Semi-Fancy Marbled Cupcakes

First cupcakes of my project: done!
I've been craving vanilla cupcakes ever since I realized that I usually only make chocolate, and I figured that since Mondays are the worst day of the week, I would make enough cupcakes to bring to my first period AP Lang class to start off their week on a positive note.
However, my vanilla cupcake recipe only makes 24 cupcakes, and since there are exactly 24 people in my class, that doesn't leave any room for mistakes. Instead of deciding to risk giving someone a 'mistake' cupcake, I decided to make a double batch. I didn't know if everyone in my class liked vanilla cupcakes, so I made a batch of chocolate cupcakes to supplement. While I was stirring up the batter, I realized this was the chance to try the fad I've wanted to experiment with: marbled cupcakes.

First, I made my vanilla cupcakes, using the Vanilla Cupcakes recipe from the fantastic book Hello, Cupcake!. I didn't change the basic recipe because it has consistently been easy to work with and delicious. It's one of the most simple recipes I've worked with (besides box mixes, ew) but the best tasting. It is a thicker batter than I usually work with, but it isn't dense once baked.

Then, I whipped up my chocolate batter. This is my first time using the Chocolate Cupcake batter from Hello, Cupcake! and I probably will never use it again. The recipe calls for 2 oz of melted unsweetened chocolate, which just turned into a fiasco because it wouldn't melt on the stove, so I melted it in the microwave, which heated unevenly. When I poured it into the batter, the batter became difficult to work with. The batter itself was very thick, much thicker than the batters I tend to work with. I like batters to be a little on the runny side, but this was almost like bread dough. Honestly, I thought when they were baked they were a little too cakey, and needed a little more sweetness. I should have modified the recipe so there was more vanilla and brown sugar- the unsweeted chocolate was too strong!

To marble the cupcakes, I covered the bottom of the cupcake tin with vanilla batter, added a dollop of chocolate batter, and filled in the remainder with vanilla, and swirled them together.

The cupcakes came out looking beautiful! They look so artistic, with minimal effort :)

 

The frosting I made was Simple Frosting, but don't be fooled. I had four people tell me it was the best frosting they had ever tasted! The recipe says it makes enough frosting for 24 cupcakes, but I found it really only makes enough for 10-12 cupcakes, especially when using a frosting bag.

To make the cupcakes look all fancy, I melted down some dark chocolate in a pastry bag and drew some shapes on waxed paper, and accented with white chocolate almond bark. The almond bark hardened quickly, so I didn't have to refrigerate them, which was nice. I did draw them pretty heavily so that they wouldn't break as easily when taking them off of the waxed paper. It was easy and fun! I popped them on top of the frosted cupcakes and added a few non-pareils to make a semi-fancy cupcake. Look how pretty they are! 

Unfortunately, when it came to decorating my cupcakes, my frosting bag was not cooperating. At this time, I had been in the kitchen for almost three hours and my patience was wearing a little thin from a few of the mishaps I had been having. It was probably the most frustrated I've gotten while baking. Thus, of the thirty cupcakes I made, I only ended up frosting 10 of them. Disappointing! I promise I'll make my Lang class some cupcakes next week. (However, I brought the ten I did decorate to school, where they received rave reviews from friends. Wohoo!)

Simple Frosting: (Credit: The Art of Simple Food by Alice Walker)

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon extract