The Tale of the Chocolate Cupcakes and the Accidental Glaze

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess who liked to bake.  Pies, cookies, cakes, muffins, breads both savory and sweet - anything that required flour and a hot oven was considered her friend.  One day, an evil wizard cast a spell which sent the princess into a dark cloud of sadness.  Nothing could penetrate the morose murkiness - not her beloved prince, nor her faithful felines - not even listening to her beloved friend Julia.  This went on and on for several days, until the princess spied the well-worn strings of her enchanted cupcake apron.  With hope in her heart and a recipe in her hand, the princess donned the treasured smock, and with each whip of her whisk, the evil spell grew weaker and weaker.  As she pulled the hot cupcakes from the oven, the last wisps of the spell evaporated and were replaced with the sweet smell of chocolate.  And the princess lived happily ever after.

I knew that I wanted cake today.  I've had a glum past couple of days, and the thought of baking a little treat for myself lifted my spirits.  I thought I would just go out to the store and get a pre-packaged slice, but then I stumbled upon this recipe from the novel Good Enough to Eat by Stacey Ballis.  In the book, a woman leaves her high-paying lawyer job, loses 145 pounds, and opens a healthy take-out store, only to be blindsided by the news that her husband is leaving her for a woman twice her size.  I was about a third of the way through the book when I noticed that there is a section at the end with recipes - healthy versions and full-throttle versions, including one for Guilt-Free Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream-Cheese Frosting.  I had to make a few adjustments based on what I had available in my cupboard, but the end result was delicious.  For the original recipe, go here or check out the book.

Chocolate Cupcakes
(Adapted from Stacey Ballis.  Makes 16 regular cupcakes or 12 large cupcakes with a little leftover "bowl-licking batter")

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup safflower oil
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp instant espresso granules
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk with 1 Tbsp white vinegar stirred in (a.k.a. impromptu buttermilk)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix sugar, eggs, oil, and extract in a large bowl for about two minutes, until well blended.
3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, espresso granules, baking powder, and salt.  Mix with a whisk to evenly distribute.
4. Stir the flour mixture into the sugar mixture, alternating with the "buttermilk".
5. Either grease your muffin tin with cooking spray or line with paper muffin cups.  Distribute the batter evenly among the cups.
6. Bake 18 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out with moist crumbs on it.
7. Let the cupcakes cool for five minutes before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely.

And now for the frosting/accidental glaze.  This was indeed a lesson in flexibility and adaptation.  I didn't have enough cream cheese or powdered sugar.  So I decided to use Earth Balance to make up for the rest of the cream cheese and make a "butter"cream cheese frosting.  When I ran out of powdered sugar, I tried making my own by using a food processor, but the texture was too grainy.  I would have started over, but the only cream cheese I had was mixed in the now grainy almost-frosting.  So it went into the microwave to try to melt the sugar granules.  For a bit too long.  The Earth Balance melted, and what do you get when you use melted butter instead of softened butter in a frosting?  A glaze.  Now I was working with a glaze.  A still-too-buttery glaze.  So I took out my handy-dandy spice grinder and poured some granulated sugar into there.  Bingo.  Powdered sugar.  I made enough to balance out the butter and voila.  An it's-weird-but-it-somehow-works "accidental glaze".  I've written the recipe as if it were intentional.  Godspeed, good Baker.

Accidental Glaze

(makes just enough to glaze 12 large cupcakes)

• 1/3 - 1/2 cup Earth Balance, melted
• 1 cup powdered sugar (or spice-grinder pulverized granulated sugar)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• One bagel's worth of cream cheese, softened

1. Using a mixer, blend the above ingredients until they reach a smooth, thick consistency, approximately five minutes.
2. One at a time, dip the tops of the cupcakes into the glaze, carefully swirling the cupcake to coat the top.  Place the cupcake on a plate or cooling rack to give the glaze a chance to set (if you can wait that long).
3. Enjoy your cupcake and give yourself a pat on the back for being able to think on your feet and make this work.