Today I helped out some friends with renovation on their new house (stripping wallpaper, woo!).  What’s great about lending a hand to friends is that not only do I get free beer and pizza out of the deal (and that warm, fuzzy feeling inside from helping others), but it also gives me a perfect excuse to bake something.  There’s no way I can keep foisting my baked goods onto my parents (and right into their freezer), so times like these are just right for baking up a dozen cupcakes for the fun of it…and giving them away.

So on Friday I flipped through a new book my mom gave me and picked out a low-key recipe to take a swing at (I figured after the s’more cupcake fiasco, I might want something a little more straight forward to work on).  And thusly, the Chocolate & vanilla cupcakes came to be.

Behold!

These cupcakes were a lot of fun to make; I was able to make good use of the new stand mixer.  I recently obtained a nice set of prep bowls on sale and was able to use them as well.  When it comes to preparing any sort of meal I tend to be of the “reuse as many utensils as possible” persuasion, mostly because I’m lazy and can’t bear the thought of dirtying up 5 bowls, 3 spoons, and 4 different measuring cups when I could do it with 2, 1, and 3 respectively.  Maybe that’s poor form, but seriously, I don’t want to spend more time cleaning than I do cooking.

That said, I also think it’s silly to try too hard to condense.  Getting your ingredients out ahead of time and pre-measuring some of them into prep bowls can make your life a lot easier.  As long as it doesn’t make your life too much more difficult when it’s time to clean up. 🙂

But I digress.

Verdict

I was really excited about how these cupcakes turned out.  They had a marvelous texture, were pretty, and most importantly were delicious.  While icing is awesome, it was nice to have a cupcake without it for once.  There’s something to be said for a more subtle sweet flavor as opposed to full inundation as iced cupcakes tend to be.  As opposed to the very soft and crumbly texture of the chocolate peanut butter cupcakes, these were much sturdier and delightfully spongy (yes.  DELIGHTFULLY.).

Things I Larn’d

• DON’T try to follow a recipe you’ve never followed before and have a conversation at the same time.  I missed 3 ingredients while chatting with my mother.  Luckily I was able to recover, but it was a pretty ridiculous blunder.  Take 5 minutes to double-check you’ve gotten everything right before continuing your big important thoughts.
• It’s official: the BEST way to dispense your batter into the tin is via Ziplock bag with a corner snipped off.  It was so easy and clean (check out that pan above!  No splatter marks!) I almost cried.