I won't say there were a lot of different steps to these cupcakes, there were only about 3, but each one was a different process that required dirtying another dish, which made for a lot of cleanup that I didn't so much enjoy. But, some good things require more work. While there were several steps, none of them were difficult. Melting the butter and chocolate was easy. That's never where I worry or get hung up that I might be messing something up. It's whipping the egg whites that concerns me and this time around was no different.
I used my stand mixer to handle the egg whites because it's much more efficient and I can do other things while they're whipping, like tend to the melting butter and chocolate for instance. I let the egg whites whip until I thought they were the right consistency, truthfully, I never know. I just do what I think is right and hope for the best. This time around I don't think I did it right because of how the cupcakes turned out. I'm not sure if I over-whipped the egg whites, or didn't whip them enough, but when the cupcakes were done the centers never really collapsed like they looked in Martha's pictures, they just kind of caved in. I suppose it could have also been the baking time (25 total minutes with a turn halfway through), maybe they needed to bake longer, or maybe I didn't bake them long enough. I don't plan on making them again anytime soon (it's almost time to start Christmas baking), but if I do I'll try to do some investigative work and see if they turn out any differently the second time around.
Although they didn't look like Martha's pictures, they did taste delicious! Especially with the ice cream. She knows a good garnish. The texture was very light and smooth. It kind of reminded me of a mousse. The texture was less cakey than a souffle and the center was set so it wasn't like a lava cake. In short they were tasty, and I ate more of them than I originally intended. It's a good thing I ran out of ice cream (my hubby helped with that) or I would have eaten even more. When I'm not pressuring myself by shedding for a wedding I let myself get away with a lot more bad eating. It's time to right this ship, though I'm not sure doing it before the holidays is a good idea.
