Vanilla with chocolate

These bite size morsels are perfect for any occasion: birthdays, get well, the office, any old Saturday...you get the drift ;) 

I was requested by my mom to make mini's for some little girls who were in a bad car accident with their mother a few weeks ago.  Two of the girls are home with their parents now, but the third daughter is still at Children's Hospital in the ICU and is slowly coming out of a medically induced coma, so we're all pulling for her!  Since these are relatives of a family friend, my mom wanted to put together a food/care package with basically a whole day's worth of meals, so she asked me to bake a dozen mini's of "something yummy" for these two little girls to enjoy during such a tough time.  How could I say no??  (On a side note, you must try these Orange-Ricotta Pancakes, courtesy of Martha Stewart, which my mom included in the goodie basket. They've become a special occasion breakfast in our household!)

Since the girls are little ones, I went with something basic:  Vanilla mini's with mini chocolate chips and chocolate butter cream frosting.  Who wouldn't love that?!  For the cake, I found a ridiculously amazing looking recipe at My baking addiction (one of my fave new baking blogs) for vanilla bean cupcakes, which I modified by adding a little extra vanilla extract since I didn't have time to search for fresh vanilla beans, and by adding mini chocolate chips.  (Don't worry though, I plan on recreating Jamie's vanilla bean cupcake masterpiece in the near future, complete with the vanilla bean frosting!!!)  My new go-to chocolate butter cream frosting (adapted from Savory Sweet Life) is perfect for any cupcake! 

If you know me at all, you know I can never just make "a dozen" of something...it always has to be multiplied.  Since the original recipe was to yield 18-20 regular cupcakes, I decided to double it so I'd have enough mini's to give to the girls, bring a plate to my landlords, bring a ton to the office (mini's go a long way there), and of course keep some for myself :)  Looking back...doubling was probably not the wisest idea (unless you want your freezer full of cupcakes, like mine is now!)  My calculations estimated the recipe would make twice as many mini's as it would regular size...so I planned on having about 6 dozen mini's when I doubled the recipe.  Boy was I wrong.  After getting the first batch of 4 dozen mini's in the oven, I quickly realized that I would have close to 150 mini's if I didn't adjust my plan, so I started baking regular sized cupcakes as well and ended up with about 2 dozen regulars and something like 7 dozen mini's!!!!  I need to work on this conversion strategy.

Bottom line: if you're just making mini's, it's probably wise not to double this one!  Here's the single recipe:


Vanilla Cupcakes:
Yields 18-20 regulars (who knows how many mini's...65-ish??)

Cupcake Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups cake flour, plus 1-2 Tablespoons
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups whole milk, room temperature
• 4 large egg whites, room temperature
• 1 stick (8 Tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.  Line cupcake pan with paper liners.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together 2 1/4 cups flour, baking powder and salt.
3. In another medium bowl, whisk together the milk and egg whites.
4. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer at medium speed for 3 minutes.  Add in the vanilla extract and one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed.  Beat in half of the milk & egg mixture, then half of the remaining dry ingredients until well incorporated.  Add the rest of the milk & eggs, beating until fully incorporated and batter is smooth, then add the last of the dry ingredients.
5. Once ingredients are thoroughly incorporated, give the batter a good 2-minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.  
6. In a small bowl, toss the chocolate chips with 1 Tablespoon cake flour to coat the chips so they won't sink to the bottom of the cupcake (add more cake flour if needed to lightly dust all of the chips).  With a wooden spoon, fold chips into batter.  Fill each cupcake liner 2/3 full.
7. Bake for 18-24 minutes (8-15 minutes for mini's), or until a toothpick inserted into the centers comes out clean.  Cool completely on a wire rack.

Chocolate Butter cream frosting:
Yields 3 cups

Frosting Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2-3 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar, to taste
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 Tablespoons heavy cream

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream butter for a few minutes with an electric mixer on medium speed.  Turn off mixer, and sift 2 cups powdered sugar and all of the cocoa into the bowl.  Turn your mixer on the lowest speed (so the dry ingredients don't blow everywhere) and beat until the sugar and cocoa are absorbed by the butter.  
2. Increase mixer to medium speed and add vanilla extract, salt, and cream, and beat for 3 minutes.  If frosting isn't sweet enough or needs a more stiff consistency, add a little more sugar (but be careful because it can quickly go from not-sweet-enough to way-too-sweet).  If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add additional cream 1 Tablespoon at a time.  

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