Hot! Choc! Cupcakes.

Last night marked my first cupcake-making venture of the new year. I was largely inspired by a cookbook of my mom's that I had spotted on Wednesday, Krystina Castella's eye-catching Crazy About Cupcakes. "More than 300 recipe and design ideas," trumpets the back cover. Whoa. No joke! The book is chock full of some of the tastiest-sounding recipes and coolest decorations that I've seen in all of cupcakedom. Where to begin?

My brother Ryan chose my First Creation at random: Hot Chocolate cupcakes. Here are some scenes from their making.

Adjustments.

-I didn't have yogurt, so I substituted sour cream instead. (I found this Q&A on a cooking website just now... hahah.)
-I had only the very last bit of some store-bought whipped cream on hand, so I just stuck marshmallow frosting, marshmallows and a dusting of cocoa powder on top. Still very yum.

Observations, commentary, blah blah.

Chocolate cupcake + marshmallows on top = Hot Choc. So simple, it's brilliant. The color of the cupcake wasn't quite the rich hot-chocolatey brown that I was expecting, though. Perhaps that had something to do with the sour cream (?). Also, I found the marshmallow frosting fun to make, but tricky to spread due to its extreme gooey-ness. Consider yourself warned.