After moving beyond the mundane world of plain cupcakes, I was happy to come across inspiration for something different. I stumbled on the Lemon Sugar blog and its take on the Hostess cupcake. No doubt – a homemade version of the original processed feast of Frankenstein ingredients (what IS the peel-off ‘choco-not’ frosting topped with glue-like squiggles?) is superior. You would barely have to try hard to get a better-tasting finished product.

I mostly followed the Lemon Sugar recipe as posted, but when I made the creme filling, it turned out too thick (I could spackle with this stuff!), so I turned to Swiss meringue buttercream* as my filling.

I made a few mistakes. For one, I did not let all the cupcakes bake quite long enough, so they were a bit too soft and collapsed in the middle. For another, I followed the “creme” filling recipe provided in the Lemon Sugar blog BUT did not have quite enough marshmallow filling, and that probably made the difference. Third, because the filling did not work out as planned, I could not use it to make the topping-squiggles, so I turned to a tube of white “writing” glaze/icing, which worked fine except that I just don’t have the patience or dexterity for doing artistic or decorative stuff … so witness my mess.

filled fauxstess cupcakes

*Swiss meringue buttercream how-to
4 egg whites
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Vanilla powder and liquid vanilla (to taste)

Mix the egg white and the sugar over a double boiler. The sugar should be completely dissolved when you remove it from heat. Pour the mixture into a large bowl (preferably the mixing bowl of a stand mixer — Swiss meringue is mixing intensive, so a stand mixer works best). Whisk on high speed until stiff but still wet peaks form. Continue to beat for about five or six minutes after these peaks form.

Switch to the paddle attachment and turn the speed to medium low. Add the butter in one or two tablespoons/pieces at a time. The mixture might start to look lumpy and curdled. Don’t worry. Keep mixing. When things start to come together, beat in the flavoring (in this case, the vanilla) and keep beating for another two minutes. It might take some time to get to the right texture. You will know when it comes together in a solid, fluffy, frosting-like consistency.