The idea of mayonnaise in cake doesn't seem all that strange to me -- after all, mayonnaise is just an emulsion of oil and egg yolk, with some acid added. So I figured that this week's Baked Sunday Mornings recipe, Chocolate Mayonnaise Cupcakes, would turn out just like ordinary chocolate cake. I did briefly ponder what might happen if I used Miracle Whip or Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise, but in the end decided to go with regular store-bought mayo.
The recipe is straightforward: cream mayonnaise with sugar and dark brown sugar; add eggs and vanilla; and alternately add the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and baking powder) and the liquid ingredients (dark chocolate and cocoa powder that have been melted in boiling water). You pour the batter into paper-lined cupcake tins and bake.
The recipe says it yields 24 cupcakes, but I got 32, and they took 23 minutes to finish baking. After the cupcakes were cool, I frosting them with a mixture of softened butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and melted bittersweet chocolate.
I made my cupcakes the night before and kept them at room temperature in a cupcake courier overnight. When I tried a cupcake the following morning, the surface was slightly damp and tacky -- so it was supermoist, but almost too moist. I like cupcakes to be light and tender. I pulled one cupcake apart and there were some unsightly tunnels inside.
I didn't like the way that these cupcakes tasted. They didn't taste bad, but the chocolate flavor was barely there. Also, the frosting was quite sugary -- but I think the frosting complemented the cupcake well, so the finished frosted cupcake was greater than the sum of its parts.
I would not make these cupcakes again. The most important thing to me about a chocolate cupcake is that it should taste good and deliver strong chocolate flavor -- and these just left me wanting more.
Recipe: "Chocolate Mayonnaise Cupcakes" from Baked Elements: Our 10 Favorite Ingredients, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings.
The recipe is straightforward: cream mayonnaise with sugar and dark brown sugar; add eggs and vanilla; and alternately add the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and baking powder) and the liquid ingredients (dark chocolate and cocoa powder that have been melted in boiling water). You pour the batter into paper-lined cupcake tins and bake.
The recipe says it yields 24 cupcakes, but I got 32, and they took 23 minutes to finish baking. After the cupcakes were cool, I frosting them with a mixture of softened butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and melted bittersweet chocolate.
I didn't like the way that these cupcakes tasted. They didn't taste bad, but the chocolate flavor was barely there. Also, the frosting was quite sugary -- but I think the frosting complemented the cupcake well, so the finished frosted cupcake was greater than the sum of its parts.
I would not make these cupcakes again. The most important thing to me about a chocolate cupcake is that it should taste good and deliver strong chocolate flavor -- and these just left me wanting more.
Recipe: "Chocolate Mayonnaise Cupcakes" from Baked Elements: Our 10 Favorite Ingredients, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings.
Comments
It was great to meet you in NYC!
So nice to meet you this week! The party was so much fun :)