birthday cupcakes

I made these chiffon cupcakes as a surprise for my husband on his birthday. I went to his office, surprised him with a couple friends and took him out to lunch. During lunch, I pulled out a junk mail-wrapped HDMI cable for the PS3 I had at home for him. He narrowed his eyes, then I asked if that didn't give it away, and reached into my bag for a junk mail-wrapped game. He didn't say anything, so I reached into my bag again and pulled out another game. "Jeez how many did you buy?" lol

After lunch, he went back to work and I went to the mall with one of the friends to kill time till my hubs could take off work. We went shopping to a couple stores, went to Mrs Fields for a couple cookies, then sat down and chatted. My husband met us at the mall, and we all went to see Bolt in 3D. What a great day =)

Notes: For the buttercream, I just used plain soy milk. I don't usually like buttercream frosting, but this one was good. I didn't put a lot on the cupcakes cause I like mine light on the frosting. I bought the disher pictured on the left to transfer the batter from the mixing bowl to the muffin pan, a la Alton Brown. Also, I used a hand mixer for all of this, not a stand mixer.

Ingredients
5 1/4 ounces cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
5 large eggs, separated
6 ounces sugar, divided
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Place paper liners into 2 (12-cup) muffin tins and set aside. If you prefer, set 12 ovenproof coffee mugs on a half sheet pan and set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Place the egg yolks and 5 ounces of the sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk on high for 2 minutes or until the mixture becomes pale yellow and 'ribbons' when lifted. Add the water, vegetable oil and vanilla and whisk to combine. Add the dry ingredients and whisk just to combine. Transfer the batter to a mixing bowl while you whisk the egg whites.

Place the egg whites and cream of tartar into a clean bowl and whisk on high using the whisk attachment, until it becomes foamy. Decrease the speed to low and gradually add the remaining ounce of sugar. Increase speed to high and continue whisking until stiff peaks form, approximately 2 minutes.

Transfer 1/3 of the egg whites to the batter and whisk until well combined. Add the remaining egg whites and fold in gently. Transfer batter into prepared muffin tins or coffee mugs, evenly dividing the batter between the cups. Place both muffin tins on the middle rack of the oven or, if using mugs, place all of them on a half sheet pan and set on the bottom rack of the oven. Bake for 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean or the cupcakes reach an internal temperature of 205 to 210 degrees F. Remove from the oven to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Ingredients
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream

Directions
1. In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk, mix together sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.

2. Add vanilla and cream and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more, adding more cream if needed for spreading consistency.