…

As an artist, or at least as someone who’s been drawing/painting for most of her life, been interested in art for most of her life, went to art school and worked at a museum, I have certain favorite artists and styles of art. I don’t mean Rembrandt or Tiepolo (although I quite enjoy them as well and have a loooong list of traditional artists I admire), I mean contemporary artists. A few of my favorites are Will Cotton, Edward Gorey, Sylvia Ji, Bawidamann, Tyson McAdoo, Lori Earley, Colette Calascione, Ray Caesar, Olivia, Fafi and last but not least… Coop.

Now if you’ve never heard of Coop, you still most likely have seen his work.

He’s famous for his portrayals of the Devil, or of Devil girls. His most famous piece of the aforementioned is to the left.  His other pieces include posters for some pretty famous bands (maybe you’ve heard of them? Nirvana, Reverend Horton Heat, Green Day…?) and some pin-up style nudies. Typically referred to as “low brow” art. I love his style, I love his depictions of the devil and I love pin-up art so I think he’s the bee knees. Maybe he’s not for everybody, maybe its an acquired taste (specifically the full on nudes or devil girl making out with nun girl pictures), but I don’t care.. I am not easily offended by art. Now I could’ve picked any number of artists to  inspire me to make cupcakes. But I had a great idea that was inspired by Coop’s famous Devil imagery that I was going to use for Halloween and never did. This particular cupcake is my version of “Devil’s Food”: a dark chocolatey cupcake frosted with a bold, hot cinnamon frosting, reminiscent of the candy by the same name. It sounds pretty nifty, doesn’t it?

These would’ve been pretty sweet on Halloween. But now Halloween is over *cries* I’ll have to relive the awesomeness of it through these indulgent individual sized cakes we call cupcakes.

These will be especially good to make if John McCain gets into office. I don’t really think I need to explain why. Hopefully by this time tomorrow night that sentence will be crossed out.

…

Its rich chocolate decadence, with a spicy hot frosting, in an indulgent personalized form that allows you to selfishly eat your own cake and revel in its fabulousness, without caring whether or not anyone else has any. Indulgence over abstinence!

Anton LaVey and his Nine Satanic Statements would be proud.

DEVIL’S FOOD CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES
Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
• 1 ½ cups milk
• ½ cup butter (softened or at least room temp.)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 eggs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350° degrees.
2. Measure out everything but the eggs directly into your mixer bowl. Mix on low speed just until incorporated. Beat on high speed for 2 minutes.
3. Add eggs, beat on high speed again for 2 minutes.
4. Measure out into cupcake pan lined with cupcake papers.
5. Bake for about 15-20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool slightly in the pan then transfer to a rack to cool completely before frosting.

“RED HOTS” CINNAMON BUTTERCREAM

Get together:

• 3 ½ cups confectioner’s sugar
• 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• Pinch salt
• ¾ tsp vanilla
• ¼ tsp cinnamon oil
• Red food coloring

And then do this:

1. Cream butter, sugar and salt until well combined.
2. Beat until fluffy. Add vanilla, 2-3 drops food coloring, and cinnamon oil and beat until frosting is smooth.
3. Frost cooled cupcakes, and top with evil bloodcurdling, Satanic cupcake toppers from the fiery pits of hell. Or… my downloadable Coop toppers. *shrugs*

If the frosting isn’t red enough, add more food coloring, and then add some more sugar or ½ teaspoon shortening to balance it out and keep it stiff. The food coloring isn’t mandatory, but it kinda lets people know what they’re in for if you catch my drift. I striped it with black to make it, well, more Devilish and less Christmas-y looking, which is what happens when you make red frosting- it looks like a big Santa Claus should be on top. If you use less cinnamon oil you’ll get a less fiery taste, obviously, so add it at your own discretion. You can use cinnamon extract but it won’t be as hot, it’ll be just more like regular cinnamon flavor. I topped these with some red sugar and Coop art toppers (which you can download and use yourself right here!), but it’d be really cute if you made Devil horn toppers and used those. If you do that I want credit, ’cause thats a dope idea.

…

Oh- and I used Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder for these to make them SUPER chocolatey and dark. It was a good choice, I recommend it. Thanks to Chockylit for the delicious Devil’s food recipe & Bake & Destroy for the red hots buttercream recipe.

And I highly suggest you visit those websites I listed above and view the fantastic  beautiful and sometimes thought provoking art those artists have to show you.