Yellow Cupcakes With Chocolate Buttercream Icing

Have a dozen too many eggs? Perhaps a pound-and-a-half of butter is clogging your refrigerator? Why not let these ingredients clog your arteries instead? Just make them into cupcakes with buttercream icing.

I used the yellow cake recipe from the King Arthur cookbook. First, I creamed the sugar and butter.

I then incorporated the eggs (four, plus two yolks) and flour. For the liquid, I used some buttermilk I had in the refrigerator.

I loaded the batter into cupcake cups...

...and twenty minutes later I had cupcakes.

The icing was based on the neoclassic buttercream from The Cake Bible. I boiled a combination of sugar and corn syrup.

I beat a half-dozen egg yolks to a lemony yellow.

I then beat the boiling syrup into the eggs using my trusty hand mixer.

After adding the butter and some baking chocolate, I had this rich, glossy icing.

I let the cupcakes cool for a little while, then I applied the icing. The next morning, I used those eight egg whites for French toast.