The little one wanted to take chocolate cupcakes with pink flowers for her friends in school.
Much as she wanted to make the cupcakes herself, she couldn't and was understandably heartbroken.
The store bought ones just won’t do. So what does one do?
Never fear when the
(pathetic joke, I know….but nevertheless funny).
Here are the chocolate cupcakes with marshmallow pink flowers that I made for my friend's little one.
Needless to say they were a huge hit in that pre-school class!
Ingredients
Cake
(The original recipe came from the box of cocoa but I've tweaked it a bit).
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa, I used Trader Joe's organic cocoa powder. This made a huge difference in the taste of the cupcakes.
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup skim milk. Any other kind should be ok. But I've always used skim milk.
1/2 cup vegetable oil, I used olive oil
3 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water (Yes, boiling water.)
Frosting
1/2 stick (4 tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
3 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
3-4 drops pink food colouring
Marshmallow Flowers
marshmallows, large, about 30
pink sprinkles
pink jelly beans, about 30
Method
Cupcakes
1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Put cupcake liners in the cupcake pan. This recipe makes about 30 cupcakes. Since I did not have so many cupcake pans, I used store bought disposable foil pans.
3. Combine and then sift flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and the salt.
4. Combine the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla in a large bowl. Stir well.
5. To the wet ingredients add the dry ingredients and using a hand mixer beat on medium speed for about two minutes.
6. Add the boiler water and stir well.
7. Fill each cupcake cup 2/3 full with the batter.
8. Bake for about 20 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the should come out clean.
Cool completely before decorating.
Frosting
1. In a medium bowl beat the butter for about two minutes.
2. Add the sugar, vanilla, one tbsp milk, an a couple of drops of the food colouring; beat this mixture for another two minutes.
3. Add more milk if the mixture is too dry.
4. Adjust the colour of the frosting by adding more food colour.
5. Cover, till ready to use.
Marshmallow Flowers
With a kitchen knife cut each marshmallow in five slices. The slices will take on an oval-ish petal-like shape.
Dip each petal in sprinkles and set aside.
Note: dip the petals in the sprinkles right after you cut them. The moistness of the cut petal will help in adhering the sprinkles to it.
Assembly
Frost the cupcakes. You won't need a lot of frosting as the marshmallow flowers will cover most of the cupcakes. But you still want enough frosting to form a pink background for the marshmallow flowers.
Arrange the marshmallow petals, use five petals for each cupcakes.
Add the jellybean to the center of the cupcakes.
Enjoy!
This is my entry for Coconut Chutney's SHF#30: Flower Power.
