LWF&D makes cupcakes

Last week I made cupcakes. I was trying to replicate the Amy's Bread black-and-white cupcakes without buying the Amy's Bread cookbook (which does have the recipe in it, but I'm cheap). I've read the recipe before and I know it has sour cream, so I searched for another chocolate cupcake recipe with sour cream in it. This is the one I ended up using, from a cupcake cookbook AV gave me (awww). I used the Magnolia buttercream recipe, which is the standard butter-vanilla-milk-confectioner's sugar concoction. Phew, that's a lot of links in one paragraph!

So how'd they turn out? They were good, but not what I was going for. The cake was SUPER light and fluffy, chocolatey but not rich and fudgy, as we all know Amy's is. In fact, it was so light and delicate that the muffin-top-like-overhang had a hard time staying attached to the stump, and the whole thing struggled to support the weight of the frosting. The frosting itself came out a touch too runny to hold my delightfully skilled piping designs (sarcasm, sarcasm, sarcasm)... I found out that the Amy's recipe has some fondant in it, which is what helps it keep its stiff shape. (Careful.)

Like little presents

See? No fudginess inside

Regardless, these tasted quite good: sweet and chocolatey and bad for you. After dinner I ate a large one and then licked the frosting bowl and then almost puked, like a little kid who ate too much halloween candy. Despite my own indiscretions, however, I consider this particular baking experiment a semi-success. Next time I may just have to buy the Amy's cookbook and try out the real thing.