Black and White Cupcakes

I think they look a little Yin and Yang-ish! Love it!!

The cupcakes look like tall, frilly versions of their cookie cousins. :)

The icing sets up after just a few minutes, too, so when you unwrap the cupcakes, the icing stays put.

I was thrilled with how much these ended up tasting like a perfect black and white cookie in cupcake form. They’re soft and moist, with the subtlest hint of lemon flavor, and the frosting/icing combos are divine.

They are fast and easy to make, too, and can be even faster to make if you want to forego the icing step and only add the whipped frosting.

Enjoy!

Black and White Cupcakes
Makes 12 standard cupcakes

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups (190 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (100 grams) sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick or 113 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (113 grams) sour cream
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (180 C). Line a muffin pan with cupcake papers; set aside.

In a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter, sour cream, eggs, vanilla, and zest and beat until smooth. Scrape the bowl, making sure there are no streaks of flour remaining (do not over mix).

Place three tablespoons of batter in each of the paper liners in the prepared muffin pan.

Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.

1 recipe Whipped Vanilla Frosting

Divide the frosting in half and add 1/4 cup cocoa powder to half of it.

Fill a decorating bag with half vanilla frosting, half chocolate, and pipe swirls of the frosting onto each cupcake.

Black and White Icing

Ingredients

3 ounces bittersweet or unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons honey
5 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Melt the chocolate in a small bowl and set aside.

In a small saucepan set over medium high heat, bring the water and honey to a boil. Remove from heat and add half of the mixture into the sugar. Whisk until fully incorporated and smooth, adding more of the honey mixture, 1 teaspoon at a time, as needed. Stir in the vanilla extract. Add extra liquid very slowly to be sure that the icing doesn’t get runny.

Fill a decorating bag with a small amount of icing and snip off the end. Draw a straight line directly across the center of each cupcake. Drizzle vanilla icing over half of each cupcake, filling it in up to the line.

Once all of the cupcakes have vanilla icing, stir the melted chocolate into the remaining vanilla icing. If needed, stir in any remaining honey mixture, 1 teaspoon at a time, until the desired consistency is reached.

Using another decorating bag, fill in the other half of each cupcake with chocolate icing.