Experiment 2 - The Selection

I had been thinking that it would be nice if the luck of the draw gave me something to bake this week.  Well, sort of.

This week's recipe selection is Basic Cupcakes.

The twist is that recipe is from a newspaper column simply called "Microwave".  Once again, it comes from an undated clipping from the Hartford Courant.  That will be quite a common occurrence, since the titular Box was filled when I still lived in Connecticut, and evidently I felt no need to preserve the dates on what I was cutting from the paper.  On the back side of this clipping is the start of an article about Rosh Hashana, so again we can identify an approximate time of year, even without knowing anything more specific.  Certainly this pre-dated the 21st century cupcake craze, which I find more than a little annoying anyway.  For the record, this was a syndicated column by Jean Anderson and Elaine Hanna, and came from the Los Angeles Times Syndicate.

The ingredients:

1 cup sifted flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup butter or margarine
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk mixed with 1 teaspoon vanilla

Makes 1 dozen.

There are some variations listed - double chocolate, lemon, orange, fruit or nut, and coconut.  I might try the chocolate, which calls for a 1 ounce envelope of "unsweetened no-melt chocolate" and 1/2 cup of semisweet chocolate pieces.  I've never heard of this no-melt stuff, so I'll have to see what's available in the store.

The authors have included a recipe for Chocolate Glaze as well, which calls for:

2 cups sifted powdered sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 to 2 tablespoons water
1 1-ounce envelope unsweetened no-melt chocolate  (There's that chocolate again!)

Now, will I have to buy a microwave "cupcaker" as they call it?  Where would I even find one?  Actually, I think I have a solution, but you'll have to check back for the results this weekend.