I know you’ve been missing the cupcakes, so here they are. The lovely Kellie at Sutton Gourmet Paper sent me an assortment of these beautiful liners, and coincidentally the next day I received a gift from my mother of a vintage 1930′s white enameled metal cake carrier, with hand-painted detail.  I think I’ve mentioned before that I’m slightly obsessed with vintage anything. Especially vintage kitchen-related material like aprons, mixers, cake plates, etc. And this cake carrier is really lovely. It’s so pretty, and in excellent condition. The colors in the liners reminded me of the cake carrier, very vintage-y and bright, and I thought using them together would be a great photo opportunity…..…

Sutton Gourmet Paper liners pride themselves on the fact that their liners are greaseproof and will stay just as colorful and crisp looking after baking as they do beforehand. I admit, I was skeptical. Of course, I’m always willing to try something new and give my honest opinion. And I found that what they say is true. I made a chocolate cupcake, my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe actually, and I’ll be damned- the liners did stay, for the most part, pretty clear, even after baking. Much better than regular liners. I have never had that experience with a chocolate cupcake + paper liner combination. Ever. As a matter of fact, I haven’t had that experience with many vanilla or white cupcake recipes + paper liners! The zebra ones, red damask, and red & white checked ones did get a bit darker than the rest, but all in all they were much better than I expected them to be. The red/turquoise and the brown/turquoise ones just stayed so bright and beautiful, so did the brown/white damask, which made me happy, because they looked so pretty next to my new vintage cake carrier. These liners would be outstanding for a vanilla cupcake as well, the color would be so amazingly bright. The green and pink checked ones also stayed lovely.

Look how gorgeous that turquoise one is!

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As far as the recipe goes, like I said, it’s my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe from Billy’s Bakery in NYC. I cut the recipe in half because I didn’t need 27+ cupcakes. But just so you know, this full recipe does indeed make that much, so it’s perfect for a party. This recipe isn’t a particularly greasy or oily recipe, neither is it the darkest chocolate, but it’s dark enough to know whether or not the liners do what they say they do. And they do! That’s a lot of ‘do’s.’ I frosted them with a vanilla/orange buttercream. Another excellent chocolate cupcake recipe that has a bit more of a punch to it (thanks to coffee) is this one, also frosted with a vanilla/orange buttercream. I have other chocolate cupcake recipes, including a S’mores recipe, if you’d like to see them. Just search or nose around in the archives over there to the right. But now, I give you Billy’s chocolate cupcakes.

I wonder if Lou Ann Stallings will steal these pictures too. They’ll probably be on Craigslist tomorrow! Haha. Speaking of that, let me reiterate once more (despite it being written on almost every fucking page here) that these photos are my property. If you steal them, that’s theft. Plain & simple.

BILLY’S BAKERY CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks unsalted butter (8 ounces)
• 1 cup granulated sugar (7 ounces)
• 1 cup light brown sugar (7-¾ ounces)
• 4 large eggs (one at a time)
• 6 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate
• 2 cups cake flour (9-¼ ounces)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup buttermilk (room temperature)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Cream butter, granulated sugar and light brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer.
2. Add 4 large eggs (one at a time) and beat each until thoroughly combined, then add chocolate (chocolate should be melted, then cooled for approximately 15 minutes before being added)*. Add and alternate cake flour plus baking soda with buttermilk (room temperature) plus vanilla extract.
3. Place cupcake paper into each cup of 2 muffin pans (each pan yielding 12 muffins). Then fill each cup with 1 leveled off scoop of an ice cream scooper.
4. Bake at 350 degrees in regular oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until tester comes out clean.

*If you only have unsweetened cocoa powder, not baking chocolate, and still want to make these cupcakes, you can. For every ounce of baking chocolate required, simply use 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder plus 1 tablespoon oil or shortening. Ta-da! If my calculations are correct, which I’m sure they are, that roughly means 6 tablespoons shortening or oil plus ¾ cups of cocoa powder for this full recipe. You do not have to melt it together separately. Just add it when it says to add the unsweetened chocolate. Or, alternately, you can just add unsweetened cocoa powder to the dry ingredients. That’s what I did.

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All in all I was extremely satisfied! I would definitely buy from Sutton, absolutely. I was super pleased with the end results. There’s really nothing I hate more than greasy liners. Well, there are things I hate more, actually. But greasy liners are up there on the list.

And on that note, here is a picture of me being very awesome lame with my new(er) short(er) hair that I mentioned previously. And please don’t tell me I look like Pink. Not that there’s anything wrong with Pink, I’ve just been hearing that for 10 years now, and I absolutely do not see it at all. By the time you see this, my hair might be a is a totally different color. Oh- and my hair is slick with product in this picture, so don’t think I just have a greasy head. Haha.