cupcake contest?

Ashbash and I had discussed entering a cupcake contest in Chapel Hill...we planned our cupcakes, we even made our test batches... But then school started, I moved, and we realized we didn't care enough.  But I did bring the 'test' batch to the Julia Child's Birthday Party, and they were a huge success.

So what are we talking about here? Oh just a chocolate cupcake, with a caramel filling, and lavender frosting, um yeah, delicious. Let's get started:

The Cupcake

1. Ingredients: 3 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped, 1 cup flour, 1/2 t baking powder, 1/2 t baking soda, 1/4 t salt, 2 T cocoa powder, 1 T ground espresso, 1/2 c butter at room temp, 1 1/4 c sugar, 2 eggs, 1 t vanilla, 1/2 c sour cream, 1/2 c milk

2. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Melt the chocolate over a double boiler and set aside. 

3. In a stand-mixer, beat the butter and sugar for 2 minutes.

4. Add in the chocolate, eggs, sour cream, and vanilla, beat until creamy

 5. Combine the dry ingredients

6. Alternate adding the flour mixture and milk

 

7. Drop batter into muffin tins and bake for 22 minutes.

*You will have batter for more than 12 cupcakes.  You have some options: you can throw it away (pathetic), you can make some more cupcakes (possible), or you can pull out a small baking dish and make a mini cake... (duh)

 

 

The Filling?

So, I was going to make a fancy caramel filling, but then I got lazy, so instead I melted down some TJs chocolate-covered caramels, yup still damn good.  Once the cupcakes are cooled, scope out less than an inch of the cake. Pour the filling in each cupcake and let chill while you make the frosting.  If you did a neat job you can put the tops back on the cupcakes but you don't have to. 

The Frosting

1. Take some milk, 1/2 a cup, bring into a light boil, turn off the heat and drop in 1 t of dried lavender. Let steep for 10 minutes.

2. In your stand mixer add the drained milk and a stick of room temperature butter. Then slowly add 2 cups of powdered sugar.  Add purple food coloring if desired and top your cupcakes!

The finished product:

Delicious, but the lavender flavor gets overwhelmed when you eat it all together...