Freezer Cupcakes with Freezer Chocolate Frosting

EASIER

VEGETARIAN

Makes 12 cupcakes

These yellow cupcakes won’t puff tall like muffins, partly because they’re baked straight from frozen. That seems a small price to pay for cupcakes that are so light, almost ephemeral—and that can be made so far in advance! The frosting is a buttercream that also holds up to storage in the freezer. In fact, make an extra batch and stock it away. You never know when you might need chocolate frosting!

For the Cupcakes

1½ cups cake flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon table salt

1 cup granulated white sugar

½ cup (1 stick) cool unsalted butter, cut into cubes

2 large eggs

½ cup whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Frosting

1¾ cup confectioners’ sugar

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

¼ teaspoon table salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Up to 3 tablespoons heavy cream

To Make the Cupcakes

1. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper cupcake liners.

2. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl until uniform.

3. With an electric mixer at medium speed, beat the granulated sugar and butter in a large bowl until creamy and light, about 4 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time.

4. Turn off the beaters and scrape down the inside of the bowl. Pour the flour mixture evenly over the top. Then beat at medium speed while slowly pouring in the milk until all the flour has been moistened. Beat in the vanilla.

5. Divide the batter among the lined cups. Cover the tin tightly with plastic wrap and freeze for up to 4 months.

To Make the Frosting

6. Process the confectioners’ sugar, butter, cocoa powder, salt, and vanilla in a food processor until smooth.

7. Add the cream in dribs and drabs through the feed tube with the machine running to form a thick but spreadable and certainly not runny frosting.

8. Scrape the frosting into a plastic freezer bag, squeeze out the excess air, seal, and freeze for up to 4 months.

To Bake and Frost the Cupcakes

9. Set the bag of frosting out on the counter to defrost. Either unwrap the muffin tin with its cupcakes from the freezer and set it on the counter—or set out as many cupcakes as you’d like to bake and place in a separate tin.

10. Position the rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350°F.

11. Bake the cupcakes until set and a toothpick inserted into the center of a couple of them comes out clean, 21 to 24 minutes.

12. Cool in the tin on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then turn the muffins out onto the rack and continue cooling to room temperature, about 1½ hours.

13. Once cooled, cut a corner off the bottom of the frosting bag. Frost the cupcakes by squeezing the frosting in decorative circles all around their tops.

• You must use whole milk. Low-fat, fat-free—even nut or soy—milks have too much excess water to work in this technique.

• There is really no such thing as a “standard” muffin tin. The size of the indentations can vary widely. We used tins during testing with cups that held between ½ cup and ⅔ cup of water when filled. We do not recommend using this technique for mini muffins.

• Once the batter freezes in the cups, you can remove the filled papers from the tin and store them flat in a sealed plastic bag. You can then set a few of the cups with their frozen batter in a muffin tin and bake as many as you want at any given time.

Voilà! If you don’t have giant ice cube molds for hip drinks, make big cubes in a muffin tin. Run warm tap water over the back of the pan to loosen them.