Difficutly: very easy
Time: 5 Min
Portion: 1 serving
Ingredients:
Makes about 12-15 cupcakes (I doubled and got 25)
INGREDIENTS
1-1/2 cups unbleached white flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup cold water
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons vinegar
For “school colors” buttercream
2 sticks butter
7 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
blue and yellow food coloring gel (I used Wilton royal blue and golden yellow)
Directions:
INSTRUCTIONS
To make cupcakes—
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a 12-cupcake tin with foil or paper liners and set aside.
Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a large mixing bowl. In a 2-cup measuring cup, measure and mix together the oil, water, and vanilla. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix the batter with a fork or a small whisk. When the batter is smooth, add the vinegar and stir quickly. There will be pale swirls in the batter where the baking soda and the vinegar are reacting. Stir just until the vinegar is evenly distributed throughout the batter.
Working quickly, distribute the batter into the foil- or paper-lined 12-cupcake tin. If you have leftover batter (depending on how high you fill the liners) you can make a few extra cupcakes by using a few foil liners on a cookie sheet.
Bake for 20 minutes. Set the cupcakes on a wire rack for 10 minutes to cool in pan, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
To make buttercream—
Beat butter until creamy, scrape bowl. Add 5 cups of sifted powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla, beat until combined. Add more powdered sugar until you get to the consistency you want (not too stiff so that its hard to pipe)
Take out half of the buttercream and using blue food coloring, tint to desired shade.
Add yellow food coloring, tint to desired shade, to the remaining buttercream.
To assemble cupcakes—
Frost cupcakes using 1M star tip and the Saran method.
Saran Wrap Method: Special thanks to Andrea for sharing her saran wrap instructions and pics!
Take a piece of plastic wrap about 8″-10″ long. With a spatula, take a bit of frosting and place it in the center 1″ away from the edge.
Take one side of the plastic wrap and fold it over to the next side matching up the edge – your frosting will now be enclosed on the side of the plastic wrap.
Roll the plastic from where the frosting is to the edges. Twist the free end of the wrap. Tie off in a knot.
Insert the plastic “tube” of icing into the decorating bag.
Repeat Saran method for multiple frosting colors.