Cupcake train

For this year's celebration, R wanted a Thomas the Train birthday cake. I made use of this occasion to test a new chocolate cupcake recipe. I am always on the look-out for the perfect chocolate cake recipe, and I think I have finally found it with this last one. It is moist and chocolate-y, without being overly sweet. I have tried a lot of recipes which includes a vegan one from Divvies, and the one I made for J's birthday party was a Martha Stewart recipe. (While Martha's cupcakes were wonderful to look at, with beautiful domes, they lacked flavor and moisture.) For the frosting, I relied on my trusty Swiss Meringue Buttercream for its flavor and stability to hold up at room temp in spite of Manila's sweltering heat.


Here we are, taking a break after frosting all the cupcakes. R loves to help whenever I am in the kitchen. He was tasked to put the sprinkles on all those cupcakes.


This is taken at his school party, where all his classmates went crazy over the cupcake train. I got great compliments from the parents, too.

Here is a closer view of the cupcake train.


And here is the birthday boy, loving those cupcakes!