Alfred- Dark Chocolate Cupcake

He spends all day taking care of the man who plays by day and fights by night. He has readily given his life over to care for the boy left parentless so many years ago. He is multi-talented and a necessary component of the Bat-family. Alfred. Alfred Pennyworth, guardian & butler to Bruce Wayne and the man who is, Batman's Batman. Alfred is a memorable character in the DC Universe and it might be safe to say he is loved by many fans.

Alfred is always on his feet...tending to Wayne Manor, the Batcave and the Batman Family. But this butler has always provided a comical relief to the darkness that follows his master. I've always been able to see Alfred's "fun" side. The side that remembers the day of "letting down his hair" and being a playboy, actor (you know he was totally a stud growing up haha).

I had a cupcake in mind to make, but no character to claim it. Then as different Superhero/villains were dancing in my head Alfred took the stage and stole the cupcake.

A butler always wears black and white. My cupcake is black and white. Butlers pretend (or at least I like to think they do) that they are one dimensional...no fun...no flair, but in reality it's just a show. They do have a secret fun side! Alfred's cupcake is a Dark Chocolate Cake with an Oreo Filling sprinkled with crushed Oreos. Yum. See? Black & White. But the whole Oreo flair adds a different fun side to the whole sophisticated look.

I've tried different ways of making Dark Chocolate cake, but nothing has ever tasted dark chocolaty to me. So I did a little research and found that if you use Dutch Processed Cocoa you'll end up with a darker tasting cake. I went and purchased a can and viola! it was a darker chocolate. Then for the Oreo topping I went a-looking to see if I could find a recipe that would help me re-create that famous Oreo filling. I refused to just pull apart a bunch of cookies, whip the filling and pipe it on my cupcakes. Um ew. So I found a recipe that looked promising and wearily tried it out. OMFG! It tastes so close to the real thing...except I think mine is kinda better. Haha.

I knew it would be too thick to pipe so I started plopping away. I made sure each jumbo Dark Chocolate cupcake (oh! and btw...I didn't go with a traditional liner! I found some super cute parchment paper and used that instead! It added a poshy look to the whole feel!) had a hefty topping of my Oreo filling and then crushed some real Oreos and sprinkled, sprinkled, sprinkled. :-)




You know that after each long day Alfred is ready to kick off his shiny shoes, throw on a silky robe, grab a cup of coffee and just melt into a leather recliner. But what's relaxing without a little sweet snack? So back in the kitchen he goes to grab an "Alfred's Cupcake". A cupcake that has captured his sophisticated and fun side, oh so well. Eat up, Alfred. You know Batman will be calling you back into the Batcave in just a little while...

For some reason my need to bake cupcakes comes late at night. Around nine o'clock the baker in me awakens and in the kitchen I go. I can't help it... When the sky is dark and the crickets are singing...as my husband relaxes on the couch and the kitties begin eating their dinner...I feel the need to bake...to fill the house up with delicious scents and cover myself in flour and sugar. It's magical. I get in the zone...paying attention to each and every detail. I move around my tiny kitchen with ease...pulling things out and putting them back. I get excited as I see my batter come together. I do a quick taste test and then have to keep myself from trying more. I fill up the cups, stick them in the oven, rotating the pans every five to ten mins like clockwork and when the last timer goes off and my cupcakes are sitting on the cooling racks I begin the tricky work of figuring out the frosting/icing. Once my cupcakes are frosted I grab a plate and some milk, snuggle up to my husband and we talk about the cupcake process and whether or not we like the cupcake etc.

It's a sweet time. A magical time.

I'm sure I could get more baking done if I only started earlier, but there is nothing like ending the day with a sweet cupcake and a good tired feeling.

Frosting vs. Icing

So for years I have used these two words interchangeably. To me icing was just a fancier way of saying frosting. Everyone around me also used these words interchangeably... I would hear “I just found this amazing frosting to ice my cake with” or “Do you know of a good icing to frost a cake with?” So on and so forth. It seemed to be the whole “you all” vs “y'all” or “coke” vs “pop” vs “soda”. Here in Texas we love to just make everything the same. Maybe that's just not in TX haha.

Now that I'm baking cupcakes almost every week and trying to get serious about making something out of this I've been trying to “catch up” on the proper phrases and such. I'm not a professional baker and I've never been to cupcake school (I wonder if such an exquisite thing exists?). I'm just a simple, quirky girl who loves to bake and is obsessed with cupcakes.

I decided to Google this great debate and see what would turn up.

Apparently everyone is split. There are people like me who grew up with frosting being icing and vice-versa, but according to some sources icing is not frosting...they are very different.

The best definition I saw was from cakespy.com :

"ICING: Thicker than a glaze but not always opaque. Can be made with a sugar base or may also include egg whites, butter or cream. The term "icing" is often used interchangeably with "frosting". Coffee cakes and cookies are often "iced" rather than "frosted".

FROSTING: The thickest of the lot, opaque and fluffy; think buttercream frosting on a birthday cake."

There are also other definitions listed from professional foodies on the same page, but I like this one best.

Now I feel like I've learned something new today. I'm trying to think about all the cupcakes I've made in the past months and what I've topped them with. I know a few have been purely a ganache and some obviously a frosting. Easy nuff to grasp. But even though I have some good definitions to go by it's sometimes hard for me to tell. I prefer to say “frosting” if my cups are feeling sassy and fun and “icing” if they are feeling proper and more mature. It's probably not the best method to use, but since I'm not a pro, I think I'll stick to my silly ways. :-) So you may notice me using frosting interchangeably with icing in my posts and you may see me using it very properly. I hope that's okay for now. I'm sure some day I'll figure it all out to perfection.