Recipe - Mock Hostess Cupcakes

One half cup Plus 2 tbsp clour
2 One half tablespoon Cocoa powder (preferably
Dutch process)
Three fourths teaspoon Baking soda
One fourth teaspoon Salt
One half cup Sugar
One half cup Water
3 tablespoon Vegetable oil
1 One half teaspoon Distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
FILLING
1 cup Heavy whipping cream
6 ounce Finely chopped white
chocolate
GLAZE
3 ounce Finely chopped bittersweet
chocolate
3 tablespoon Boiling water
ICING
1 tablespoon Egg white, at room
temperature
1 pn Of cream of tartar
One half cup Plus 2 to 3 tbsp
confectioner's sugar

These ultramoist, dark chocolate minicupcakes are
filled with creamy white chocolate ganache. They're a
variation on a whimsical cupcake that Michael Roberts
serves at Los Angeles's Trumps restaurant at teatime.

CUPCAKES

Make the cupcakes:

1. Position a rack in the center and preheat oven to
325øF. Lightly butter twentyfour 13/4" x 3/4" (1oz)
muffin of biscuit cups.

2. Into a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa,
baking soda, and salt. Mix in the sugar. Make a well
in the center. Whisk in the water, oil, vinegar, and
vanilla. Blend until smooth. (The batter will be very
thin.)

3. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups. Bake until
a cake tester inserted into the center of one of the
cupcakes comes out clean, about 12 to 14 minutes. Cool
the cupcakes in the pans on a wire rack for 5 minutes.
Remove the cupcakes from the pans and finish cooling
on the rack.

Make the filling:

4. In a heavy medium saucepan over mediumhigh heat,
bring the cream to a boil. Add the white chocolate and
remove from heat. let the mixture stand briefly; stir
until smooth. Transfer to a metal bowl and refrigerate
until chilled thoroughly, stirring occasionally. (To
speed the process, set the metal bowl over a larger
bowl of ice water; stir the chocolate mixture until
cool.) With an electric mixer, beat the whit chocolate
mixture just until fluffy, about 1 minute.

5. Transfer the filling to a pastry bag fitted with a
3/8inch plain tip. Insert the pastry tip 1/4inch
into the bottom of each cupcake and squeeze a little
filling into each one.

Make the glaze:

6. Place the chocolate in a small bowl. Whisk in the
boiling water and blend until smooth. One at a time,
dip the top of each cupcake into the warm glaze. Turn
the glazed cupcakes right side up and set them on a
wire rack on top of a baking sheet. Refrigerate the
cupcakes for 5 minutes to set the glaze.

Make the icing:

7. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg white until frothy.
Stir in the cream of tartar. Gradually mix in enough
of the confectioner's sugar to make a fairly stiff and
smooth icing. Fill a small paper cone with the icing
and cut a 1/16inch opening at the tip. Remove the
cupcakes from the refrigerator. Pipe a design (a
squiggle, spiral, etc.) on the top of each cupcake.
Let the design harden and then cover and refrigerate
the cupcakes. Serve at room temperature.

The cupcakes can be made and refrigerated up to 2 days
in advance, or frozen up to 2 weeks.

Makes 22 to 24 miniature cupcakes.

Source: White Chocolate, by Janice Wald Henderson

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini