Mardi Gras Cupcakes: Yellow Cake Cupcakes and Purple Chocolate Cupcakes

Kitty FloridoSeptember 4, 2010

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We were invited to a end-of-summer BBQ, Mardi Gras Themed. I jumped right at the chance to make dessert. Cupcakes are great for BBQs since you don’t require a plate or silverware to eat them. You can also have fun and make them different colors. I decided to make Yellow Cake cupcakes with Purple Buttercream frosting and Yellow sprinkles… and Purple Chocolate cupcakes with Yellow Buttercream and Purple sprinkles. You can’t get any more Mardi Gras than that! The end result was great, although I will buy purple coloring next time, I used a mix of blue and red, but the purple color wasn’t as vibrant as I wanted it to. They tasted great!

Kitty

[:]

Purple Chocolate Cupcakes

Adapted from Paula Deen’s Recipe, The Food Network
Yield: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cocoa powder
1 cup buttermilk
1 ½ cups vegetable oil
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons Purple Food Coloring
1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Line 2 (12-cup) muffin pans with cupcake papers.
In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, salt, and cocoa powder.
In a large bowl gently beat together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, and vanilla with a handheld electric mixer.
Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet and mix until smooth and thoroughly combined.
Add vinegar to the baking soda on a small bowl (this will have a chemical reaction and it will start to foam up- it’s what we want!) and add that to the batter. You should see the colors pop-up.
Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake tins about 2/3 filled.
Bake in oven for about 20 to 22 minutes, turning the pans once, half way through. Test the cupcakes with a toothpick for doneness.
Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.

Yellow Cupcakes

Adapted from MarthaStewart.com
Yield: 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup sugar
2 large eggs
Yellow Food coloring

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line the cups of a standard (12-cup) muffin tin with paper or foil liners.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a liquid-measuring cup, mix milk and vanilla; set aside.
In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
With mixer on low speed, add half of dry ingredients, followed by milk-vanilla mixture, then remaining dry ingredients. Add a few drops of yellow paste or food coloring as you go, when you get a very bright yellow batter, you got it! Remember not to over-mix.
Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups.
Place tin on a rimmed baking sheet; bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.
Cool cupcakes 5 minutes in tin, then remove and cool completely on a rack before frosting.

Buttercream Frosting

A Foodies’ Original Recipe
Yield enough to frost 12 cupcakes

For the frosting, I made one recipe for the Yellow Cake Cupcakes and two for the Purple Chocolate Cupcakes. I didn’t feel comfortable doing the three recipes at once, well, because it’s plenty of frosting and I’m using a hand mixer.

Ingredients:

1 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 ½ cups confectioner’s sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons milk
Yellow and Purple Food Coloring

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, cream butter until smooth.
Gradually add confectioners’ sugar; beat until smooth, add the food coloring until desired color is achieved. If too thick to spread, beat in 1 to 2 tablespoons milk.
Frost the cupcakes when they are completely cooled. Add colored sprinkles for decoration.

Note:

To fill up the cupcake liners with batter, you can use either an ice cream scoop (a 2-ounce or 1/4-cup ice-cream scoop is good for this) or two teaspoons: One for scooping and the other one for sliding the batter out.