Happy birthday, Mike!

Today is my roommate's birthday and no birthday is complete without cake or cupcakes. Even if I can't eat said cake or cupcakes due to my current freeze on white flour and carbohydrates.

Being the awesome roommate that I am, I decided to do some baking and, for the first, time cook cupcakes without the help of a box of mix. This was much easier than I had anticipated.

I chose an easy recipe to start; my other roommates birthday is coming up in a few weeks, and I vow to try something more complex then. I gave my roommate and choice, and he picked Martha's Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Chocolate Chip Frosting, an excellent choice in my opinion. In order to make the whole thing more festive, I substituted M&Ms for chocolate chips, so the cupcakes would be nice and colorful.

The best thing about this recipe was that it omitted whole eggs, and just used a combination of milk and egg whites instead. Of course, this doesn't make the resulting cupcakes THAT much healthier, but they are definitely super light and fluffy, which was an added bonus.

The recipe called for a basic buttercream, which is essentially just powdered sugar, butter, and a dash of vanilla. I only used half the powdered sugar because the frosting (yes, I dared to try some, don't tell my doctor), was already really sweet.

Mike caught my other roommate night eating my cupcakes at 2am last night, so I'd say this recipe was a success. I hope these lucky non-pre-diabetics enjoy without me... I'm not bitter at all.

RECIPE (courtesy of Martha Stewart at marthastewart.com)

Ingredients
Makes 30
3 1/4 cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising)
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
7 ounces (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
5 large egg whites, room temperature
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Chocolate Chip Frosting

Directions

Make cupcakes as directed in Basic Cupcake How-To, omitting eggs and using milk and vanilla for wet ingredients. Beat egg whites to stiff peaks, and fold into batter. Fold in chocolate chips. Bake cupcakes about 22 minutes. Frost with buttercream, and serve immediately.