Wedding Prototype One: Yellow Cupcakes

For my upcoming wedding in August, I'm making three kinds of cupcakes: chocolate, lemon, and yellow. I've been on the hunt for the perfect recipe for each type, and so far I've found my chocolate recipe, and I recently experimented to find a good yellow cake recipe.

Yellow cake adventures after the jump...

So for my first attempt at yellow cake, I tried using a Lamington cake base. Something...well, something went horribly wrong, and they ended up with a scone-like consistency. They were very tasty with coffee, but definitely NOT cupcakes.

So I decided to try again, this time with an actual yellow cake recipe. I used Cupcake Project's "Fourth of July" cupcakes. We were out of vanilla extract, so I used hazelnut instead (and slightly less of it) which actually gave it a really nice, subtly nutty flavor. I frosted them with whipped chocolate ganache, which I made with Scharffen Berger 70% dark chocolate. It was pretty much an amazing frosting on its own, but with the cupcakes, it was overwhelming--you couldn't appreciate the tastiness of the cake itself unless you only had a teensy bit of frosting in the bite.

Next time, I'll make the frosting with a milk chocolate, and use a higher ratio of cream-to-chocolate, which will not only lighten the flavor, but help it whip more easily. I'm very happy with the cake itself, and can't wait to try it again! Yellow cake is my fiancee's favorite kind of cake, so I'm looking forward to making the perfect version for our wedding.