Sunday, February 21, 2010

Bake-A-Long #11 - Yellow Butter Cupcakes with Chocolate Egg White Buttercream



This week was free choice week for the Heavenly Cake Bakers group. That means we could bake whatever Heavenly Cake recipe we wanted that had already been baked but we missed out on. I chose the yellow butter cupcakes with chocolate egg white buttercream. I actually baked these guys a few weeks ago to bring to "Game Night" at a friends house. They were a hit.


I used Greek style yogurt in the batter. I love this stuff. It is the creamiest, richest yogurt out there. I buy the full fat version, but it is available in reduced fat as well. If you haven't tried it, do it. I use the plain, unsweetened kind and add honey or preserves to sweeten it when I want to eat it plain, and use it to cook with as well. I actually read in Cook's Illustrated the other day that to use it as a replacement for regular yogurt in recipes, use 2/3 of the Greek yogurt and 1/3 part milk to account for the additional fat and lower water content in the Greek versus traditional yogurt. They said that in their tests, when a 1:1 substitution was used, their cakes came out drier. I will try this next time, but I did not have a problem with dryness in this cupcake recipe. The texture was great. Plenty moist.

I didn't take any pictures of the buttercream making process. I was too busy fretting over it. This was only the second or third time that I have made a real buttercream. I get nervous every time because I actually threw away my first buttercream attempt a few years ago because I didn't think it would ever come together. I then learned that if I would have just kept on mixing, it probably would have been fine. So, that's my advice for making buttercream: keep mixing. It may look like a curdled mess, but most likely it will come together. That's what this chocolate buttercream did as well, it looked horrible and then magically it emulsifies into a beautiful tasty frosting. Everyone loved the flavor as well.


These cupcakes + chocolate buttercream will be made again. I made 12 regular sized and 6-8 minis (I cannot remember exactly how many I yielded). The minis went fast. As soon as someone ate one, they wanted another. I think this is my favorite yellow cake recipe so far.

6 comments:

  1. Oh yum! These sound fantastic. I love Greek yogurt. It makes the best raita salad dressing.

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  2. The cupcakes look lovely. I haven't made this yellow cake yet but I have made the yellow from TCB and that's a really good recipe too.

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  3. Great looking cupcakes; I especially love the first photo of the single cupcake. Very creative photography!

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  4. I'm a big fan of Greek yogurt, too--I don't think I've bought anything else in more than a year. Great for a snack, breakfast, and baking, too.

    The cupcakes look great! I need to remember to try that recipe soon.

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  5. These are so lovely! I've seen this recipe a couple of times and always wanted to try it..now looking at yours, i feel like baking them almost immediately! Your cupcakes look sooo mouthwatering and i love the photos!

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  6. Sweet cupcakes. Love that greek yoghurt as well. The more fat the better!!

    Sunshine! Cupcakes! It doesn't get much better than that!

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