they don't taste as rich and almost gooey as others i've made, but it was still cake. i also really liked the nut cup paper and had no problem rolling up the edge and tearing it off before eating. i did get feedback that these are much taller, both in cake and then buttercream and true enough, they weren't easily stuffed into the mouth in one bite. that problem did not keep people from eating them, so i'm sure its a small price to pay to be in the "in" cupcake crowd. then again, can the most basic chocolate and vanilla be chic or even comparable to the edamame-snowflake with cheddar and shrimp buttercream cupcakes of the world?
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3 comments:
I'd rather die than eat a shrimp and cheddar buttercreamed edamame cupcake. These on the other hand are SUPER cute and sound good to me. Thank God for that tip on buttermilk. I mean, I still probably don't have the right kind of vinegar, but at least I can have some fun substituting things! It's been so long since I've not be a responsible ingredient-follower. Y'know, in all that baking I do.
yes, PLAIN vinegar (not apple cider, champagne or whatever fancy thing you've got stored in that pantry).
I found a great little tip for lowfat cupcakes using fresh apples. So easy and delicious.
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