Dorothy Bakes: Neapolitan Cupcakes

Dorothy Tong is a self-proclaimed Dessert Obsessee, who has a passion for anything sweet. She is a living miracle, as she rarely eats anything nutritious or resembling real food, and basically lives off sweets. She is going into her fourth year at UCLA, and has her own baking show on UCLA’s Daily Bruin Television. She is not embarrassed to admit that her favorite dessert is Brownie Goo, which is basically a box of half baked Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate brownie mix, topped with a large serving of vanilla bean ice-cream.

Summer time is almost here! Summer is full of yummy goodies. Fresh strawberries, juicy fruit terrines, ice cold lemonade… and ice-cream! My favorite thing about Summer is that it is THE perfect excuse to eat ice-cream as often as possible. I’ve never met an ice-cream flavor that I didn’t like, but one of my favorite ice-cream flavors is definitely Neapolitan. It has three flavors all combined into one ice-cream! How ingenious!

So to celebrate the upcoming warm weather and ice-cream fests, I made Neapolitan Cupcakes! These cupcakes are a combination of two different flavored cake batters, and another flavored frosting in the flavors of Neapolitan ice-cream – vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry.

I made my cupcakes with vanilla cake batter and chocolate cake batter, and a strawberry flavored frosting. You can make them with any combination you prefer – chocolate and strawberry cake batter with vanilla frosting, or strawberry and vanilla cake batter with chocolate frosting…

To make the cupcakes, you can basically use any vanilla or chocolate cake recipes you like. I used the Vanilla Cupcake recipe from the Magnolia Bakery for the vanilla batter, and my favorite vegan chocolate cake recipe for the chocolate batter.

Vanilla Cupcakes (adapted from More from Magnolia)

• ¾ c self-rising flour
• ½ c all-purpose flour
• ½ c unsalted butter, softened
• ¾ c granulated sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• ½ c milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Sift together the flours in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Gradually add the dry ingredients in two parts, alternating with the milk. Beat until everything is combined, but do not overmix. Makes 12 cupcakes.

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

• 1c soymilk mixed with 1 tsp white rice vinegar (set aside for 10 minutes to make “buttermilk”)
• 3/4 c granulated sugar
• 1/3 c oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 c all-purpose flour
• 1/2 c cocoa
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Combine the “buttermilk”, sugar, oil, vanilla, and beat until foamy. Sift together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and combine until there are no lumps left, but do not overmix.

Strawberry Frosting

• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• ½ c Cool Whip
• ½ c powdered sugar
• 1 Tbsp butter, softened
• ½ c strawberry puree or strawberry jam

Beat all ingredients together with your mixer until desired consistency.

How to Assemble:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Then make both cake batters (separately). Line 24 cupcake pans with cupcake liners. And then just fill half of each cup with chocolate batter, and the other half of each cup with vanilla batter!

Bake cupcakes for 18-22 minutes, depending on the recipes you choose to use, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. (I baked mine for 19 minutes).

Frost and decorate as you would like! I garnished mine with strawberries made from white chocolate.

Happy Summer and Enjoy!