Wedding Cupcakes.

As mentioned before, I recently made cupcakes for a friends wedding. They were a big hit, and heaps of people asked me for the recipes. Both the chocolate and the coconut recipes I used are very easy, so I wanted to share them here.



Chocolate Cupcakes (Wacky Cake)



Wacky Cake is an (apparently) old recipe that dates back to war time (unless my Grandmother made that up) when rationing was in effect. All I know is this is the recipe my mom has been using for years. Since this recipe requires no eggs or milk, it's great for rationing, and any vegans you might know (atleast until you ice them).

Birthday cupcakes.

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

2 tsp. Baking soda

2 tsp. Baking powder

8 T. cocoa

1 tsp. Salt

2 tsp. vanilla

2 T vinegar
10 T. vegetable oil
2 cups water

Preheat oven to 350F and prepare the muffin tins (I always use cupcake liners, but you could just grease the pan if you like.)

Mix first 6 ingredients in large bowl, forming into a well.
Add the vanilla, vinegar and oil into the well. Pour the water over everything and mix until smooth.

Spoon into the muffin liners until about 2/3 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

If you want to turn this into a cake, a bundt pan works the best (otherwise the middle tends to sink) and bake for 30-40 minutes.

Coconut Cupcakes

My friend Dominique (who was a bridesmaid) really wanted to have coconut cupcakes, so we adapted this recipe from a cupcake cookbook I have called cupcakes: a delicious collection of recipes.

(Looks like this)

2 C flour
1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1 1/4 C butter, softened
1 C sugar
4 egg whites (1/2 cup if you buy them in the carton)
3/4 C + 2 Tbsp evaporated  (unsweetened condensed) milk

1/2 C flaked coconut
2 tsp coconut extract

Preheat oven to 350F, and prepare muffin tins.

Combine flour, salt and baking powder in a small bowl.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar using a mixer until thick and creamy. Add the egg whites and beat until light and frothy (about 3 minutes, unless you're like me and have a crazy awesome hand mixer)

Add half the flour mixture and stir. Add the evaporated milk and mix, and then add the rest of the flour mixture. (This batter will be MUCH thicker than the chocolate cupcake batter!)

Add the coconut and coconut extract.

Fill muffin tins about 3/4 full.

Bake 20-25 minutes.

The wedding cupcakes were decorated with
silver dragées (the edible ones).

Basic Butter Icing

I always make icing the exact same way... I don't usually measure - I just add approximate amounts and add little by little until it looks right. Typically I use about 3/4 C soft butter, about 4 C icing sugar and enough milk to make it the right texture. The wedding cupcakes I flavored with about 3 tsp of vanilla, but I typically only use 1 tsp (and you can use any flavoring or extract you like.)

Start by creaming the butter and extract. Add icing sugar 1 C at a time, mixing thoroughly each time, either by hand or with an electric mixer. (it will seem dry, and then wham! It gets moist again and you can just keep adding sugar) Add enough icing sugar to make it fairly dry and firm, then add milk slowly to get it to the consistency you like. If you add too much milk, just add more sugar!

The icing can just be spread on the cupcakes, but I find a piping bag is: 1) easier, 2) neater, 3) more efficient and 4) looks nicer. The larger the better (don't have to fill as often - I have a 14" Wilton bag from Michael's) and a larger tip is easier to use as well (I like a big star tip - #1M). And who doesn't want their cupcakes to be pretty!?

Variation - I added a hint of mint to the batter
and topped with mint icing and a mint sprig.