Black & White Marble Cupcakes With Pecans

Marble cupcakes are the perfect answer to your dilemma of reaching out for Vanilla or Chocolate cupcakes. When you can get the best of both the worlds in one simple recipe, why bother choosing between the two! Ever since I tasted my first slice of Marble cake in a Starbucks coffee shop, I have been a fan. The lovely black and white swirls make it not only attractive, but also offer a perfect mix of tastes; its like Ying and Yang, perfect harmony, so you just can’t go wrong while eating these yourself or serving them at your next gathering.

These Marble Cupcakes [photo courtesy of CulinaryGeek] are essentially a smaller version of Marble Cake, just easier to bake, and keep a tab on your portion control too! But the best part is that they are really simple to make – just prepare a batch of vanilla cupcake batter and add some melted chocolate to half of the batter. Then pour them into cute muffin pans to bake these beautiful black & white cupcakes. I throw in some chopped pecans as well, because I think they add a crunchy elegance to the rich vanilla-chocolate combination. An just in case you are not in mood for cupcakes, try these Marbled Cream Cheese Brownies instead – for a quick trip to brownie heaven🙂

Black & White Marble Cupcakes with Pecans

Ingredients
Makes 16 cupcakes

1 3/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising) – sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup milk – room temperature
1/3 cup heavy cream – room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter – room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tbsp chopped pecan bits
1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/4 cup boiling water
Confectioners’ sugar – for dusting

Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Stir together cake flour, baking powder, and salt in one container. Combine milk and cream in another container.

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and granulated sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk mixture, and beating well until combined. Finally fold in the chopped pecans.

To make chocolate batter, measure out 1 cup batter, and transfer to another bowl. Combine cocoa and the boiling water in a bowl and mix until it dissolves. Then stir this into the reserved 1 cup batter.

Fill prepared cups with alternating spoonfuls of vanilla and chocolate batter, filling each three-quarters full. Run the tip of a paring knife or wooden skewer through batter in a figure-eight motion to make swirls. Bake for about 20 minutes, rotating tins halfway through, until tops are golden and a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean.

Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

Note: Top these cupcakes with some Cream Cheese Frosting or White Chocolate Frosting for a more festive recipe.

You can Never go wrong with cupcakes – everyone loves them as it brings out the kid in you. And with these marble cupcakes, you don’t have to bother about baking 2 separate batches of chocolate and vanilla, just bake one big beautiful batch of cupcakes that everyone will cherish, be it kids or adults!

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