The last time I made cupcakes, it was more of an operation of sorts. This time around, it only took an hour to bake and ice two dozen cupcakes - only one flavour of the cake, and only one type of frosting in two colours.

Like most things in life, it is always good to stick to what you know. The same thing goes for making cupcakes, especially when time is running against you. So for this batch of cupcakes; this time a special request from a friend-once removed I decided to stick with Nigella’s fail proof cake recipe. It is a simple recipe, and turns out cupcakes in a matter of minutes. Twenty minutes prep with 15 minutes baking time. Easy!

I repeated the frosting recipe from The Joy of Cooking as the prep wasn’t so complicated as other butter cream recipes I have used before. Perhaps it is the layout of the book, or the fact that it all happens in two distinct phases; baine marie time and butter-meringue cream folding. Easy!

Adapted from The Joy of Cooking by Marion Rombauer Becker and Ethan Becker, the following the recipe is direct from the 1999 edition. For one dozen regular sized cupcakes, you can cut this recipe in half. For the purpose of simplifying things I have divided the recipe into two phases. I used a whisk in Phase One, because I am overly cautious using an electric beater next to a gas stove. A regular whisk did the job well, along with a little extra elbow grease.

I did not have a thermometer handy, so I removed the stainless steel bowl from the simmering pot of water when I saw the egg white mixture forming a crust on the side of the bowl, and then replaced back on pot when it settled back to a good temperature. To colour the frosting I divided the final product into separate bowls, and added a pin drop of the pink and green food colouring.

Swiss Meringue Butter Cream - The Joy of Cooking

This egg white butter cream is the easiest of the classic French butter creams because it does not require cooked syrup. A hand-held electric mixer is necessary; be especially careful to keep the cord away from the burner. Use a stainless-steel bowl, rather than glass or crockery, to ensure that the meringue is adequately heated. Be sure to rinse the stem of the thermometer in the simmering skillet water between readings, to avoid contaminating the egg whites.

Phase One

Whisk together in a large stainless-steel bowl:

4 large egg whites (at room temperature)

3/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons water

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Set the bowl in a wide, deep skillet filled with about 1 inch of simmering water. Make sure the water level is at least as high as the depth of the egg whites in the bowl. Beat the whites on low speed until the mixture reaches 140 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer.

Do not stop beating while the bowl is in the skillet, or the egg whites will be overcooked. If you cannot hold the thermometer stem in the egg whites while continuing to beat, remove the bowl from the skillet just to read the thermometer, and then return the bowl to the skillet. Beat on high speed just until the mixture reaches 160 degrees, 2 to 4 minutes. Remove the bowl from the skillet and add:

1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat on high speed for 3 to 5 more minutes, to cool. The mixture should hold glossy peaks.

Phase Two

In another large bowl, beat until creamy, about 30 seconds:

350g unsalted butter (at room temperature)

Beat a large dollop of the meringue into the butter until well combined. Continue to beat in about half of the meringue in large dollops. Scrape the remaining meringue into the mixture and beat until smooth and fluffy.

Beat in:

1 to 2 tablespoons liqueur or colouring (optional)

Yields: 3 to 3 1/2 cups.

Storage: This keeps, refrigerated, for up to 6 days, or frozen for up to 6 months.

The other problem was monitoring the temperature of the simmering water in the pot beneath the steel bowl holding the meringue-cream mixture. This can be easily fixed with the purchase of a cooking-frying thermometer.

The fun part of making a frosting is being able to paint your cakes with the butter cream. For an even result a steady hand while holding the frosted coated spatula and turning the cupcake rather than moving the spatula works well.

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