Cupcakepalooza

Vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting.

Four different cupcake batters.

Six types of chocolate frosting.

24 combinations.

I'm struggling on the brink of sugar coma.

Jasmine is getting married in six months, and she wants to offer cupcakes to her guests at the end of the night. Her fiance, Joel, requested vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting. With so many different recipes out there, it seemed logical to try out a variety of cakes and frostings.

Mallary compiled the ingredients necessary for four cupcake recipes and six frostings. It's actually a bit unnerving to see everything all together.

Flour, sugar, and baking powder as far as the eye can see.

6 lbs of butter.

We had the cupcakes baked and cooling surprisingly fast. This was because the house that Paige just moved into has a suite in the basement, so we were able to use the ovens on both floors of her house to keep things moving. We baked each cupcake recipe into different cupcake wrappers so we could tell them apart later on in the day.

About 8 dozen cupcakes.

Making frosting was another adventure. Thank God for Mallary and her KitchenAid stand mixer! We tested chocolate creamcheese, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, chocolate meringue, chocolate buttercream and chocolate ganache frosting.

Mallary with her stand mixer.

The five of us are quite familiar with cooking together, and this time we had a guest cook, Josie! Josie is Joel and Jasmine's puppy. She seemed totally uninterested in all that was going on in the kitchen. She spent a great deal of the afternoon sleeping. The few times she quietly ventured into the kitchen she was accidentally stepped on!

Josie sleeping on a grocery bag.

We also devised a system of piping and slathering icing so we could tell them apart from each other. We tested different piping tips and dipping techniques to find the prettiest results.

Mallary and I piping icing.

As a finishing touch, we sprinkled white chocolate and milk chocolate Bernard Callebaut shaving onto the tops of the cupcakes for decoration.

A plethora of cupcakes.

In the end, it was a very productive afternoon. Paige constructed a "Cupcake Matrix" in Excel to track our combinations and comments on flavors. I'd like to say she's a huge nerd for making a spreadsheet... But the truth is, we all egged her on!

My personal favorite was the milk chocolate frosting on a Martha Stewart white cake, but the chocolate ganache was tasty too!

Paige, Jill, Mallary, Jasmine and I with our cupcake spread.

Now... I can't imagine eating another cupcake for several months. Good thing the wedding is still six months away.

Cupcakepalooza-- SUCCESS!