Cupcakes to make the most hardened man beg for more

Ok, so a good friend of mine had her birthday party in Manhattan a week ago and I decided to make cupcakes for her.

Who doesn't like cupcakes after all?

Well, I used recipes from this book -

Cupcakes!

and they were a HUGE hit.

I made the Chocolate Buttercream frosting which was incredible - buttery and smooth and the perfect amount of sweetness mixed with chocolate flavor. I combined this frosting with the Easy Yellow-Mix Cupcakes which I think is hard to beat - even the most picky eater can't turn down a good yellow cupcake with chocolate frosting.

Next I made White Cupcakes with White Chocolate frosting as my friend is a big fan of white chocolate and she couldn't get enough of them. She ate several that night and took a couple home for breakfast and snacking the next day. They turned out quite well - the White Chocolate frosting was a little sweet for me, but if you like white chocolate I recommend them.

And last, but most definitely not least I made Dark Chocolate Sour Cream cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting. The Cream Cheese frosting was simply delightful... it's one of my favorite kinds of frosting anyway, and this was no exception. It was smooth and cheesy and sweet and tangy. The DCSC cupcakes were drier than the others, but that was because I cooked them a few minutes too long, I think. The recipe is quite good. I also filled a mini-cake tin with the batter and that turned out moist and perfect so I know it's possible to make these little guys mouth-wateringly good.

And, of course, I forgot to take pictures before they were gobbled up!

I used disposable pastry bags and attachments sold as a set by Dean and Deluca and even though I'm a novice, they turned out quite good. My advice is, stick to the basic moves and don't get too creative on your first try. I did have a few cupcakes that looked like a first grader exercised their creative license with them... and the I reverted back to the two styles I learned from a video on youtube.com.

Icing Cupcakes Video.

Oh, and because I'm a fuckin dork I bought tupperware in which to carry cupcakes. It's AWESOME. I think making and bringing cupcakes to someone's birthday party is a great present and my friends couldn't believe what a freakin domestic weirdo I am. YES. Check it out -

Cupcake Carrier from Crate & Barrel

Suffice to say, four different people asked if I owned a bakery where they could buy more (hey - not a bad idea, right?) and several more sought me out to tell me how good they were and they, despite dietary restrictions, had indulged in more than one.

Now that's what I call a success.