Vanilla Cupcakes for Two

I posted a recipe a few days ago, Chocolate Chip Cookies for Two, which proved to be very popular.  Continuing with the idea, I made these cupcakes for my fiancee and I.  Again, the idea was to make a single portion each of a dessert, with minimal time, work, and effort. For those of you who aren’t cookie people (are there really any of you out there?) you can still get your baking for two fix with these cupcakes.  And, as most vanilla cupcakes are, these are super adaptable.  Throw in some chocolate chips, lemon zest and lemon extract, cinnamon and spices, and/or anything else you can think of.  The cake batter itself came out dense, kind of like pound cake consistency.  I might try these again with cake flour to give them a fluffier and lighter feel.  The frosting I used was simply delectable, and is basically my version of a scaled down recipe for Joy the Baker’s best chocolate buttercream frosting.  With all that hard math done for you, you have no excuses to make these immediately-here’s betting you already have all of the ingredients!  And if you are really lazy, just frost these with some nutella. Yum!

Vanilla Cupcakes for Two (Adapted from How Sweet Eats)

1 egg white

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 heaping teaspoon of baking powder

pinch of salt

1 1/2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (175 C). Line a muffin pan with 2 liners.

In a bowl, add egg white and sugar and whisk until combined. Add in vanilla and melted butter and stir until mixed. Add flour, baking powder and salt and stir until smooth. Stir in milk (Don’t overstir!). Divide batter equally between the 2 cupcake liners.

Bake  for 10-12 minutes, or until cake is set. Let cool completely, then frost as desired.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting: (adapted from Brett Bara and Joy the Baker-cookbook link above)

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon  cocoa powder

2 teaspoons ovaltine powder( gives a great malted taste, if you don’t have this sub an extra 2 tsp cocoa powder)

2 1/2 tablespoons confectioners sugar

1 teaspoon milk

dash of salt

Melt the butter in a small bowl. Add all the remaining ingredients to the butter and whisk to combine. Refrigerate for 10-15 minutes or until frosting is partially set. Whisk again then allow to rest at room temperature until cupcakes are cool enough to frost. (Start making the frosting as soon as the cupcakes go in the oven, so that it will be set and ready to go once the cupcakes are cool.)

Oreo Tunneled Bundt Cake

For me bunt cakes are one of my favorite cakes to bake. They look stunning, not like plain old sheet cake. Also, they are easy to make, not like those layered cakes which need a special occasion to really shine. This bunt cake has an added bonus of an Oreo cream cheese filling sandwiched between two layers of moist, gooey chocolate cake.

Of course I forgot to take a picture after we sliced it so you could see the ribbon of cream  cheese running through the cake, I guess I was too busy stuffing my face! But you have to trust me, you will love it. Just picture the creamy filling in stark contrast to the dark cake. I used Hershey’s recipe for the cake but you could be lazy and just use a box cake mix. It will still taste amazing I promise.

For the cake:

Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup  Cocoa
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

For the filling

• 1 package cream cheese (8oz or 200g) softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped Oreos

1. Heat oven to 180C. Grease and flour a large bunt pan.
2. For the cake:  Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin).
3. In a separate medium sized bowl mix together the cream cheese and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla.Fold in the chopped Oreos.
4. In the bunt pan pour in half the cake batter. Then spoon the cream cheese filling on top. Finish by pouring the second half of the cake batter.
5.  Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.
6. To make the glaze, just mix some confectioner’s sugar with milk until you reach your desired consistency. Pipe over the cooled cake.

Enjoy!

– M