Week 22: Sour Cream Chocolate Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting

Week 18: Sour Cream Apricot Cupcakes with Mascarpone Frosting and Toasted Almonds

Sarah's cute cupcakes pose with the equally adorable Strawberry Shortcake.

I am not ashamed to admit that for my first cupcake adventure I was über nervous. I have often been a sous chef in the kitchen, but never the head pastry chef! I started my cupcake party with a little bit too much of a lofty goal – to purchase as many local products as possible, specifically from the Topeka Farmer's Market. Let's say that I failed miserably, but did end up with some very nice soap. Ming's recipe called for Apricot Preserves, which cannot legally be sold at Farmer's Markets in Kansas. Dillon's, however, carried some very nice preserves from France. So I put on my beret and got to baking.

Due to my intense fear of screwing up the cupcakes, I made a test batch. Other than my kitchen being ridiculously messy and my personal inability to leave a single dirty dish on the counter for more than 5 minutes, the cupcakes were very successful! I delivered them to the neighbors I could find to make sure I wouldn't poison anyone to work. The great people of College Hill loved my cupcakes! (Thanks neighbors! I heart you!)

I got started on my next batch (a double batch –I'm an over achiever.). I think they turned out just as delicious. Ming provided a very understandable recipe for this go-around. I was very satisfied with my first cupcake adventure! 

Week 13: Sour Cream Fig Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Carrie B.'s cupcakes were so sweet, even the cupcake was smiling!

I was so curious to see how the sour cream and fig cupcakes would turn out.  


Result?  Delicious.  Process?  Tricky.  


The batter is extremely thick, probably due to the sour cream.  Ming suggests filling the cupcake pan 1/3 full, then putting a spoonful of fig preserves in, and then covering with more cupcake batter.  


The problem with this method is that the preserves sinks to the bottom of the cupcake rather than staying pretty in the center like her picture.  

Fig cupcake

But certainly doesn’t detract from the flavor, so I recommend the cupcake.  I doubled the recipe and got 22 cupcakes (I might have overfilled the cupcake pan on the first batch).  And, of course, cream cheese frosting is my favorite.  


If I made these again, rather than trying to have a fig center, I might just put some of the fig preserves in both the batter and the frosting.  I didn’t have any figs or candied ginger for garnish, so I garnished with the fig preserves.  It was such a pretty color—I think it worked. 

Week 9: Red Devil's Food Cupcake with Sour Cream Chocolate Frosting

The frosting was runny, but Kari's cupcakes were still delicious.

This week's cupcake, Red Devil's Food Cupcakes with Sour Cream Chocolate Frosting, sounded really unique. For a not so experienced cupcake baker like myself, unique = complicated. I knew I would need some assistance, especially after reading the frosting recipe.

My late Grandma Jeanie was a marvelous cook/baker. One of the many things I miss about her is her delicious food. She always wore a blue apron when cooking/baking. I didn't really inherit Grandma Jeanie's cooking abilities. So, a few years ago for Christmas, my mom gave me Grandma Jeanie's blue apron with a note that said: "Wear this and whatever you make will be great." I knew with this cupcake, I needed to bring out Grandma's trusty blue apron.

The batter for this cupcake came together nicely. It was light, fluffy and moist. I followed the recipe exactly and wouldn't add any ingredients. It tasted good as is.

The fabled blue apron. 

The frosting, on the other hand, did not come together so nicely. The frosting called for chocolate, sour cream, and honey. Again, I followed the recipe exactly. However, the frosting was extremely runny. When I tried to put the frosting on the cupcake, the frosting refused to cooperate. Rather than staying on top of the cupcake, the frosting ran right off the top of the cupcake onto my kitchen table. After attempting to frost the first few cupcakes, there was more frosting on my kitchen table than on the cupcakes. I did what I always do when something goes wrong in the kitchen, I called my mom. She suggested adding some powdered sugar to the frosting to thicken it up. A pound of powdered sugar later and the frosting was still runny. At that point I decided not to add any more powdered sugar as I was fearful it would overcome the honey flavor of the frosting. I decided to let the frosting sit overnight to see if it would thicken. The frosting was still too runny the next day to frost the cupcakes. Instead of frosting the cupcakes, I took the cupcakes and a bowl of the frosting to the cupcake club meeting and let the group members put their own frosting on.

Most of the group seemed to like the taste of the frosting, even though it was so runny. The honey added a nice flavor, but I felt like the sweetness of the honey wasn't enough to overcome the bittersweet taste of the chocolate. The cake was delicious but if I were to make this cupcake again I would use a vanilla butter cream frosting or chocolate frosting.

This cupcake is for you, Grandma. <3

(A picture of Grandma Jeanie's apron is included in this post. I happen to know a male model and he kindly modeled the apron.)