White Velvet Cupcakes

This is our second-to-last cake in the official bake-through, friends. I am a little sad. However, I still have 26 cakes to go, so I will continue to bake-through with Jenn the Knitty Baker, and I hope those of you who aren't yet finished will continue on. Don't give up now!

The cake of the week is actually cupcakes, and is a cake I bake an awful lot around these here parts it seems. Good thing it is as quick as it is delicious.

May 7, 2011
Name of Cupcakes: You Again?
Occasion: HCB
Constituents: White Velvet cupcakes, frosted with either brown sugar buttercream or lemon curd

Technically I was supposed to frost these with a version of the Golden Neoclassic Buttercream, which is a really good, silky frosting, but I rebelled.

I had this tub of frozen frosting in my freezer for so long I decided I had better use it. And I am glad I did, because when I searched the archives on this blog to find out how old it was, I was a bit shocked. It is from November TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT! Knowing that the frosting is still pretty good shocks me even more.

The White Velvet cake is really easy to put together, and turns out a reliably tender, vanilla scented white cake perfect for a party. Or a weekend snack. Or whenever.

I didn't have any cupcake liners, so instead of going to the store, I decided to make my own little parchment cups. I did this once before, but cut the parchment into big rectangles instead of cute little squares. I did better this time around--each square was 3.75x3.75 inches, but a 4x4 square would work just as well. I pressed the squares into the cupcake tin using a couple of the silicone cupcake cups I have, but the silicone cups kept popping up so I covered them with a baking sheet and weighed that down with a heavy book. I left it that way until I was ready to spoon the batter into the cups. When I removed the book, sheet, and silicone cups, the parchment squares popped out but at least this time they had been molded to the tin, so when I spooned in the batter the parchment sunk back down without a fight.

The cupcakes look so dang cute in their parchment cups that I am almost tempted to do this every time I bake cupcakes.

I had 150g batter left over after filling my 12 cupcakes, so I baked off the rest as a little heart-shaped cakelette.

I was on the phone trying to explain to Zetta the difference between pastry flour and all-purpose flour when the timer telling me the cupcakes were finished started beeping. Distracted, I turned off the timer and finished my conversation. Finally, I realised the cupcakes were supposed to come out of the oven when that timer had gone off! So the cupcakes and the cakelette are a bit over baked, but the cupcakes don't seem affected. The cakelette seems to have suffered a bit in texture, a little more rubbery to me.

I decided to frost half of the cupcakes with lemon curd since I have a bunch of that leftover from January, and sadly it seems the sugar has crystallized as the curd had a crunchy texture. However I kind of liked the little bit of crunch as well as the lemony zing of the curd atop these delicate cakes.

The other cupcakes and the cakelette got the brown sugar buttercream of 2008, which was from a Martha Stewart recipe for a three layer, butterscotch-pecan cake that was pretty good, but way too sweet. (Click on the link to see the recipe at the Martha Stewart site.) This frosting is a combination of cream cheese, brown sugar caramel, and butter. It is good, but not great.

Cookie came over hoping I had a pair of knitting needles to lend her, but instead she left with half a dozen cupcakes. At least she didn't leave empty handed!