Cupcake or death

Baking suggestions

2011-06-01T19:53:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I was wondering, what should I bake this week? Without specific inspiration, sometimes it's hard to come up with something to try. So I asked my online friends for their suggestions. I got quite a few interesting ideas!

Apple Pie
Carrot cake
Cheesecake
Red Velvet
Black Forest
Orange Creamsicle Cake balls
Pecan Pie cupcakes
Banana Cream Pie Cupcakes
Strawberry cupcakes with coconut frosting
Cream cheese brownies
Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
and
Meat Cake

Well, that's a lot of suggestions! My goal is to keep on baking new things, to expand my abilities. Most of those things I've made before, with the exception of banana cream pie cupcakes and the cranberry oatmeal cookies. Yes, I've even made meat cake, and cupcakes. And I'll never do it again, unless I'm paid very well. Meat is a lot more expensive than flour!

After all that, I decided to modify a few of my recipes to create a new one: peanut butter-chocolate chip-bacon cupcakes with chocolate frosting. Yum!

I used my go-to peanut butter cupcake recipe, added the candied maple bacon from the maple bacon cupcake recipe, threw in some chocolate chips, and topped it all off with a new chocolate frosting recipe.

The bacon gets roasted in the oven, with a sprinkling of maple sugar on each side to caramelize it. It's so sweet and crispy and salty! I also used some of the bacon drippings in the batter in place of butter.
The cupcakes turned out great, but the peanut butter kind of overpowers the bacon flavor. Even though there are chunks of bacon in the cupcakes, it's not a strong flavor.

I used a new frosting recipe as well. I'm never satisfied with my chocolate frostings, so I've been trolling the web for a new one. I found this recipe on many food blogs, so I don't feel bad about re-using it. It's pretty much the same as most chocolate buttercream frostings, but it's made in the food processor instead of a stand mixer.

Much quicker, but a bit messier to get it out of the bowl. It also makes a lot of frosting, I had enough left over for at least 3-4 more cupcakes.

All in all, these turned out pretty great. A quick dash of glittery sprinkles on top, and done!

So thanks to everyone for your suggestions, I'll save some of them for another time when I need inspiration.

Balsamic Strawberry Cupcakes

2011-05-20T13:08:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I walked down to Bi-Rite creamery, a local ice cream shop, and tried their new flavor, balsamic strawberry ice cream. It was super yummy! Tart and sweet, with fresh strawberries. So I was inspired to create the same flavor in a cupcake.

I walked up a huge hill to the grocery store to get some fresh, local strawberries. so yum! I already had a great strawberry cupcake recipe, so I simply modified it slightly. I first macerated the strawberries in balsamic vinegar and a bit of sugar, until they were super juicy. Then I pureed them as usual and added them to the recipe. The effect was subtle, but I could definitely taste the balsamic. I also used the balsamic strawberries to make the frosting.

To kick it up, I made a balsamic syrup by boiling balsamic vinegar with some honey until it reduced and got thick. After cooling, I drizzled it over the tops of the cupcakes. Fancy!

They tasted great, sweet and tangy. I was afraid the concentrated syrup would be too much, but it was great. I even have some leftover, which might get paired with some Grana Padano cheese tonight :)

PS- this was the second time baking in my new kitchen, and the oven takes some getting used to. The first batch was almost all burned on the bottom. Not sure if it was the temperature or the ingredients, but this time I baked at a lower temp and added a cookie sheet to block some of the bottom heat. Worked great! No burned bottoms here.

Cake Pops and Sprinkles

2011-05-19T19:50:00.001-07:00

After donating the 800 cake pops a few months ago, I got a few calls to make more, but this time, I got paid!

These pops were for a last minute event, so I had less than 48 hours to get these together. The order was for 200 pops though, so it didn't quite take as long.

While prepping to make the pops, I set out my big tub of nonpareil sprinkles so I could easily access it when I needed. Well, a swift jab of the elbow and the sprinkles went flying!

It was so pretty I had to take a picture :) Fortunately, I was able to save most of them, but I was finding little colored balls on the floor for a while after that.

Anyways, finished the cake pops on time and delivered them. It gets easier and easier every time I do them, and I usually learn new tips and techniques too with more practice. Fun!

A non-cupcake challenge: eclairs!

2011-05-17T15:22:00.000-07:00

My new favorite show is Martha Bakes, where the great MS bakes 3 different things all using one base recipe. After watching her show on choux pastry, I was so inspired I made it the very next day.

Choux pastry is a cooked dough that when baked, puffs up hollow inside so you can fill it with yummy things. It sounds terribly complicated but was truly easy to do.

