Yellow cupcakes (p. 737) and Black bottom cupcakes (p. 738)

When I bake, I prefer to bake as much as possible at once. My thought process is as follows: if I'm going to make the whole kitchen a giant mess, might as well make more items and only have to clean once. So since I already knew I was going to make Yellow cupcakes (p. 737)--might as well make Black bottom cupcakes (p. 738) too!

I beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth:



I then beat in an egg and added chocolate chips:



In another bowl, I mixed flour, sugar, non-alkalized cocoa powder*, and salt:



I added water, vegetable oil, distilled white vinegar (strange!), and vanilla:



I filled each cup about half full with the chocolate batter mixture:



I placed a heaping tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture in the middle of each cupcake:



They were then baked:



These were good! The middle was creamy and tsty, the different types of chocolate (chips and cake) lent a note of interest, and I really liked the idea of a filled cupcake that didn't take much extra effort. The cupcakes were also really moist and remained moist for quite a while. They were so rich they didn't even need to be frosted! Perfect. I really recommend these.

Yellow cupcakes (p. 737) isn't a very exciting recipe. I essentially just made Lightning cake and poured the batter in to a cupcake pan.

I whisked together cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. I added eggs, milk, and vanilla, beat the batter for a few minutes, and then beat in some butter.



The batter was delicious. I poured the batter in to cupcake cups (I use a cookie scoop, it makes it much more simple):



And baked:



I actually have more pictures of this process but they don't seem very important. It's so frustrating to me how differently the cupcakes rise. I'm still not dealing with the altitude and baking well. These cupcakes were good but nothing special. In fact, they reminded me of boxed mix cupcakes, which isn't a real compliment. I don't know if I'd bother with this recipe again.

Random facts:

• *Non-alkalized cocoa powder: Alkalized cocoa powder is referred to as "Dutched". It has been treated with an alkaline substance and raises the pH of the cocoa. It results in a cocoa "with a milder flavor and darker color" (On Food and Cooking, p. 705-706).
• If you use alkalized and non-alkalized cocoa interchangeably in recipes, it can really screw them up.
  

Technorati Favorites">