Marbled Cupcakes

 

I went back to North Yorkshire last weekend to see my little brother in his final performance as a York College musical theatre student. The show was 'Lucky Stiff' (changed to 'Lucky Harry' because the former was apparently inappropriate since we don't refer to the deceased as stiff in the UK or some other equally as stupid reason) anyway it pains me to say (sibling rivalry and all that) fills me with pride to be able to say he was a-mah-zing. Like seriously so good. In case you have never heard of Lucky Stiff (I hadn't that's for certain!), it's a musical farce based on The Man Who Broke The Bank At Monte Carlo, about (and this is a really brief rundown) a regular run-of-the-mill English shoe salesman who has very little in his life other than his menial job. A distant relative dies leaving Harry an enormous sum of money - but before Harry can receive the estate he has a number of bizarre final requests to adhere to, the main bulk of which revolve around taking his deceased Uncle Anthony (yes I mean his corpse) to Monte Carlo for an all expenses paid vacation. If Harry fails his mission he will be cut from the will and the $6 million will go to Uncle Anthony's favourite charity, the Universal Dog Home of Brooklyn. There is a lot of hysterical rivalry between the charity worker and Harry, both of whom want this crazy amount of cash. There are many truly comedic twists along the way which I won't tell you about since ya know don't want to spoil it and all that jazz. Anyway, it was very funny and my bro played Harry. It's strange to think my little brother who didn't talk for a very long time is the same boy (I should really say young man here gawwdd) who I witnessed owning the stage for two hours. The point of my ramblings was to tell you that since I was up north and J had put on such a fantastic performance, I wanted to make something the fussiest, pickiest boy on the planet he would enjoy.

This provided me with the most perfect opportunity to make these Marbled Cupcakes from Cake Days by The Hummingbird Bakery. Truth be told I think these were still too adventurous for him but Hannah, Mum, Dad, Grandma and I certainly enjoyed them!

The frosting is without a doubt the best frosting recipe I have EVER used. It went on the cupcakes like a dream (I didn't even have my spatula with me so I had to make use with a butter knife) and I had plenty left to shovel in my mouth like I was plastering a wall - which is saying something as I am pathetic with buttercream, one taste and I feel sick, but not this stuff, it was too tasty to even consider how sickly it was!

I love chocolate and I love vanilla. What I don't love, however, is choosing between the two. I find that for the most part when chomping down on a slice of marble cake it is very difficult to distinguish between the chocolate and vanilla. With this recipe you truly get both flavours coming through. Instead of cancelling each other out to produce one very sweet monotonous flavour they work with each other, bringing out both the chocolate AND vanilla. No monotonous flavour here thank you very much. Not today. Not ever. No sir. Now THAT is my kind of marble cake.

The sponge itself is light and fluffy allowing for the monstrous size of these cupcakes and all the decadent frosting mmmm. If you want a sweet fix let these be that.

I think I will let the photos do the rest of the talking, all these photos have meant writing this post has been a serious test of self restraint, resisting the urge to jump off my chair and into the kitchen to whip up another batch has been somewhat of a triumph. Saying that, I have frosting to spare and a new bag of flour waiting to be tipped into its jar...
 

Ingredients

Slightly adapted from Cake Days (and I'm talking minimal - this recipe was nearly perfect, requiring only more vanilla and more sensible instructions ;) but then who am I to comment?!)

For the chocolate and vanilla sponges:

80 g unsalted butter, softened
240 g caster sugar
240 g self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
20 g cocoa powder
2 large free-range eggs
240 ml milk (the recipe calls for whole milk, I used semi-skimmed, calorie saving and all that - kidding it was just what we had in the house!)
1 and 1/4 tsp vanilla essence

For the chocolate frosting:

200 g icing sugar (powdered sugar)
50 g cocoa powder
80 g unsalted butter, softened
25 ml milk (again I used semi-skimmed)

For the vanilla frosting:

250 g  icing sugar (powdered sugar)
80 g unsalted butter, softened
25 ml milk (semi-skimmed)
3/4  tsp vanilla essence

Directions

1. Pre heat the oven to 170 degrees C and put 12 large muffin cases into a deep muffin pan. In a large mixing bowl, cream together half the butter (40 g) and half the sugar (120 g) until light and fluffy.
2. In a jug beat 1 egg with half the milk (120 ml) and combine this and half the flour (120 g) alternately with the butter/sugar mixture. Add half the baking powder and salt and all the cocoa powder. Spoon this mixture into each of the cases until they are each just under 1/2 full.
3. In a clean large mixing bowl cream together the other half of the butter and sugar and add the other half of the flour, milk, baking powder, salt and 1 egg as in step 2 plus the vanilla essence.
4. Spoon the vanilla mixture on top of the chocolate mixture until each muffin case is nearly full (about 7/8ths full). Insert a skewer or cocktail stick into the middle of each 'raw' cupcake and swirl it around to create a marbled effect.
5. Bake for about 20 minutes (Cake Days says 18 - 20 minutes, mine took about 25) until the cupcakes have risen well, are spongy to the touch or until a cocktail stick comes out clean.
6. Whilst the cupcakes are cooling you can make the frosting (exciting exciting exciting). Take 2 medium mixing bowls/jugs. To make the vanilla frosting combine the icing sugar and softened butter to form a thick 'too dry' paste. Add the milk and vanilla essence and mix into a smooth thick paste.
7. To make the chocolate frosting, add the icing sugar to a medium mixing bowl and sift in the cocoa powder. Cream in the softened butter to make a 'too dry' mix then add the milk and mix well to form a smooth paste.
8. Once the cupcakes are cool, apply the frosting liberally with a palette knife - come on now be MORE GENEROUS! You'll have lots left over anyway so you may as well smack it all on!
9. Serve, hoard because they'll be gone lickety split, share, eat and ENJOY :)