Black and White Cupcakes

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend!

Personally, I scored big with Santa…

He surprised me with this gorgeous new Cuisinart food processor.

You may remember that I killed my last food processor some months ago. I was in dire need of this bad boy, and it’s a vast, vast, vast improvement on my old processor. Thank you, Santa!!

I also hit the jackpot with Santa, Jr.!

He got me some gorgeous, shimmery houndstooth boots from Sugar. I love them. Dearly.

Thank you, too, Santa, Jr.!!

Was Santa good to you this year, or were you on the Naughty list?

I’m taking things pretty easy this week, what with Christmas just over, and New Year’s Eve/Day around the corner.

I’m spending my time playing with my nephews and all their new toys, getting books for Biggest’s new nook, after Christmas sale shopping with my sister, and playing mad scientist while I concoct wild and crazy cocktails to try for New Year’s.

I’m thinking one of those is pretty darn tasty, and I may just have to share it with you, but until then, how about some cupcakes?

I love the idea of a black and white cupcake for two reasons.

#1. If they’re anything near as delicious as the cookie, then I’m in trouble.

#2. They would be perfect for a black and white themed New Year’s party, which seems so popular.

I was right on both counts. The cupcakes are amazing…soft, sweet, delicious. They’re just like a black and white cookie…but in a cupcake.

And they would definitely look lovely on any New Year’s Eve dessert table.

You can start with any basic yellow cupcake recipe for these. Mine uses butter, eggs, baking powder, salt, all-purpose flour, vanilla extract, sour cream, and sugar. This is my favorite yellow cupcake recipe, and is the base for many of my more elaborate cupcakes. The only difference for these cupcakes is that I added some fresh, finely grated lemon zest.

I used my Black and White cookie recipe for reference. The cookies are made of more or less the same ingredients pictured above, with just a touch of lemon. The cupcakes ended up being a perfect interpretation of the cookies.

The dough is a little thicker than other cupcake recipes, but it’s still soft and moist. And it bakes up beautifully. I like to sprinkle a few chocolate chips on top. Since the batter is thicker, the chips won’t all sink to the bottom.

For the frosting, I once again stuck with basic recipes that I already knew tasted great. I made a recipe of whipped vanilla frosting, divided it in half, and added one quarter cup of cocoa powder to one half.

Next I filled a decorating bag with half chocolate frosting…

…half vanilla.

I like the swirly, marble effect that I ended up with, and it tastes fantastic.

I tried a whole cupcake at this point and they were perfect! They tasted like a black and white cookie, in cupcake form. But I really wanted that distinctive black and white icing that you get on the cookies.

I used the exact same recipe that I used on my cookies: confectioners’ sugar, water, bittersweet chocolate, honey, and vanilla.

After using what I needed of the vanilla icing, I stirred in the melted chocolate in the remaining icing.

I used disposable decorating bags for applying the icings because it was neater, and much easier.

I simpl drizzled the icing slowly over half of the cupcake, allowing it to run down to the edges. I took my time adding the icing, though, because I didn’t want it to run down the sides and make a huge mess. If you don’t go crazy with the icing, it won’t overflow and make a huge mess. Just take your time.

Once the cupcakes had their vanilla halves, I coated the other half with the chocolate icing.

The cupcakes look like tall, frilly versions of their cookie cousins.

The icing sets up after just a few minutes, too, so when you unwrap the cupcakes, the icing stays put.

I was thrilled with how much these ended up tasting like a perfect black and white cookie in cupcake form. They’re soft and moist, with the subtlest hint of lemon flavor, and the frosting/icing combos are divine.

They are fast and easy to make, too, and can be even faster to make if you want to forego the icing step and only add the whipped frosting.

Enjoy!

Black and White Cupcakes [Printable Version]
Makes 12 standard cupcakes

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups (190 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (100 grams) sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick or 113 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (113 grams) sour cream
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (180 C). Line a muffin pan with cupcake papers; set aside.

In a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter, sour cream, eggs, vanilla, and zest and beat until smooth. Scrape the bowl, making sure there are no streaks of flour remaining (do not over mix).

Place three tablespoons of batter in each of the paper liners in the prepared muffin pan.

Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.

1 recipe Whipped Vanilla Frosting

Divide the frosting in half and add 1/4 cup cocoa powder to half of it.

Fill a decorating bag with half vanilla frosting, half chocolate, and pipe swirls of the frosting onto each cupcake.

Black and White Icing

Ingredients

3 ounces bittersweet or unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons honey
5 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Melt the chocolate in a small bowl and set aside.

In a small saucepan set over medium high heat, bring the water and honey to a boil. Remove from heat and add half of the mixture into the sugar. Whisk until fully incorporated and smooth, adding more of the honey mixture, 1 teaspoon at a time, as needed. Stir in the vanilla extract. Add extra liquid very slowly to be sure that the icing doesn’t get runny.

Fill a decorating bag with a small amount of icing and snip off the end. Draw a straight line directly across the center of each cupcake. Drizzle vanilla icing over half of each cupcake, filling it in up to the line.

Once all of the cupcakes have vanilla icing, stir the melted chocolate into the remaining vanilla icing. If needed, stir in any remaining honey mixture, 1 teaspoon at a time, until the desired consistency is reached.

Using another decorating bag, fill in the other half of each cupcake with chocolate icing.

Recipe by Darla

Tagged as: Black and White Cupcakes, Black and Whites, Chocolate, Cupcakes, Frosting, Holidays, New Year's Eve, Recipes, Vanilla