Week 4 of 52: The Mad Cupcake

January 27 2013

Today would be Lewis Carroll's 185th birthday (born in 1832). For those of you going, "Who?" He wrote, among other things, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

If you don't know anything about the book, check out the synopsis on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland. It starts with Alice falling down the rabbit hole and the many adventures that ensue, from growing big and small, having tea with the Hatter, meeting a grin without a cat, using a flamingo for a croquet mallet, and standing up to the Queen of Hearts, all before waking up from her dream.

This story has been talked about by scholar's for years. Everyone is always looking for hidden meaning in the words. But for me...I just loved the pictures. The creativity, it made me use my imagination a lot. I have always been a fan of that book and perhaps that explains a lot! :o) To this day, I don't color in the lines, I laugh at my own jokes, I am late to everything, and my imagination is as strong as ever.

In using my imagination in choosing a theme for each week in my year-long blog, it was a no-brainer for Week 4. But the ultimate execution was only decided at the last minute.

I love Red Velvet Cake. And I made one for a co-worker for her birthday last year and really loved the recipe. It kinda turned out pink because I did not have enough food coloring and that pic is actually on the front page of this blog. So I went back to that recipe thinking, why not a Pink Velvet Cake. I didn't even know there was such a thing, but I found a variety of recipes on the web,

The recipe I used is a compilation from one on Taste of Home (http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Pink-Velvet-Cupcakes) and the original one I used last year from the Joy of Baking (http://www.joyofbaking.com/RedVelvetCake.html).

But as I got closer to actually making the cupcakes, I kept thinking that blue would be so much better. After all, Alice wore a blue and white dress. And thinking of the Mad Hatter's tea party, the cupcakes could not be "normal."

So here is Week 4 of 52 Weeks of Desserts...

MAD CUPCAKES!

Ingredients

10 T butter, unsalted, room temperature
1 1/2 c sugar
Food coloring
2 eggs
2 t vanilla extract
3/4 c finely chopped white chocolate (I used 3 cubes of white almond bark)
2 1/2 c flour
1/2 t salt
1 c buttermilk
1 t baking soda
1 t white vinegar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Prep cupcake tins with liners. Makes 24 cupcakes.
2. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and blend well. Add vanilla. Mix in chocolate.
3. Mix salt into flour. Add 1/3 of flour mix to egg mix. Add 1/2 of buttermilk. Add another 1/3 of flour mix. Add remaining buttermilk. Add remaining flour mix.  Buttermilk will make things lumpy at first, but just keep mixing.
4. Pour half of batter into another bowl and add food coloring to preferred hue.
5. Mix 1/2 t of baking soda with 1/2 t of vinegar in a bowl. It will foam. Immediately add to colored mix, stirring gently.
6. Mix another 1/2 t of baking soda with 1/2 t of vinegar in a bowl. Again it will foam. Immediately add to the non-colored mix, stirring gently.
7. Using an ice cream scoop, add non-colored mix to each cupcake liner - 1/3 full. Top with colored mix to 2/3 full.
8. Bake for approximately 20 minutes. Do not over brown, so watch them at 18 minutes. Pick should come out clean.

Cool completely before frosting with your favorite. These do not keep well in the fridge, and don't keep well for more than 2 days in an airtight container. So frost at the last minute and eat rapidly!