Kaylen's First Cupcake: Devil's Food Cupcakes

Photo by Katie Kay

Happy Father's Day!  Kaylen wanted to bake Matt some cupcakes today.  Since I'm such a control freak in the kitchen and I usually limit what she is allowed to help with, she was stoked to be allowed to bake her own cupcakes from start to finish all by herself.  I swear, I didn't do a thing!  She even cleaned up!
We chose Martha's Devil's Food Cupcakes because I had all the ingredients and Matt's favorite cake is chocolate.  Kaylen wanted vanilla frosting, although I tried my hardest to sway her towards chocolate.  Vanilla frosting...pssshhhh.  I don't know where she gets that from.  Definitely not me.
I'm going to go ahead and warn you now, there are a LOT of pictures of my daughter doing every step of this recipe, and unless you're my mom, you're probably going to get bored.  You won't hurt my feelings if you skip the pics and scroll down to the actual recipe.  This was a landmark day for Kaylen, and I wanted a photo documentary of it!  
The first thing we did was read the recipe and get out all of our ingredients.

Photo by Katie Kay

Then she lined her muffin tins with paper liners and I showed her how to be gentle and not flatten the ridges, and how to tell if there are 2 liners stuck together.

Photo by Katie Kay

Check out her leveling!  I told her about Dutch process cocoa powder and regular cocoa powder, although I couldn't really explain the difference.

Photo by Katie Kay

Lots of smiles and laughter.  She couldn't believe I completely relinquished control in my kitchen.  See those 4 eggs coming to room temperature?  Jenson dropped one on the floor and broke it.  Big mess.

Photo by Katie Kay

Kaylen can barely reach the microwave, but she heated her water all by herself.

Photo by Katie Kay

Check out those watchful eyes as she added the water to the cocoa.

Photo by Katie Kay

Jenson REALLY wanted to help, but this was Kaylen's show.  He was content with the promise of spatula licking later on.

Photo by Katie Kay

Jenson was curious about what the cocoa tasted like.  This is how good it was:

Photo by Katie Kay

She did all her own scooping and measuring.

Photo by Katie Kay

Practice made perfect!

Photo by Katie Kay

And after I showed her how, she nailed the baking soda on her first try! 

Photo by Katie Kay

No spillage!

Photo by Katie Kay

She carefully followed each step of the recipe.

Photo by Katie Kay

She added the baking powder,

Photo by Katie Kay

and she learned how to whisk gently without flour flying around all willy nilly.

Photo by Katie Kay

She added the butter to her saucepan.

Photo by Katie Kay

She scooped her sugar,

Photo by Katie Kay

then added it to the butter and turned on the fire (actually I did that part.)

Photo by Katie Kay

Girlie, a watched pot NEVER boils.

Photo by Katie Kay

She stirred her slowly melting butter.  And I think Paula should give me some money for plugging her magazine in almost every single picture!  Thankfully that wasn't anything embarrassing in the background.  Although that's not where I tend to keep embarrassing things.

Photo by Katie Kay

I held the hot pan while she scraped it clean.  I'm a multi-tasker.  And I used a camera strap around my neck because I've dropped and broken WAY too many cameras.  I'm lucky Matt lets me use his at all.

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Photo by Katie Kay

My much-more-patient-than-I mother taught Kaylen how to crack eggs and separate the whites a long time ago.  

Photo by Katie Kay

I still have trust issues, so I made her break them first in a bowl, then add them to the batter one at a time.  She was flawless!

Photo by Katie Kay

Look at those capable 7-year-old hands!

Photo by Katie Kay

After stressing to her how exact the dry ingredients had to be, I had a hard time convincing her that the vanilla didn't have to be quite as precise.  This was brain surgery to her.  Intense concentration!

Photo by Katie Kay

She added the cooled cocoa/water mixture (okay, I did help her scrape the bowl just to get every last bit of the chocolate out.)

Photo by Katie Kay

She added the sour cream.

Photo by Katie Kay

She added the flour in 2 parts, very slowly.  She learned quickly how much flour can poof up and make a big, dusty mess!

Photo by Katie Kay

She carefully scraped the sides of the measuring cup to avoid drips before she poured the batter in the tins.

Photo by Katie Kay

This was time consuming, and she didn't complain ONCE.  I thought she'd wear out and ask me to finish.  Nope!

Photo by Katie Kay

Jenson's patience was well-rewarded!  After he licked the spatula clean he said, "Kaylen this was yummy, but I think I'm going to like it even better when it's cooked!"

Photo by Katie Kay

The cook has to wait to lick anything until all the cooking is done!

Photo by Katie Kay

And she did her own clean up!  One of the most important parts of cooking in my kitchen!

Photo by Katie Kay

After she washed dishes and put the cupcakes in the oven, she started on the vanilla frosting.  

Photo by Katie Kay

Even though I prefer chocolate, this looked and tasted YUMMY!

Photo by Katie Kay

She tried out a couple of Ateco decorating tips before she settled on a pattern that she liked.

Photo by Katie Kay

After a couple of practice tries on the counter, she was ready to pipe her very first cupcake ever!

Photo by Katie Kay

She's a bit of a perfectionist, but she typically doesn't like to put in the work required to reach perfection.  She was pretty frustrated that her frosting wasn't perfect and we had some rough patches here.  But she finished them and was happy with the results.

Photo by Katie Kay

I know, I know.  Totally unhealthy and probably pretty disgusting.  But when I make cream cheese frosting, I do the same thing!  I made her wait until she was done frosting everything, of course. :)

Photo by Katie Kay

My little monkey was not to be left out...

Photo by Katie Kay

She carefully decorated with candy balls, strategically placing them on the cupcakes one by one.  

Photo by Katie Kay

Devil's Food Cupcakes

3/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder

3/4 cup hot water

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter

2 1/4 cups sugar

4 large eggs, room temp

1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup sour cream, room temp

Preheat oven to 350.  Line muffin tins with paper liners.  Whisk together cocoa powder and water; set aside.  In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Melt butter with sugar in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring to combine.  Remove from heat and pour into mixing bowl.  On low speed, beat until cool, about 5 minutes.  Add eggs one at a time, beating between each to combine.  Add vanilla, then cocoa mixture, and beat until combined.  Add flour mixture in 2 batches with the sour cream in between.  Beat until just combined, then pour into muffin tins until they are 3/4 full.  These cupcakes will dome nicely.  Bake for 18 minutes in my oven, but test yours with a toothpick to make sure yours are done.  Cool, then frost.

Fluffy Vanilla Frosting

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp

1 lb (4 cups) powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Beat butter on medium-high speed until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes.  Reduce speed and add powdered sugar slowly, beating well.  Pause several times to raise speed to high and beat frosting for about 10 seconds to aerate.  Frosting will be pale and fluffy when done.  Add vanilla and beat until frosting is smooth.  Frosting can be refrigerated for up to 10 days.  Before using, bring to room temp and beat on low until smooth again.

Source:  Martha Stewart's Cupcakes