There Will Be Cupcakes *Special Post

About a week ago I implored my scores of readers to keep on reading and pass the blog along to their friends so that when we passed 1,000 views I could post an awesome new cupcake that I'm almost positive we invented.  Well, the time has come my friends - we went over the four digit mark by about 30+ views, so I present to you... the 'There Will Be Blood' cupcakes.

So, I'll explain that.

A while ago spouse and I were at a mexican restaurant in an up and coming neighborhood in Philly. When I say up and coming I really just mean that everyone there had cut off jorts on and they were covered in tattoos. Generally, I think nothing in particular when I'm surrounded by these people - it just makes me feel significantly less cool. I'm okay with it. But in this restaurant, we were clearly sticking out a little - even though Kev had his best James Taylor tee on. (I suppose it would have been cooler if it was like an old Springsteen concert shirt? But that obviously just shows you how much I stuck out myself). When we wind up in places like these, we always do the same thing; we start scheming about grandiose situations. "Are these the same clouds that we saw yesterday?" "What if we became gentlemen farmers?" or on this particular occasion: "What if we had a cupcake truck?" At least that's how it started. But then it morphed into a whole new idea- if we had a bakery, what would be our hook? How would we make people notice our cupcakes? And then just like how we brushed aside the answer to the clouds question, we decided that the obvious answer was to make movie themed cupcakes.

Once that was decided, the ideas came fast and more ridiculous than the last. Forrest Gump cupcakes! Mrs. Doubtfire cupcakes with lemon meringue icing! Ghostbuster cupcakes that were filled with slime! They were all awesome. And as we sat there surrounded by hipsters in jorts, we created the "There Will Be Blood" cupcake.

Based on the movie "There Will Be Blood" starring Daniel Day-Lewis these cupcakes are vanilla with chocolate insides that make it look like there's oil in them there cupcakes when you cut them apart.

They're decorated to resemble Daniel Day-Lewis' character's mustache and that metaphorical milkshake from the great line "Sir, if you have a milkshake and I have a milkshake and my straw reaches across the room, I'll end up drinking your milkshake".

Here's the video if you don't remember the scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pik1hQsuJbA
^That line comes in around 11:33.

It's obviously a stretch, but an awesome one. We have a whole list in our brains of the kinds of cupcakes we'll make, but I had to start with this one. I always wanted to decorate a cupcake with a mustache.

I used a few different recipes to create the cupcakes. I'm going to give you the links and the recipes, along with my rag tag instructions to keep it all in one place. I used three websites all together.

For the chocolate oil insides I used the chocolate insides recipe from the Molten Chocolate Cupcake Recipe I posted last month.

The cupcakes recipe was from Tastykitchen.com: http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/desserts/best-vanilla-cupcakes-ever/

The icing recipe was from The Girl Who Ate Everything: http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2010/09/frosting-that-will-get-you-hugs-and.html


Chocolate "Oil" Insides Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of Whipping Cream
• 1 cup Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

In a small saucepan, heat whipping cream over medium/high heat until it's hot but not boiling. Stir in the chocolate chips until they're melted and the texture is smooth. Put in the fridge for about an hour, stirring it every once and a while to make sure it thickens.


Cupcake Ingredients:

• 2 and 1/2 cups of All-purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 3 whole Eggs
• 2 cups Granulated Sugar
• 1 cup Canola Oil
• 2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• 1 Cup Sour Cream

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line your cupcake pan with liners. The recipe said you'd get 24, I got 28.

2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Put aside.

3. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar until thickened and the color becomes lighter. With the mixer still on, add in oil and vanilla. Beat until blended and then add the flour mixture alternating with sour cream.

4. Scoop batter into cupcake pans. **This is where I added a tablespoon of the chocolate mixture. I then added a little bit more batter on top of the chocolate. Bake at 350F for 18-23 minutes (mine were in for about 19) and let cool.

While the cupcakes were still in the oven, I tried a new icing recipe I found on the Girl Who Ate Everything blog. It was interesting because you have to cook the icing, but it promised that it would be the lightest, almost whipped creme like icing you've ever tried, and it would get you hugs. I started the icing early because it needs some serious time to cool. If you're looking for really whipped icing, this is definitely your recipe.

Whipped Vanilla Icing Recipe

• 5 Tablespoons Flour
• 1 Cup Milk
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
• 1 Cup Butter
• 1 Cup Granulated White Sugar

1. In a small saucepan, whisk the flour into the milk and keep it over the heat stirring constantly until it thickens. Be super careful not to burn it! Remove it from the heat and let it cool to room temp. The mix has to be completely cool before you mix it with the rest.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together until it's light and fluffy. Then add the milk/flour mixture and vanilla and beat it until it looks like whipped cream. Be sure to scrape the outsides of the bowl occasionally so that all of the icing gets incorporated. If it doesn't look like whipped cream at first, keep going.

I can't recommend this icing recipe enough, although since it's so warm I would move quickly when using it. It's not sweet, but paired with this cupcake recipe it's amazing.


So here they are, the "There Will Be Blood" cupcakes. They have a rough name sure, but these mustachioed and milkshaked cupcakes are keepers. If I ever had a bakery, these would be sitting right next to the dreamy Inception cupcakes. Or would they?

Check them out and let me know what you think!

Daniel Day-Lewis probably would approve this message.
But I didn't ask him.

Sources:
Molten Chocolate Cupcakes: Betty Crocker: http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/molten-chocolate-cupcakes
Vanilla Cupcakes: Tasty Kitchen: http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/desserts/best-vanilla-cupcakes-ever/
Vanilla Icing: The Girl Who Ate Everything Blog: http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2010/09/frosting-that-will-get-you-hugs-and.html

Posted in: Chocolate,Cupcakes,Original,Vanilla,Whipped Creme