Baking Martha's Chocolate Cupcakes

I'm fascinated by Martha Stewart. Not so much to watch her show or venture into K-Mart and purchase things with her name on them. But I do have a few of her books. I've also had great success with her recipes. She's still my fail proof way to hard boil an egg. 

Ahhhhh. It's just so pretty.

Well, a few years ago I was gifted the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook. It's orange hardcover stole my heart before I even gazed longingly at its beautiful, stylized photos of baked goods. While finger strolling through the book I mused how great it would be to bake everything in the entire book. Fast forward a few years and the book had only been used, um, *cough* once. Time to change things. I turned to my lovely facebook friends and family and spelled out my plans to bake the entire book, starting with randomly selected recipes by them. Woo! They page numbers trickled in.


It may take me years. But I plan to accomplish my goal, one baked treat at a time. And here's the tale of the first baked item: One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes.

One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes with Coconut-Pecan Frosting

My next door neighbor selected these and made a special request, german chocolate frosting. Well, um, that's not in the book, mister. But I'm an obliging sort of lady...what? Don't laugh. I can be accomodating, when I choose. So I found a Martha Stewart recipe for Coconut-Pecan frosting to keep things in the family.

Martha Stewart's Coconut-Pecan Frosting

Ingredients

• 3 large egg yolks
• 1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk
• 1 1/4 C packed light-brown sugar
• 1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and brought to room temperature
• 1 t pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 t salt
• 2 2/3 C (7 ounces) sweetened flaked coconut
• 1 1/2 C (6 ounces) pecans, toasted and coarsely chopped

 Directions

1. Combine egg yolks, evaporated milk, and brown sugar in a saucepan. Add butter, and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thick, about 10 minutes. Pour through a fine sieve into a bowl.
2. Stir in vanilla, salt, coconut, and pecans. Let cool completely. Frosting can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 1 day; bring to room temperature before using.

Stir, stir, stir so you don't have scrambled eggs in your frosting

Straining out the icky bits to achieve that perfect caramel texture

The special request frosting in all its sticky glory

With the frosting done it needs to cool and the interwebs told me the best thing to do is leave it covered on the counter overnight. The next day came the actual recipe from Martha's book. Finally!

One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes
page 168 from The Martha Stewart Baking Handbook 
Ingredients

• 2 1/2 C all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 C dutch processed cocoa powder
• 2 1/2 C sugar
• 2 1/2 t baking soda
• 1 1/4 t baking powder
• 1 1/4 t salt
• 2 large whole eggs
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 1/4 C milk
• 1/2 C plus 2 T vegetable oil
• 1 1/4 t vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 C warm water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two standard 12-cup muffin pans with paper liners. Into the bowl of an electric mixer, sift together first six ingredients. Attach bowl to mixer fitted with paddle attachment; add remaining ingredients. Beat on low until smooth and combined, about three minutes.
2. Divide batter evenly among the muffin cup, filling about two-thirds full. Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until a cake tester comes out clean. About 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool slightly. Remove from pan to cool completely on wire rack. Can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to three days.

Helping hands are always appreciated

Action shot! Woo!

The batter was surprisingly thin from what I'm used to. However, fear not it rises just fine.

The kids always request to taste the batter. Hush about your raw egg business! I don't want to hear it. My problem though was the thin batter. I could not give out batter on finger or spoon. The answer? Shot glasses of cake batter. Hell yeah!

The cooling cupcake

For the kids I piped on plain chocolate icing topped with shaved chocolate

These cupcakes were delicious. I'm not a chocolate cake fan but these were so moist and yummy. Not overly sweet, just right. A definite success.