We've had lots of guests over recently. First the potluck, this time a barbecue! Mallory's friends Ghis, Samantha, and Elise are staying in our apartment. We also had Don come over to do the actual barbecuing, fire and coals and all. As usual, I decided to bake something for dessert. Since I baked a chocolate cake for the potluck, I chose to make basic vanilla cupcakes. Plus, I had some cream cheese frosting left over from the cake, and cupcakes seemed the perfect thing to use up the frosting on.
I've been having a problem with cupcakes so far, though. I don't know what is wrong... but each time I make them, they come out weirdly dense, or as Mallory says, "a little cornbread-y." Last time, when I made red velvet cupcakes, they had the weird airy but dense, slightly tough texture. I'm starting to think that it's the silicon cups I'm using but I'm not definitely sure yet. I guess I'll try using an actual cupcake tin or paper cups with the silicon molds next time. I did some research on the internet and apparently silicon cups tend to produce dry cupcakes. I wouldn't say these were dry, but they were definitely a lot oilier than I would have preferred.
Aside from the texture problem, I had no issues with the recipe itself. I did add a 1/4 teaspoon of salt because I thought it weird that the recipe didn't call for any. I've baked enough to remember that salt is one of those things that you usually add. The original recipe also called for royal icing to top off the cupcakes, but as I said, I replaced them with the cream cheese icing. The cupcakes tasted really strongly of vanilla, but I liked that. I may have kept them in the oven an extra 5 minutes or so, but I can't remember what I did.
Next time:
1. use paper cups with silicon cups OR use cupcake tin
2. use royal icing glaze
3. try without adding salt?
recipe by Nigella Lawson from foodnetwork.com
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