Marble Birthday Cupcakes

I love a good birthday. Not just my own either, everyone's....as long as I get to partake (and by partake I mean bake something for the occasion). I've found over the years that people are usually inclined to oblige my request to bake them something for their special day, so it's really a win/win. Last week, birthday time returned to my life! And, despite another busy week at work, I still made time to whip up a new recipe for Miss Allie's first DC birthday in years!

Law school was the first time I really became aware of my adultness (and birthdays spent away from home). My parents moved to the east coast the summer before I started law school and since I was born at the beginning of March, I came to rely on celebrations with friends to make my actual birthday special. 

My 24th birthday brought with it the BEST CAKE EVER--coffee infused chocolate cake courtesy of one of my favorite people, Lizzy. Coffee in cake = great excuse to eat cake for breakfast!

During my second year of law school I decided to start sharing my baking skills  in an effort to help others have a memorable birthday as well. And so, my tradition of making homemade treats for birthdays was born. Back then I was just getting into baking and thus most of my treats, while made in my home, usually came from a box. 


Since I now refuse to make anything from a box, I was thrilled when Allie requested a marble cake for her birthday treat. I'd only made a marble cake once before (during the law school baking spree....law school's awful, you really need something happy to get you through), but this time I was going it entirely from scratch!

Mable Cupcakes
Another good find from Martha

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup buttermilk, room temperature
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon dark chocolate cocoa powder (Martha called for Dutch cocoa powder, but I had, and prefer, dark chocolate)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line or grease cupcake tins. Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Mix in vanilla. Add flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the buttermilk and beginning and ending with the flour. Set aside 1/3 of the batter
3. In a bowl, mix cocoa and 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons boiling water with a rubber spatula until smooth. Add the cocoa mixture to the reserved cake batter; stir until well combined
4. Spoon batters into the prepared pans, alternating spoonfuls of vanilla and chocolate to simulate a checkerboard. To create marbling, run a table knife (or wooden skewer) through the batters in a swirling motion
5. Bake, rotating the pan halfway through, until a cake tester comes out clean, 40 to 50 minutes. Transfer pan to a rack to cool 10 minutes. Turn out cake from pan and cool completely on the rack before icing

And of course, I couldn't trust my first foray into homemade marble cake making to just any icing....

A trusted favorite surfaced yet again to complete the creation

Birthday Heaven