Cupcakes with Coconut-White-Chocolate and Coffee-Dark-Chocolate frosting

Well, my parents are holidaying in Bali and I was seriously bored today due to the lack of human contact. And so I baked cupcakes. Can anyone please tell me the difference between cupcakes and muffins because I really do not know. I bet you don't either.

Anyway, look at my cupcakes! Aren't they to die for? It's a wonder what one can do when left on her own!

Recipe:

This has got to be the easiest cupcake recipe in the history for cupcake recipes. This recipe makes 6 cupcakes.

Using a handheld electric beater, beat 60 gms of butter (room temperature butter) with 70 grams of sugar, an egg, 60 ml of milk and a teaspoon of vanilla essence till well combined. At this stage, there is a possibility of the milk curdling in the bowl but don't worry, this will not affect the end result. Then, sift in 90 grams of flour, 3/4 teaspoon of baking powder and 1/6 teaspoon (a teeny- tiny pinch) of salt into the bowl and beat for a minute till you get a smooth batter. 

Pour equal parts of this mixture into 6 cupcake liners - about a heaped tablespoon of batter to a liner- and bake at 180C in a preheated oven for 20 minutes or till a toothpick inserted into the middle of one of them comes out clean. The amount of time that it takes for your cupcakes to bake really depends on your oven. I checked mine at 17 minutes and it was fully done by then. Thus, I suggest that you check at 15 minutes, then at 17 minutes and so on. 

To frost cupcakes, it is necessary for them to be cooled completely else the frosting will loosen up due to the heat and would melt off the cakes. 

The Frosting/Ganache

The thing about chocolate ganache- be it white chocolate ganache or dark chocolate ganache is that you need to add scalded cream to the chocolate to create a thick glossy frosting. I didn't have cream at home so I had to improvise. I found that, by adding a little bit of hot milk (or coconut milk), i got the same effect only more densely chocolate-y... which is always a good thing in my book. 

For the Coconut-White Chocolate Frosting

White chocolate by itself is simply divine however, I feel that by adding something to it (in this case coconut milk power), the white chocolate frosting can be transformed into something multidimensional and more...sensual. 

Here, the preference is to use coconut milk powder so that you can control the amount of coconut flavour in your frosting. The problem with pre-packaged coconut milk is that, to get the taste of coconut, you will need to put more than a little coconut milk to your white chocolate and so, when the frosting cools down, it would still be very liquid and thus, you will find it difficult to frost the cupcakes. So, with powered coconut milk, you get more concentrated coconut flavour and a less liquid frosting. 

So, to 1 1/2 tablespoons of coconut powder, add 1 1/2 tablespoon of boiling water and mix to combine. Pour this still hot mixture over 40 grams of warmed white chocolate bits (you need to heat the chocolate in the microwave for 5 seconds to soften it a bit) and stir till there are no more lumps. 

Let this cool for about 15 minute for it to harden a bit before spooning it over the cupcakes.

For the Coffee Dark Chocolate Frosting

Just like before for the white chocolate frosting, we use a bit of coffee powder to elevate the flavour of the chocolate frosting.

So, to 30 grams of warmed broken bits of semi-sweet chocolate (warmed in the microwave for 5 seconds), add a mixture of 1/8 teaspoon of coffee powder and 1 1/2 tablespoons of hot milk. Combine till there are no more lumps and let it cool for 15 minutes for it to harden up a bit before glossing the cupcakes with the frosting. 

So yeah, now all that's left to do is to frost these cakes...

...and if you're a bored 23 year old like me, decorate them a bit!

As the French say: Et Voilà!