counting down

Two hours until our New Year's Eve dinner, a Southern-themed extravaganza featuring a collaborative effort from our kitchen, Whit and Derek's, and Popeye's Chicken & Biscuits. We'll have black-eyed peas, collared greens, cornbread (which Todd is making now), fried pickles, mashed potatoes and Popeye's fried chicken goodness (or badness -- you decide).

And of course, cupcakes.

I spent a good portion of the afternoon testing out a recipe for chocolate cupcakes from Elinor Klivans' book, which was a Christmas gift from Carisa. My plan was to make the chocolate sour cream cupcakes, fill them with a chocolate espresso custard and then top them with mocha buttercream frosting. I didn't think it would be too hard.

But apparently I have the magic touch and turned a fairly simple, straightforward recipe into something bizarre and complicated. The batter came out extremely fluffy, like chocolate mousse, and the cupcakes didn't rise very high. And then I took the first batch out too early, so I ended up with six mini chocolate lava cakes instead of cupcakes. (They tasted fabulous, though!)

I adjusted the cooking time for the remaining cupcakes, which turned out to be delicious, but again, didn't rise very high. So I scrapped the chocolate filling idea because I was worried that cutting holes in cupcakes that were already smaller than expected would turn out to be a disaster. And I nixed the mocha buttercream plan, too, because the cupcakes just didn't look like "normal" cupcakes.

Instead, I decided to make caramel, drizzle it on the cupcakes and then add a teeny-tiny pinch of sea salt (because to me, nothing is more wonderful than that salty-sweet combo).

After wrestling with the caramel -- such a challenge, since it kept cooling and getting stringy and then I'd have to heat it up again -- I finally finished my project. I'm fairly pleased with the results. The cupcakes are moist and have a nice texture, and the caramel and salt add a little something.

Of course, the real verdict comes tonight. OK -- now to take a shower and finish getting ready! Happy New Year!