Alright, so I'm sure many of you who read my blog are also fans of Bakerella. I think the woman is awesome and I was dying to try the Hi-Hat Cupcake recipe she featured. If you don't know what these little cuties look like, seriously, just click on the link.
I'd like to start off my review by saying that these are awesome cupcakes. They are so rich, so make sure you have some kind of drink ready.
I'd also like to say that this is no simple recipe and it does take a while. But it's worth it. If you have a free day, make them!
Sorry for the lack of preparation pictures. My hands were full.
I followed the directions for the cupcake batter perfectly. I was a little concerned that the batter had developed into almost a whipped cream consistency. I was skeptical that the batter would actually bake correctly. But the cupcakes baked up just fine, albeit flat on top. But that's what you want for these cupcakes. It was a little difficult getting the cupcakes out of the muffin pan, so I had to tap the sides of the cakes and then flip over the pan to get the cupcakes to fall out. Mom and I had a naked cupcake (without any icing) and they were unbelievably light and fluffy. They are perfect all by themselves.
I stuck the cupcakes in the refrigerator to cool and began making the icing. The directions were quite difficult and involve a bowl placed over a simmering pot of water while you beat the icing with a hand mixer for almost 15 minutes. It was super hard. But once I finally got the 'stiff peaks' that the directions were looking for, I was pleased.
And then I tasted the icing. It was basically homemade marshmallow fluff. And tasted like toothpaste. It was terrible. I threw out all the icing immediately. *shivers* It was that bad.
So I used my trusty buttercream icing recipe:
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Powdered sugar
Cream the sticks of butter in a mixer until butter color is a light yellow. Add the egg yolk, then beat in the vanilla. With the mixer on low, add powdered sugar until you get your desired consistency.
I use almost an entire bag of powdered sugar to get a very dense frosting. I thought that would harden up better in the freezer than a whipped frosting.
I put the icing into a piping bag and squeezed the icing out onto the cupcakes. I didn't get very much height because the icing warms up because of the heat of your hands. But it turned out for the best because most of my family hates a lot of icing :) So maybe I should call them Lo-Hat Cupcakes!
I put the frosted cupcakes into the freezer for 10-15 minutes while I prepared the chocolate chips. Make sure you melt more chocolate then you think you'll need. I thought I had melted enough, but didn't.
I dipped the frozen cupcakes in the chocolate and immediately stored the cupcakes in the fridge to harden up.
2 hours later... and I finally remembered to take pictures:
Yeah, it's good. I mean, with the changes I made, of course!
By the way, who loves my cake stand? I made it today! Mom and I went to a cute antique shop in town and found the candle stick holder and the plate, which came with a matching server. How awesome is that???
