Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

The Recipe: Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Dark Chocolate Frosting from Martha Stewart Cupcakes.

The Substitutions: I used about half the chocolate asked for in the frosting because 1.5 lbs just sounded ridiculous.

The Verdict: Okay. I made these for my son's birthday, thinking a simple chocolate chip cupcake would be fun. These are a little labour intensive for a cupcake -- I was looking for a typical box-style cake batter, but this is a little bit different. You essentially make a dense sticky dough (it felt like bread dough) and fold in whipped egg whites. The result is kind of a cross between a biscuit and an Angel Food cake. It's light, but crumbly, not spongey. Still fairly delicious though, but required a lot of bowl washing.

The frosting is not something I'd necessarily go with again. It calls for a lot of chocolate and even after halving the amount, it was really rich (though, my chocoholic kids quickly became obsessed with it). It's also fairly runny, acting more like a thick glaze than a frosting. Next time I'm going with a classic buttercream for sure. That's not to say that these cakes weren't happily eaten, they're just not cupcake perfection.

P.S. You can half the frosting recipe. It makes five cups, which is way more than these cupcakes need.