Mustache-querade Cupcakes

The Art.
    It is Labmate George's birthday this week, and I wanted to make him extra special cupcakes. He requested a simple yellow cake with chocolate frosting, but this wasn't fancy enough for me. So, I sat down and asked myself, what kind of cupcake toppers would he like? Labmate George is a Hipster of the Hippest Sort, and trying to come up with an idea that he would consider "cool" made me feel painfully mainstream and frankly a little depressed. Finally, I was struck with an idea that I believe is utter brilliance: chocolate mustaches on a stick! I love the idea of all my labmates holding up edible Hercules Poirot mustaches to their faces. Hilarity is bound to ensue.

The Science.
    All jokes aside, it is very important for every baker to know that all chocolates are not created equal. This goes double for candymaking. Every type and brand of chocolate has a different ratio of cocoa solids, cocoa butter, milk fat, and milk [1]. Altering the ratios of these ingredients changes the melting temperature of the chocolate, and the texture it will have when it cools again. Dark and bittersweet chocolates have a high amount of cocoa solids and no milk, so they are harder at room temperature than milk chocolate. Baking bars are preferable to candy bars when melting, because they contain less sugar and fat and will create a nice hard confection.

    Another factor that must be considered are emulsifiers. These are fatty compounds, such as soy lecithin, that are added to chocolate to keep the fats from separating from the cocoa solids. Chocolate chips have more emulsifiers than bar chocolate, improving their texture and preventing the chips from sticking together. However, this also makes them undesirable for candymaking because the high fatty content inhibits the chocolate from hardening effectively. Inexpensive bar chocolates also contain more emulsifiers than pricier bar chocolate, because it allows the manufacturer to use less cacao [1]. If you take any of my advice from this blog post, please please please buy a good-quality, 60% cacao baking bar for your candymaking. NOT chocolate chips. Thank you.

The Recipe.

Yellow Cake:
2 1/4 cups cake flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup salted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup buttermilk

    Preheat oven to 350^oF and line two cupcake tins with paper liners. In a medium bowl, comine flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat butter in large bowl on medium-high until fluffy, then gradually beat in sugar. Beat eggs in, one at a time. Stir vanilla into buttermilk. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk to butter/sugar/egg mixture while beating on low speed.  Beat an additional 30 seconds.
    Using a 1/3 cup measure, fill cupcake tins with batter.  Filling with a measuring cup is an efficient way to ensure that all the cupcakes have the same amount of batter and will bake evenly. Lift and drop the cupcake tins on the counter a couple times to eliminate bubbles in the batter. Bake on center rack for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean. (Recipe modified from [2]).

Fluffy Chocolate Buttercream:
1 cup salted butter
1 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup cocoa
4-6 cups powdered sugar

    In a large bowl, beat together butter and shortening on medium speed until fluffy.  Beat in cocoa. Gradually beat in powdered sugar, until icing becomes thick enough for piping. I look for stiff, jagged peaks as my indicator. Adding the sugar in increments results in better incorporation into the butter, so you can use less sugar for the same consistency. If the frosting tastes too sweet and feels grainy, add a couple tablespoons of milk.

Mustache Toppers:
8 oz. Ghirhardelli 60% cacao bittersweet baking bar
25 pretzel sticks

   Place chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and heat in microwave in 30 second increments, stirring inbetween, until only some solid chunks remain.  Let sit at room temperature 10 minutes, then stir.  Melting the chocolate in this way will ensure that you do not overheat and thicken it.
    Draw a mustache stencil on carstock paper and cut it out. Optimal size is 2-3" across. Use stencil to outline 24 mustaches on a sheet of waxed paper with permanent marker. Take care not to smudge the ink until it's dry.  I used a VWR indelible lab marker, because I'm a nerd. Turn the waxed paper ink-side down and place on top of cardboard or baking sheet.

    Spoon some melted chocolate into a resealable plastic sandwich bag, seal shut, and snip off the tiniest bit of the bottom corner to form a piping bag.  Pipe a chocolate border over your outlines on the waxed paper. Fill in with a zigzag motion, and smooth with a toothpick.  Mustaches should be thick, raised at least 1/4" above the surface of the waxed paper.  If they are too thin, go over them again with your piping bag. Place in refrigerator or freezer until hardened, about 20 minutes.
   To attach sticks to mustaches, dip the top 1/2" of a pretzel stick in melted chocolate, and press onto a cooled mustache, slightly to the side. Use a designated "gluing" pretzel to dab more chocolate around the pretzel stick to ensure that it is attached. Repeat with the remaining 23 mustaches. Eat your gluing pretzel, because it is delicious. Place mustaches in refrigerator until ready to top cupcakes.

Cupcake Assembly:
    Allow cupcakes and buttercream to reach room temperature. Using a piping bag and 1M tip, pipe a swirl on top of each cupcake as described in my previous tutorial. Stick a mustache topper into each cupcake and serve with a can of PBR, if desired.

1. Galvin, Lori et al. Test Kitchen Favorites. Brookline, MA: America's Test Kitchen, 2006.
2. Garrett, Toba. The Well-Decorated Cake. New York, NY: Sterling Publishing, 2004.