Bakers United

Chocolate Cupcakes for Blue Dragon

Baked for a fundraiser for Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation. Naturally the icing had to be a worrying shade of blue.

http://www.streetkidsinvietnam.com/

Williams Sonoma Chocolate Cupcakes

2/3 cup plain flour

2 1/2 tbs cocoa powder

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

85g dark chocolate, chopped

160g unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup caster sugar

3 eggs, room temperature

Preheat to 180C

Whisk flour, cocoapowder, baking powder, salt.

Place butter & chocolate over simmering water and melt whilst stirring.

Remove from heat and cool.

Whisk sugar in, then eggs one at a time.

Fold in dry ingredients.

22-24 minutes, test with a skewer to see if they’re ready.

Remove the cupcakes and let them chill out on a cooling rack.

Horrifyingly Blue Swiss Meringue Buttercream

3 egg whites

1/4 cup caster sugar

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

250g butter, room temperature

Vanilla essence

A lot of blue food colouring

Combine sugar, egg whites and cream of tartar in a heatproof bowl with a handmixer.

Bring large pan of water to the boil with the water level with the egg whites.

Put the bowl in and whisk until it reaches 60C or the top becomes foamy like a cappuccino.

Move bowl to stand mixer and beat on high for 3-5 minutes.

Transfer 2/3 of the meringue to another bowl and beat together with half the butter until combined. Add the rest of the meringue one spoon at a time, then the butter one spoon at a time. It might look disgusting and soupy at first but it’ll get better.

Chuck in a teaspoon of vanilla essence while the mixer is still running, then a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste if you want.

THEN OVERLOAD ON BLUE FOOD COLOURING.

Pipe like crazy (I used a 1M tip) and eat it all, sharing is not caring when the object is something as heavily coloured as this.

-Clara