Chocolate Cupcakes, Settlement House Style

Yesterday, some very special visitors stopped by Henry Street Settlement, including someone who, as a young child, had actually met Lillian Wald, the visionary progressive reformer who founded the Settlement in 1893.  We were honored indeed to welcome our visitors into our historic dining room.  In anticipation, I decided to bake something from The Settlement Cook Book which, though published by a settlement house in Milwaukee, features many of the same immigrant foods served at Henry Street in the early 20th century.

It took just a minute to select a recipe from this 622-page tome, first published in 1901.  (My copy dates from 1936.)  I mean, what could be more welcoming than old-fashioned chocolate cupcakes?  I "cheated" and frosted them with a modern-day vanilla buttercream (from a Magnolia Bakery recipe).  But even topped with the creamy icing, the cupcakes looked too plain for our special guests -- until I remembered the gorgeous crystallized violets I had made this past weekend.  Et voila, the perfect petit fours!

The cupcakes are truly simple to make.  Mix the butter and sugar; add the egg and blend in one square of unsweetened, melted chocolate.

Alternately add the flour/baking soda mixture and buttermilk, starting and ending with the flour.

The batter will be rather thick, and I found it easier to pipe from a pastry bag with a round tip. I used mini-cupcake tins, but one pays for their adorableness with the extra time it takes to fill them.  Still, I think it's pretty good value.

I also piped the frosting, and then topped each with a violet, a task best done right after piping so that the violets adhere well.

The recipe is on the first page of the chapter entitled Small Cakes, Cookies, Kisses.

Instructions, more clearly, below (with a miner change):
Cream butter and sugar, add egg, and blend.  Mix in chocolate.  Add flour and baking soda (which have been mixed together) alternately with the buttermilk (sour milk) beginning and ending with the flour.  Place in small greased (or paper lined) muffin tins, bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes.

Got Mayo? Bake a Cake!

Yes, these Valentine's Day cupcakes are made with mayonnaise and, yes, they are delicious and you should make them for yourself or someone you love (or hopefully) both.  And they are perfect  topped with Pink Perfection Frosting.

I thought these were ideal for Valentine's Day because all the ingredients are placed in a single bowl, in no particular order, and then mixed all together.  It's the relationship equivalent of  putting all your love cards on the table, not withholding emotions, not mixing the butter and sugar first, then adding the eggs and slowly adding the flour.  It's jumping off the cliff and hoping you land in love.  I did that with DH nearly 30 years ago (after surviving some heartbreaking game playing relationships) and it worked out pretty well.

And so, without further ado (and because I'm traveling and writing this on a frustratingly ancient computer), I bring you the photos for this.  Note that the frosting is from a c. 1940s or 1950s Ladies Home Journal recipe box.  (Pick up the March issue of that magazine to see a wonderful feature about this blog-- more about that next week.)

Production notes:  Although the recipe calls for Miracle Whip, I used Hellman's.  And the frosting can be applied without a pastry bag -- just smooth on with a knife or small spatula.  Mayonnaise cakes are a classic -- Rose Levy Berenbaum in The Cake Bible includes a recipe that she found written on a 1919 postcard!  Since mayonnaise is basically eggs and oil, it replaces the eggs and butter.

If you really want to be a sweetheart (and don't have time to bake or buy a gift), you can consider making a Valentine's Day donation to Henry Street Settlement, and we'll send an eCard to your honey telling them of your thoughtfulness.

Below is the mis en place for the cake.