Birthday/Red White and Blue

This weekend kicked off summer here in Seattle, but the weather seems to be taking its sweet time. You may have to hold off on your white clothing items for a few weeks. Memorial Day weekend was a doozy in the kitchen. I managed to bake a number of items during the long weekend (although my long weekend is a little more permanent than others), and there is no better way to start a weekend than with cupcakes.

I wanted to try the chocolate cake recipe in my Sur La Table book to compare later on with the chocolate cake recipe in Rose's Heavenly Cakes book (results will be soon). This is the Devil's Food Cake recipe from The Art & Soul of Baking.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 cup plus 1 cup water
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla
2 cups sifted cake flour
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

You will bring to a boil half a cup of water and pour that over the Dutch-process cocoa powder to bring out the chocolate-y flavor. When adding the dry sifted ingredients, you will intermittently put in the flour mixture followed by the chocolate mixture.

For cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350 and place the oven rack in the middle. These cook in about 15-20 minutes and make around 20 cupcakes.

It was my dear friend Virginia's birthday, so they are partly her cupcakes and partly Memorial Day cupcakes. Hence the patriotic sprinkles. I love sprinkles.