Spring Potato Cupcakes Part II: Baking

Cupcakes have become one of my favorite treats to make. They are (usually) quick and easy, don't often require batch after batch (like baking cookies), and there seem to be no limits in terms of variety.

These cupcakes, made for Big One's spring party tomorrow, are based on the Chocolate-Mashed Potato Cupcakes on Sprinkle Bakes. I opened a new container of unsweetened cocoa powder to make them, and between the cupcakes and the frosting I used the entire thing.

I love chocolate.

From preheating the oven to final cleanup, this baking project took me 2 hours and 15 minutes. I had to bake the cupcakes in two batches, and the time this required would have allowed me to make the chip toppers, had I not already done so last night.




Spring Potato Cupcakes
Makes 26 cupcakes

• 3 cups flour
• 2.5 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 cup softened butter
• 1.5 cups sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
  
• 2/3 cups cold mashed potatoes (make sure you'd like in your cupcakes what you put in your potatoes. One of these days I may add bacon bits to this. Don't judge me, I'm just curious)
• .5 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 4 eggs
• .5 cup milk (the Monsters drink 2%, so that's what I used)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and prepare your muffin pans as desired. I've only recently become a cupcake-liner-convert, but holy cow does it make things easy. I don't know why I resisted.
2. Mix dry ingredients together. Like I've said before, I often skip the multi-bowl method, and mix the dry ingredients in the large measuring cup I use for flour. I give it a quick stir, and end up with something like this. (Or, you know, exactly this, since I've given you a photo of the results.)
3. Mix the "good stuff": cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, whip in the mashed potatoes, and then beat in the eggs and vanilla extract. You'll want to use a big bowl to avoid ending up with flour everywhere, like I did.
4. Alternate stirring in the flour mixture and the milk (approximately half of each at a time until it's all mixed in). The batter will be thick, which makes for very easy cupcake portioning.
5. Using a 1/4 c. measuring cup, pour/spoon batter into muffin pan. Don ' t worry about spreading the batter evenly - it will shape well in the oven.
   
6. Bake for 20 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
7. Cool on a rack completely before frosting.

Which brings me to my favorite part.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Generously frosts 26 cupcakes

• 1 cup softened butter
• 5.5 cups powdered sugar
• 2/3 cup milk or cream of choice
• 3 tsp. vanilla
• 1.5 cups unsweetened cocoa powder

1. Mix all ingredients together. I like to start with the butter, cocoa powder and vanilla, adding the sugar and milk in batches until I end up with the right consistency. Keep in mind that this kind of frosting is pretty forgiving: you can, within reason, add milk and sugar until you get to the stiffness you would like. This equation gave me reasonably stiff frosting that didn't strain my disposable pastry bags.
2. Assemble your pastry bag using the tip of your choice (I think I used Wilson 35?), and fill the bag with the icing. Now, let me say this: I am not a cake decorator. I kind of stink at it. My mom, however, was always great at decorating cakes, and I remember her testing each tip by squeezing some icing on the cutting board. I didn't need to test the tip, since I'm not exactly doing precision work, but I put out a couple stars just because thinking of my mom makes me smile.
   
3. Frost the cupcakes!

If you would like to use sprinkles I recommend working a bit quickly, as you will want to decorate the cupcakes before the frosting dries - if it dries the sprinkles won't stick.

Then, top each cupcake with a prepared chocolate-covered potato chip.

Viola! And enjoy.