Chocolate Cupcakes with Flour Frosting

Do you have a princess in your house?


It's my daughter's turn to bring the class snack tomorrow for her kindergarten class. For the month of December, the school's rigid guidelines for healthy snacks has been abandoned, and the kids are encouraged to bring their 'favorite' snack. Perfect, I thought. It will give me an excuse to get some Christmas baking done. My daughter loves sugar cookies - I figured I could do up a double batch of Christmas themed cookies, send half with her, and still have some for my own baking stash. Two birds with one stone and all that.

Except that today she declared that her favorite snack is chocolate cupcakes. With white frosting and sprinkles. Not on my Christmas baking list. But what the princess wants, the princess gets. I can't argue with her today, I haven't the strength.

I used my 'go to' recipe for the chocolate cupcakes by Hershey's but decided to experiment with the frosting. I wanted a nice creamy white frosting without the sickly sweet sugar taste and the grit that comes with it. After some blog surfing, it became clear, the solution would be Flour Frosting. Not exactly the most appealing name, I admit, but trust me, it's good. I read several recipes and then, gleaning the parts that I thought sounded best, came up with this version.

So, if you're looking for a new way to dress your cupcakes, and you aren't a fan of overly sweet icing, give this one a go. It's sweet enough that the kids still love it but not so sweet that the adults are scraping it off. It's easy, although it does take a little longer.  The end result looks a little different than a regular icing, it's not as smooth looking. (I noticed that this was also the case with all the recipes I found that had pictures.) So taste it before you assume you've screwed it up, it's surprisingly good. I piped mine with a star tip to disguise the less-than-perfect appearance, a few Christmas colored sprinkles, and it was perfect. It might be a new favorite.

The recipe for the chocolate cupcakes can be found here.

Flour Frosting

5 Tbsp. flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 cup milk
1 cup softened butter cut in cubes
1 tsp vanilla or vanilla powder
pinch of salt

In a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, whisk the sugar, flour, salt together. Add the milk and cook over medium heat, whisking continuously until the mixture thickens (about 5 minutes). Add the vanilla.

Transfer the mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer and refrigerate until cool. Once cool, beating on medium speed with paddle attachment, add the butter 1 tablespoon at a time.

If the frosting is too soft, chill it for a few minutes until it becomes more firm.