Vanilla cupcake with Chocolate Creamcheese frosting

Seven years back, I became a mother. I remember that day very well. Not because of the pain endured during birth, but because it was a mixed emotion. I went into labor at 31st week of pregnancy. I was not ready to bring the baby into this world, not yet. I wanted her to stay put for 3 more weeks at least. But, she wanted to come out and was a trooper. The joy of giving birth to a baby was taken over by the fear of the well being of my baby. But, we were fortunate that she was as normal as any other baby in all the aspects except for the need of staying in the hospital for 2 extra weeks than a full term baby.

Setting emotions aside, all she wanted for her birthday this time is to take vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting to her school (that is apart from a long list of gifts which I had to cut short to 5). She not only wanted to share cupcakes with her school, but also with her art class buddies. I made about 5 dozen cupcakes and since I was pressed for time, all I did was put a swirl of the frosting with sprinkles. Again, requested by the kid.

I have made many cream cheese frostings. I experimented a little by changing the ingredients a bit and made a fluffy, not too sweet chocolate cream cheese frosting. You could use whatever frosting you like.

One year back - Spicy Peanutbutter spread
Two years back - Rieska
Ingredients: (Makes 24 regular sized cupcakes)
All purpose flour - 3 cups
Baking Soda - 1 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 2 cups
Canola Oil - 1 cup
Eggs - 3 large
Buttermilk - 1 1/4 cups
Vanilla - 1 TBSP

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line muffin cups with cupcake liners. In a bowl, whisk together flour, salt and baking soda. In another bowl, beat oil with sugar. Add eggs one at a time beating till incorporated. Now, add flour mixture in thirds followed by buttermilk added in half. That is 1/3rd of flour mixture, 1/2 of buttermilk, 1/3rd of flour mixture, remaining buttermilk followed by remaining 1/3rd of flour mixture. Stir in vanilla. There should be no lumps in the batter. Divide the batter among 24 cups. Bake for 22 - 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

Not too sweet Chocolate Cream Cheese frosting: (Enough to frost about 6 dozen cupcakes - Scale it down to suit your needs)
Ingredients:
Butter - 1 cup softened
Cream Cheese - 8 Oz block softened (I used 1/3 fat cream cheese)
Shortening - 1/2 cup
Confectioner's sugar - 3 pounds (Roughly 12 cups)
Dutch processed cocoa - 1/2 cup (Or natural cocoa)
Salt - a pinch
Milk - 5 - 6 TBSP
Corn syrup - 3 TBSP (optional - you can increase milk instead)
Vanilla - 2 TBSP
Almond extract - 2 tsp


Method to make frosting:
Beat the cream cheese, butter, shortening till fluffy in the stand mixer. Add salt, cocoa powder, part of the confectioner's sugar, milk, corn syrup, extracts followed by the remaining confectioner's sugar. Beat till everything is fluffy and smooth. It takes about 15 - 20 minutes in my kitchen aid mixer to get the nice consistency. Adjust the milk based on your requirement. More if you just want to smear the cupcakes with frosting, less if you want to pipe like I did. This was one of the best chocolate frostings I have ever made. Not too sweet, but fluffy. Frost the cupcakes or cake as needed.

Enjoy.