Cupcakefilter?

February 26, 2008 10:34 PM

Cupcakefilter. I have a cupcake recipe I want to change in order to produce other flavors with the same approximate texture. Details below, because I've included a link to the recipe.

I've been using the recipie here - One-bowl Chocolate cupcakes to make a whole buncha various kinds of chocolate cupcakes. Lots of yum, I talk about it a ton on my livejournal, yadda yadda.

I really really like the texture. It's super fluffy, moist, isn't really crumbly, and is overall really really yummy.

I am not having nearly the same amount of success with vanilla cupcakes. Is very frustrating.

What I really want to do is take this recipe and make it vanilla. Or white chocolate. I'd be happy with either.

I know that I can't just remove the cocoa, there's so much of it that it acts as a dry ingredient and adds some texture to a really liquidy batter. But I don't know what to substitute. Flour? Sugar? Some of both?

As for the white chocolate - what there? I know very well that white chocolate 'hot chocolate mix' is a Big Fat No, because it has a bunch of sugar in it. Or... would it work?

I know I could experiment. My friends would probably eat any kind of mess I made as long as it was somewhat tasty, they've eaten some failures before. (We will not speak of the lemon incident) - but I'd rather not waste my time, their time and everyone's tastebuds when I can pick the brain of a billion people on metafilter first.

posted by FritoKAL to Food & Drink (4 answers total)

You saw this recipe from that same site? It looks like what you want except that it makes half as many. Also one of the variants is to substitute some of the flour for cocoa powder so you seem to be on the right track there.

What about using chocolate extract in your white cupcakes? I don't think I've ever eaten anything that used it. It doesn't sound very good, but I suppose you could try it. The problem is that white chocolate is the fat part of the beans more or less, and cocoa powder is made from the non-fat part. Maybe you could substitute the vegetable oil and some of the buttermilk for melted white chocolate? But how much? Maybe a few ounces? Time for more experimenting I guess.
posted by sevenless at 11:15 PM on February 26, 2008

I've seen chocolate variations of white cakes that just sub cocoa for some of the flour, so I'd imagine it would work the other way. You could always up the vanilla extract if you wanted a stronger vanilla taste.

White chocolate involves altering both fat AND sugar, it's too advanced for me.
posted by SoftRain at 12:02 AM on February 27, 2008

Best answer: I've just asked my mum, who is godmother-of-all-cakes. She reckons it's a bit trial and error, as the result is as much to do with the balance of other ingredients as well. But her advice was:

- if you remove cocoa from the recipe, add a rounded tablespoon of flour for every 1/8 cup of cocoa you take out (you generally need less flour than cocoa)

- if you substitute chocolate for cocoa, then use about 1-2 ounces of chocolate for every 1/4 cup cocoa (less if it's dark and more if it's milk or white), reduce the fat or oil a little and add or remove a little sugar depending on what you know about the sugar content of the chocolate you're using.

How she knows this I've no idea, as she just seems to bung stuff in a bowl without weighing anything, but it always works perfectly...

But please, mucking around with cake recipes is not a waste of time. It's a noble, worthy cause and you should be celebrated and honoured by your drooling, grateful friends!
posted by dowcrag at 2:07 AM on February 27, 2008 [3 favorites]

You really should try using cake flour instead of all-purpose flour. I think that the substitution of cocoa for all-purpose flour as part of the chocolate cupcake recipe you like could be part of the textural difference - cocoa isn't going to have gluten. Cake flour also has less gluten than all-purpose flour, and in my experience, makes a much better texture.
posted by amtho at 6:53 AM on February 27, 2008