Anatomy of a Cupcake

I'm really good at remembering birthdays. For some reason, special dates just stick in my head. Years can go by -- I might not even know what you do for a living anymore, but I'll remember your birthday. Fortunately, I have a knack for keeping favorite cake flavors in mind too. A friend of mine happened to mention her affinity for classic yellow cake with chocolate frosting over drinks recently. This fact, of course, lodged itself in my brain, coupled with the fact that her birthday was fast approaching. Conveniently, I stumbled upon some swag I'd gotten from my last job, and in this treasure trove of goodies was a pack of cupcake gift boxes. The Universe had decided that I would be making, packaging, and delivering birthday treats. Good plan, Universe.

Surprise, surprise...this is a Martha Stewart recipe. It comes from the hefty tome that is her Baking Handbook and serves as the iconic representation of a classically traditional two layer birthday cake. I veered away from the chocolate frosting recipe paired with the cake in the book. It was very similar to the frosting I made for my Double Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes and involves three separate additions of chocolate in various states of meltiness. I was after something a little simpler and cleaner. After much internet scouring, I found a basic chocolate frosting recipe that really only required some sifting, dumping, and mixing until luscious creaminess evolved out of the blended cocoa powder, butter, powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla.

I went the cupcake route so as to make use of my adorable gift boxes (and so I wouldn't have to drag a whole cake to a bar, which would be the drop off site. Drunk people and cake knives don't mix). I got a little carried away with these process photos and present them now as the origin of a cupcake: from batter to box (also known as gratuitous photos of cupcakes. There should be laws against this kind of gratuitous decadence)...

And here we are. A perfectly charming pre-packaged homemade gift...all ready to be schlepped across Manhattan on a Saturday night. Showing up at a bar bearing cupcakes is not necessarily common practice, but I didn't hear any complaints. Not only is it a sweet little way to celebrate someone's birthday, but it's a built in late night snack for the cab ride home.