It is raining.  I have an incredible amount of work to do.  Most of it is mapped out, some still needs to get on the to-do list.  I am not up to the task.  When the going gets tough, the tough…make Vanilla Butter Cupcakes with Chocolate Icing?  I’m not sure that’s how it goes, but, that’s what I did.

      People send me recipes.  I play with them.  Hard job, I know.  I’ve been looking at this particular recipe for a while.  The first strike against it was that it calls for cake flour, and who wants to buy a whole box of cake flour?  The second strike was that it called for 3/4 cup of whole milk.  Again, not something I keep around.  BUT, today I happen to have some half and half left over.  Obviously some divinity wants me to play and not work.

The first thing I must impart to you is that sifting dry ingredients onto a flexible cutting board and then dumping it in the mixer in parts is excellent in theory.  As I gently shuffled 1/3 of the mixture into the mixer, I was unable to gently shuffle the remainder back onto the center.  It ended up in a bowl.   My sifter lives in a plastic bag in a bin of rarely used but never to be parted with kitchen gadgets.  I could have used a sieve, but I need some justification for this bin.  Picture, if you will, a fine flour cloud in the kitchen…

Finally the batter was done, the muffin cups over-filled (this recipe probably makes 18 just to the top of the foil cupcakes), and the baking commenced.  Nothing interesting to report.  Of course, once they came out of the oven the vultures started circling.  I can yell my darn fool head off and the boys don’t hear me, but they sure come running at the merest whiff of baked goods.  Oh, there’s a product for the air freshener people! 

Time for the icing.  Frosting?  Whatever you like to call it.  I am not a big fan of mixing together butter and powdered sugar and tweaking it until it doesn’t taste raw.  I’m even less of a fan of the industrial tub-o-sludge that’s next to the boxed cakes.  This 3 ingredient icing is my new go-to favorite:  sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, and butter.  Zap it in the microwave, cool slightly, and go.  It’s inspired, truly.   Now, had I been paying attention to the measurements, this recipe would have made the perfect amount.  I got distracted and poured in the whole can of sweetened condensed milk, and thus had to use the whole bag of chocolate chips.  I’m sure the rest can be melted again for ice cream (being optimistic that the boys won’t just eat it!).   Had I used just 3/4 cup of the sweetened condensed milk, the rest would have lingered and been wasted.  Once the frosting was slightly cooled, it dolloped on nicely, and then set beautifully.  What more could you want?  Low fat and low calorie?  It’s not, so don’t look.

Now for quality control.  They were pronounced “really good” by the panel of 3.  No one stuck around for my evaluation.  I cut a cupcake in quarters.  The crumb is good, they are moist, and hold together well (meaning:  cake flour NOT required).  They taste like vanilla.  The frosting is set, chocolaty, and sweet.  Maybe next time I’ll throw in a bit of darker or unsweetened chocolate just for my personal preference, but it certainly isn’t necessary.

Definitely make these Vanilla Butter Cupcakes with Chocolate Icing.