as recommended by the individual recipe)
For some festive flair, mix half a cup of rainbow sprinkles (the long, tube-like ones called jimmies) into the batter before baking. While you can use other types of sprinkles to make a “confetti cupcake”, they are more likely to run – their rainbow-y goodness may smear into the batter and blend into more of a greyish mess.
These cupcakes start out on the stove with melting the butter and sugar together before incorporating your other ingredients – a strange beginning compared to the well-worn “creaming of the butter and sugar” path we’re used to. But I wouldn’t lead you astray, adventurer. The road to rich chocolate cupcakes lies before you – and none are more worthy to traverse it.
Makes 30-32 cupcakes
Preheat oven to 350° F, and line cupcake tins with cupcake liners.
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together cocoa and hot water until smooth. Then in a large bowl, mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until combined.
Melt butter with sugar in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring to combine. Be careful not to let sugar burn!
Remove from heat and pour into a mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, then mix on low until cooled, about 6-7 minutes. Mixture must be cool enough that it won’t cook the eggs you’re about to add.
Speaking of eggs, add those to the melted butter and sugar mixture, one egg at a time, beating until each is incorporated and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add vanilla, then add cocoa mixture and beat until combined.
Add dry ingredients one cup at a time, mixing until combined.
Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Carefully remove from the cupcake pan and allow to come to room temperature.
Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to two months in airtight containers to decorate at a later date.
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
¾ cup hot water
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups butter
2 ¼ cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup sour cream
Flavoring oil
(as listed by the individual recipe)
Stand or hand mixer
Cupcake pan(s)
Cupcake liners
(color as recommended by the individual recipe)
These cupcakes rise up beautifully with a big domed top, so be wary of over filling your baking cups with batter – two-thirds full is what you’re aiming for. If you want consistently sized cupcakes every time, check out the section on Dishers in the Adventurer’s Inventory at the beginning of this book, (page 15.)
Red Velvet. All the most popular elves are talking about it, taking instagram “elfies” with slices of it, and wearing lip glosses flavored like it. But what is it, really, aside from the most popular cupcake in town?
It’s moist, it’s delicious, it’s… red. And it has a distinct flavor all its own. Most red velvet recipes are oil-based, which gives them their soft texture; red velvet also has a slight tartness from the inclusion of buttermilk (or sometimes milk curdled with vinegar). Red velvet recipes also usually call for cake flour, which gives them a lighter crumb. But their greatest intrigue lies in the cocoa: with not so much as to venture into chocolate territory, yet not so little cocoa that it goes unnoticed, the flavor of red velvet rides the line between chocolate and vanilla, and falls into the literal sweet spot between the two.
Makes 22-24 cupcakes
Preheat oven to 350° F and line cupcake tin with cupcake liners.
Add cake flour, cocoa, and salt to a large mixing bowl and whisk until combined.
With a stand or hand mixer on medium-high speed, mix together sugar and oil until combined. Add eggs one at a time, beating until each is incorporated and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Mix in food color and vanilla.
Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and mixing well after each. Stir together the baking soda and vinegar in a small bowl. (Mixture will foam! Fun!) Add fizzy mixture to batter, and mix on medium speed 10-15 seconds.
Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake 20 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Carefully remove from the cupcake pan and allow to come to room temperature.
Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to two months in airtight containers.
½ cups granulated sugar
1 ½ cups vegetable oil
2 ½ cups cake flour
(not all-purpose)
2 tablespoons unsweetened
cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons red gel-paste
food color
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons white vinegar
Stand or hand mixer
Cupcake
