During the first week of May I traveled to Mexico for a relaxing vacation which happened to include a wedding of a family friend. Truthfully, I hadn't seen her in years as she now lives in Montreal but as I love weddings and I love vacations I decided to make the effort to go to hers. The wedding was beautiful and intimate, only 25 guests, with the ceremony held right on the beach and the reception on a terrace just above it. As much as I loved Mexico it seemed that it did not love me as much, or maybe it loved me too much. I got extremely sun burnt and definitely suffered for it.
The day that I left for my trip also happened to be my good friend's birthday. Since I could not attend her celebration I thought that I would at least contribute in a small way by baking some cupcakes for her. Also it gave me a great excuse to use my new cupcake tray and carrier that another friend had gotten me for my own birthday a month prior.
My friend loves pretty much any dessert but I decided to go with simple and basic flavors: vanilla and chocolate. The challenge was that the recipe involved making two flavors of frosting and piping them together from the same bag. It was a little tricky but it had the right effect once I got the hang of it.
When I came back from my trip I received a message from my friend thanking me for the cupcakes. Since I had to deliver them to her the day before her birthday and I dropped them off with her boyfriend, I wondered if she actually waited until the next day to try them. Even if she sneaked one ahead of time I wouldn't have minded because, after all, they were for her birthday so who am I to judge?
Vanilla Chocolate Marble Cupcakes
Note: This recipe makes 12 cupcakes.
For the cupcakes:
- 1⅔ cups flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup (8 tbsp) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup yogurt or sour cream
- ¾ cup + 1 tbsp milk, divided
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- Whisk the sugar with the melted butter.
- Stir in the egg, yogurt or sour cream, the ¾ cup milk, and vanilla extract until combined.
- Slowly mix in the dry ingredients until no lumps remain. The batter should be fairly thick.
- Transfer ¾ cup of the batter to another bowl. Mix in the cocoa powder and 1 tbsp milk until combined. The chocolate batter will be extremely thick.
- Spoon about a tablespoon of vanilla batter into each well of a 12-cup paper-lined cupcake tray.
- Top with a spoonful of chocolate batter, then more vanilla batter on top until both batters have been used up. Lightly swirl the batters together using a toothpick.
- Bake the cupcakes for 20-24 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.
Note: Each frosting listed makes enough to frost half (6 cupcakes) on its own or combined the two are enough to frost all twelve cupcakes. If choosing not to make both simply double one of the listed recipes and use it to frost all of the cupcakes.
Chocolate Frosting
- 1¾ cups icing sugar
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- ½ cup (8 tbsp) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 tbsp heavy cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
- Sift together the icing sugar and cocoa powder to assure there are no lumps. Set aside.
- Beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes.
- Gradually add the sifted sugar/cocoa powder alternately with the heavy cream and vanilla.
- Beat on low speed after each addition.
- Once all added, beat on high speed until creamy and combined for at least 2 minutes. Add a pinch of salt if frosting is too sweet.
- 1¾ cups icing sugar
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- ½ cup (8 tbsp) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 tbsp heavy cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
- To make the vanilla frosting use the same directions as with the chocolate frosting but omit the cocoa powder.
- Once both frosting flavors are made, fill the piping bag with one frosting on each side. Don't worry if one is a little more than the other, just try to make them as equal as possible.
- Try to squeeze the bag evenly when frosting so that both flavors become swirled together.
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