Archive for July, 2009

Making Devli’s Food Cupcakes

My favorite cupcakes are chocolate cupcakes with vanilla icing. I love the deep chocolate flavor in the cake, balanced by creamy vanilla frosting. But despite it being my go-to cupcake at bakeries, I had never tried to make them myself.

This week I wanted to make Harry Potter themed treats to bring into work to celebrate Harry Potter day on Wednesday (the movie release of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince – which our COO took anyone who wanted to see it to the IMAX showing at 10am, amazing!). I knew I wanted to make and decorate cupcakes, and devil’s food cake seemed perfect for the theme – dark and delicious, and a bit evil.

I wanted a deep chocolate flavor – more chocolate-y than sweet. They also had to be incredibly moist – dry cupcakes are the worst.

The America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book

I turned to my go-to source for good baking recipes - America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book. I can’t recommend this book highly enough, all their recipes turn out fantastic.

I’ve adapted the baking instructions for cupcakes, instead of a layer cake.

Devil’s Food Cupcakes

For an accurate measurement of boiling water, bring a full kettle of water to a boil and then measure out the desired amount.

1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 & 1/4 cups boiling water
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon instant coffee
1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
10 tablespoons (1 and 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 & 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake tins with cupcake papers.

2. Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. In a medium bowl, whisk the boiling water, chocolate, cocoa powder, and instant coffee together until smooth.

3. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 6 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until combined, about 30 seconds. Beat in the sour cream and vanilla until incorporated.

4. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in one-third of the flour mixture, followed by half of the chocolate mixture. Repeat with half of the remaining flour mixture and the remaining chocolate mixture. Beat in the remaining flour mixture until just incorporated. (Do not overmix.)

5. Give the batter a final stir with a rubber spatula to make sure it is thoroughly combined. Use an ice cream scooper to fill the cupcake papers about 2/3 full. Tap the pans lightly on the counter to settle the batter. Bake about 13-15 minutes, turning the pans in the oven carefully half-way through. A tester inserted into the center of a cupcake should come out with a few crumbs attached.

6. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 5 minutes, and then move to a wire cooling rack. Cool completely before frosting with your favorite frosting.

Makes 30 cupcakes.

Devil’s Food Cupcakes

I think I could have shortened the bake time on these a little bit (which I’ve noted in the recipe, next time I’ll try 13 minutes instead of 15), and they would have been a little more moist, but they were still incredible. I will definitely be making this recipe often.

The key to this recipe’s success is the instant coffee, which helps bring out the chocolate flavors (you won’t be able to taste the coffee flavor) and the brown sugar and sour cream for moisture.

Decorating:

I wanted to decorate these to match the Hogwarts house colors, so that people could be Sorted to find out which cupcake they get. I used vanilla buttercream frosting, separated it into four bowls, and dyed each a base color of one of the houses. Then I used colored sprinkles for the accent colors. I got all my supplies at the NY Baking Supply Store, but you could probably find a lot of similar supplies online at the new (and charming) Layer Cake Shop.

Here are the colors I used:

Burgundy and Yellow: Gryffindor
Yellow and Purple: Hufflepuff
Blue and Silver: Ravenclaw
Green and Silver: Slytherin

I thought about doing one of the actual sorting hat quizzes online to sort people, but sorting over 20 co-workers that way (many of whom are Harry Potter fans, but definitely not all) would not be fun. So I printed slips of paper with each house shield on them, and people drew a slip to find out their house. This also worked better because it ensured that I had enough cupcakes to match all the sorting.

The cupcakes were delicious, and decorating them was very fun. I loved the movie, and it was a wonderful Harry Potter day! :)

Hogwarts House Cupcakes

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The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Muriel Barbery

This is the second novel by Muriel Barbery, and was translated from French by Alison Anderson.

I saw this book frequently for over a year, and for some reason never picked it up before now. That was a mistake.

It’s a warm, beautiful book. It’s funny, entertaining, and best of all it gives you a lot to think about. It might make you cry.

If you would like a little taste, here’s a small passage I posted. There’s also an excerpt posted on NPR.org.

Even before I had finished this book, I had the urge to run out and buy copies for everyone I know, and poke them until they read it. Even more so now that I have finished it. (Look out, friends!)

I highly recommend The Elegance of the Hedgehog. I think if you read it you’ll agree – it would also make a great gift and an excellent choice for a book club.

Muriel Barbery’s first book – Gourmet Rhapsody – has been translated and is coming out in the US on August 25th. I will definitely be buying a copy as soon as it’s released.
THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG BOOK DESCRIPTION:

“Renée Michel is the dumpy, nondescript, 54-year-old concierge of a small and exclusive Paris apartment building….

“Paloma Josse also lives in the building. Acutely intelligent, introspective and philosophical, this 12-year-old views the world as absurd and records her observations about it in her journal…

“These two characters provide the double narrative of The Elegance of the Hedgehog, and you will — this is going to sound corny — fall in love with both….

“Tender and satirical in its overall tone, yet most absorbing because of its reflections on the nature of beauty and art, the meaning of life and death…. The intelligent Muriel Barbery has served readers well by giving us the gently satirical, exceptionally winning and inevitably bittersweet Elegance of the Hedgehog.”

—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

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So, we mustn’t forget any of this, absolutely not. We have to live with the certainty that we’ll get old and that it won’t look nice or be good or feel happy. And tell ourselves that it’s now that matters: to build something, now, at any price, using all our strength. Always remember that there’s a retirement home waiting somewhere and so we have to surpass ourselves every day, make every day undying. Climb our own personal Everest and do it in such a way that every step is a little bit of eternity.

-Page 128-129, The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

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