Funfetti cupcakes with chocolate frosting

Happy birthday, Carlton!

In honor of our CL editor Carlton Hargro’s birthday tomorrow, I made some festive cupcakes to celebrate the occasion. Nothing says “birthday cupcake” like a classic vanilla cupcake with thick chocolate frosting and sprinkles.

To kick it up a notch, a good scoop of colorful sprinkles were added to the batter of these vanilla cupcakes give them their rainbow-speckled insides.

The base is the same Magnolia Bakery vanilla cupcake recipe as these cupcakes here, minus the lemon zest.

The chocolate frosting is a bit different because it isn’t a simple buttercream. It’s a slightly tangy frosting with lots of chocolate, and a bit of cream cheese, butter, and sour cream. And by a “bit,” I mean a cup…

I’ll admit I might have over-frosted these and loaded up the frosting a bit too much. But for the sake of presentation, I swirled the chocolate frosting up high. It looks prettier that way, no? I won’t be offended if you want to cut it down a bit.

Find Carlton on Twitter @CarltonHargro and wish him a happy birthday!

Funfetti cupcakes

Follow the vanilla cupcake recipe here. Don’t add the lemon zest. Add in 3-4 tablespoons of sprinkles into the batter at the end.

Chocolate Frosting

10 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature

8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

6 tbsp. unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

Pinch of salt

1 cup sour cream

To make the frosting, melt the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl set over a pot of simmering water.  Set aside to cool until just barely warm.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and butter on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.  Gradually mix in the confectioners’ sugar, cocoa powder and salt.  Beat in the melted and cooled chocolate and then the sour cream.  Continue beating until the mixture is smooth and well blended.  Frost cupcakes immediately.

This article appears in Sep 7-13, 2010.