Look what fell into my shopping trolley this weekend.
It was a completely necessary purchase, since all my cookbooks are still in storage together with our other possessions awaiting our new home (another thing I’m feeling grumpy about) and I really do need to practice using my Christmas Kitchen Aid. Also the pictures are divinely beautiful and the recipes looked fab.
But mostly I was rather jealous of Helen’s new book.
Today I made the Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip cupcakes.
I ended up having to cook them 10 minutes more than the stated amount of time and I’m not sure they’ve risen enough. Are American cupcakes generally flat on top like this? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a American cupcake ‘naked’ before and I’m used to the more domed appearance of an English fairy cake. I’ve subsequently read the customer comments on Amazon and it seems that people are having problems with some of the other recipes, so I’m now a bit wary of this book. Serves me right for buying on impulse.
Nevertheless these cakes did taste really good, though they did contain an obscene amount of chocolate chips – next time I think I’ll cut that back. And how anyone can actually eat them with frosting and not immediately die of a massive coronary is beyond me.
By the way, how sad am I to be desperately in love with a spatula?
From my forays into cupcakes (US and UK) I would say that the fact you had to cook them for 10 mins longer may be the issue (ie the oven was a bit too cool). They may have already risen and then fallen again while you were trying to get the middle to cook.
I would make them again (if your arteries can bear it) with a bit more batter per case and a slightly hotter oven. Should reduce cooking time and get a good dome on top.
Your book looks much more ‘gorgeous’ than mine, which is, frankly, a technicolour daydream. Will make another recipe from there soon and we’ll compare notes!xx
I did try again with a hotter oven (I’ve only got one tin, so had enough batter for a smaller second batch.)
They seemed to be rising better, but then the Husband turned on the grill without checking inside the oven and they got burnt to a crisp, so we shall never know.