Hi-hat cupcakes

I love Martha Stewart. Well, not the woman herself, but the whole concept. I just think that there are so many wonderful ideas and little things to make life a little easier, or a little nicer, or a little sweeter, which makes me check out her website often. And I'm secretly jealous that there's TV-shows to be seen and magazines and books to be bought everywhere in the USA, that I have a heck of a time getting my hands on here in the Netherlands. So, as I said, I look at the website often. And my eye caught the little video on 'hi-hat cupcakes'. When I learned the recipe came from Elinor Klivans, I didn't need much more convincing to try them. Plus, they just looked super cute.

I thought they would be great to share with my sisters family and went to work. The cupcake recipe asks for sour cream, and per the advice of a friend in Germany, I used 'schmand' this time in stead of our Dutch sour cream. It was indeed a lot thicker.
The recipe was quite easy to put together and the batter tasted like chocolate mousse. It was so delicious that I could have eaten the whole batch raw instead of baking it. It was a bit much for the 12 cupcakes it stated it would make, so I let myself be tempted into overfilling the cups. It wasn't that big of a deal, but they would have looked neater if I hadn't. And probably wouldn't have collapsed the little bit they did.

The icing was a meringue that you prepare au bain marie, mixing for 12 minutes with a hand mixer. It came out just as promised, nice and thick, and when I tasted it, it reminded me of the 'melocakes' that I loved as a kid. It was sweet, but to me, perfect. I piped the frosting on thick, then cooled a little in the fridge, and gave the frosting a chocolate coating. And this is how they looked after that:

Aren't they totally beautiful? And I think they tasted lovely too. Like a said, nostalgia with the resemblance of those big 'kisses' I loved as a kid, only better.

To be honest, I would change something next time. When I make them again I will make them bite sized as mini cupcakes. That way, it will be much easier to get both cake and frosting in one bite, making the whole thing even better. And there definately will be a next time!
The recipe can be found on the Martha Stewart website, and you can watch this little video where she shows you how to make them.

Oh, and before I forget, I really do think I neeeeeeed that cupcake book ;o)