Black and White Cupcakes

A good friend of mine from work turned 26 last night. As her birthday present, she asked me to make some cupcakes.

I was feeling a little under the weather and stressed, so I simply combined the Vanilla Cupcakes and Hot Chocolate Cupcake recipes to make Black and White Cupcakes (or if you will, Michael Jackson Cupcakes). Awesome.

Just a tip - make the batters simultaneously so they don't dry out!

Black and White Cupcakes (Makes 24)

Vanilla cupcake batter:
125 g butter (room temperature)
2/3 C caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/4 C self raising gluten free flour
1/2 C milk

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C. Line a 12 hole cupcake tin with cupcake cases.
   
2. Cream butter and sugar together until pale. Beat in vanilla.
3. Beat in 1 egg. Scrape down the sides. Beat in the second egg and scrape again.
4. Mix in the flour in 3 additions, alternating with the milk in 2 additions, mixing continuously.
5. Divide evenly into cupcake cases.

Hot Chocolate Cupcake batter:

125 g butter (room temperature)
2/3 C hot chocolate powder (I used Cadbury's as it's gluten free)
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/4 C self raising gluten free flour
1/4 C milk
1/4 C Sour cream

1. Cream butter and hot chocolate powder together until pale. Beat in vanilla.
2. Beat in 1 egg. Scrape down the sides. Beat in the second egg and scrape again.
3. Mix in the flour in 3 additions, alternating with the milk and sour cream in 2 additions, mixing continuously.
4. Divide evenly into cupcake cases on top of the vanilla batter. Swirl the batters together with a toothpick.
5. Bake at 180 C for 20 minutes.

For the Fluff:
6 egg whites
1 C sugar
2 Tbsp vanilla

For the Fluff (this is just Swiss Meringue!):

1. Over a saucepan of simmering water, whisk together egg whites and sugar until the mixture is hot (72 C) and frothy. This usually takes quite a while - 8-10 minutes.
   
2. Using an electric beater, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and mix is cool.
3. Beat in vanilla.
   
4. Pipe or spread mixture onto cupcakes.

I then piped some melted chocolate over the top. Delish!