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Diamond Cupcakes

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Last Friday my cousin Denise had a small birthday celebration over cocktails and fancy pigs in a blanket. I decided to bring cupcakes for dessert because they’re festive and party-friendly (a.k.a. really easy to serve). Combining her love for chocolate and her love for diamonds, I made these “diamond” cupcakes.

I love the look of cupcake toppers, so I thought of a funny idea, and my friend Roy helped me design them. (Thanks, Roy!) Aren’t they cute? To make them, I printed the toppers on sticker paper and sandwiched a toothpick in between the print and another sheet of sticker paper.

I was inspired to get fancy with the frosting by my friend Deanna. She has a super awesome baking blog and explained the whole frosting piping process to me. (Thanks, Deanna!)

I found these ruffle wrappers (that look like tutus!) at Michaels. (Did you know they have a whole aisle of sickeningly cute baking accessories?? Yes, it is a dangerous place.)

Denise’s all-time favorite diamond is the yellow diamond. I tried making a batch of yellow rock candy “diamonds” to decorate the cupcakes with, but the online tutorials that promised me that making rock candy is easy all lied. Somehow my rock candy turned out to be rock candy chips. I went out and bought rock candy at the store as a backup, but the chips turned out to look kinda cool.

The cupcakes themselves were amazing (or at least I thought so). The chocolate cake was so moist and fluffy and the vanilla buttercream frosting wasn’t too sweet. I got both recipes from Deanna, and before you keep reading to see what the secret ingredient was in the chocolate cake, let me just say, I know it sounds weird, but just trust me on this one.

Emily’s Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

From Occasional Sugar

2 cups sifted flour

1 cup sugar
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp baking soda
3 Tbsp cocoa
1 cup cold water
1 cup mayo
1 tsp vanilla
Sift together the dry ingredients. Add 1 cup cold water, 1 cup mayonnaise and 1 tsp vanilla. Beat until well combined.
Bake in 8 x 8 x 2” pan, 30 – 45 min. at 350.
Double ingredients for 9 x 13” pan. Bake 50 – 60 minutes.
(325 for glass pans)
This made me about 12 cupcakes that baked for 18-20 minutes.

Last modified: January 10, 2019