Cupcakes for Santa Fé.

(In Portuguese)

Lucas and Ariane, friends who study fashion design, had to make for class something that

related palate to a brand, for example something to serve at an inauguration party.

They chose Santa Fé, Arianes's brand of bags and purses, and asked for some help with the cupcakes.

Well, in the first batch I used a recipe which I didn't know, and the result was the disaster you can

see in the picture above. But the day was saved by Edi's chocolate cake recipe. Whew!

Edi's Chocolate Cake

For the batter

2 eggs

1 cup (240ml) granulated sugar

1 cup (240ml) powdered chocolate

2 teaspoons instant coffee

1 cup (240ml) sunflower oil

1 cup (240ml) boiling water

2 cups (480ml) flour

1 heaping teaspoon baking powder

For the icing

1 egg white

1/2 cup (120ml) confectioner's sugar

I stirred the eggs and sugar in a bowl, using a wooden spoon, until it formed a foam.

I added the powdered chocolate and instant coffee and mixed vigorously, next adding

the oil and water.

Then, little by little, I sifted in the flour, stirring constantly.

And last, added the baking powder, mixing delicately.

I lined 12 muffin tins (5cm diameter bottom) with paper liners, poured batter in them until it

reached 2/3 the capacity of each tin, and baked for 40 minutes in 180oC preheated oven.

We let it cool completely over a rack, preparing the icing meanwhile.

For the icing, we need to whisk the egg white in a clean bowl until it becomes a light foam.

In another small bowl I poured the sugar, and added the egg white one spoon at a time, until

it reached the texture of a thin paste, that could easily be spread. I didn't use all of the egg white.

We added a few drops of food coloring to get that nice pink shade.

If you are not using the icing immediately, cover it with plastic, because it dries very fast.

We spread the icing on top of each cupcake using the back of a spoon, and decorated with 

colorful sprinkles before it dried.

I insisted in adding a picture of the failed cupcakes, to show that things don't always go

right at the first attempt - but they certainly do at some point.