I made both eclairs and cream puffs, the only difference being the shape. They were filled with a vanilla pastry cream and dipped in an espresso glaze. Yum! Everything was easy to make and assemble, although a bit time consuming.

After making the dough on the stovetop, I transferred it to a piping bag and piped out long strips and round circles, for eclairs and puffs.

When they came out of the oven all puffy and golden, I literally squealed with delight! It's always uncertain when baking something for the first time, and I couldn't believe they came out perfect the first time. I opened one up to see if they were indeed hollow, and they were! So I naturally had to eat the one I cut into :)
They were filled with vanilla pastry cream, which was then lightened with whipped cream, to make a truly heavenly filling. It was quite easy to fill them, just poke the tip of the piping bag in, and there you go! They're already hollow anyways.

After filling, the tops were dipped in a decadent espresso glaze. The glaze was just powdered sugar, milk and espresso powder. Yum! It smelled amazing.

Once complete, the pastries looked all professional and pretty! I still almost can't believe that I made them. It seems that they should be in the case of a French bakery in Paris, not in my kitchen :)

Now, for the taste: they were delicious! I hardly ever eat what I bake, but I could not resist. Soft and light, creamy and airy. How can something so decadent still be so light?

I had leftover pastry cream and glaze, so the next day I made another batch of pastry and used it all up. They were gobbled up quickly! Thanks Martha for inspiring me to try something new!

Belated Easter cupcakes

2011-05-13T17:56:00.000-07:00

It's been quite a month! Found out we were moving to San Francisco, started packing, visited my parents for Easter, lost my kitty Felicia to kidney failure :( , and moved to the West Coast! Needless to say there hasn't been much time for baking (or blogging).

But now we're almost all unpacked, our new place is coming together, and I'm getting back on track.

As I said, I went to visit my parents in Charlotte, NC for Easter and my mom's birthday, since they were only a few days apart. They live in a huuuuuuge house, it's really more like a chateau. Very swank! So I had to try out the kitchen, since it's probably bigger than my entire apartment.

My cousin, his partner, and their adorable daughters were visiting as well. So for Easter, my 4 year old cousin Valentina wanted to make and decorate cupcakes. I baked the cupcakes and made the frosting, and we decorated them together. I decided on lemon cupcakes, since it was Spring, and everyone likes lemon. Also, the acidity cuts the sweetness a bit, and I know my parents aren't fans of sweets. Wonder where I got it from?
After the cupcakes were cooled, I tinted the frosting green so it would look like grass. We had pretty Easter cupcake papers and toppers, so all Vale and I had to do was pipe the frosting, add sprinkles, and insert topper. Very easy, and fun!

Valentina helped me direct the piping bag with the grass tip to pipe the green frosting all over the cupcakes. Then she added the sprinkles and toppers. It was so cute how decisive she was about which sprinkles and which toppers to put where. Everything was in her favorite colors, pink and purple. She is truly a little princess.

After we were finished, we put all the cupcakes on a lovely display stand, and covered them up. They had to be a surprise! After a lovely Easter dinner, we unveiled the cupcakes and everyone enjoyed them. She was a great little helper and has a great career as a decorator in the future :)

St. Patrick's Day cupcakes

2011-03-17T09:51:00.000-07:00

Once again, as is my yearly tradition, I made chocolate-Guinness cupcakes with Bailey's buttercream. This recipe is such a crowd-pleaser, I can't NOT make it every year :)

I just love the way these smell while baking, the slight beer aroma is so tempting! There was one small change to this recipe, as I couldn't find a mini bottle of plain Bailey's. A huge liquor store didn't have mini bottles, only regular sized ones, and I'm not buying a huge bottle when I only need 3-4 tbsp. So instead I got caramel Bailey's. I figured the slight caramel flavor would go well with the chocolate in the cupcake.

I also got to use my new green glitter! It's edible glitter, just for cake decorating. So fun!

I had some leftover batter after making 2 dozen cupcakes, so I used my new Babycakes mini cupcake maker to make some minis! I got this awesome creation for Christmas and finally got around to using it. It's an electric appliance, just for making mini cupcakes! It was super easy to use, and the cupcakes baked in about 6-7 minutes. It's great for using a little bit of batter, instead of the mini cupcake tins that I have that make 24 at once. This makes only 8 at a time, but sometimes that's all you need!

Birthday Cupcakes

2011-03-16T11:18:00.000-07:00

After donating the cake pops, I got a few clients for cupcakes! Both ordered 2 dozen for birthdays last weekend. I had so much fun making these.

First up was a little girl's birthday. She wanted all pink and purple cupcakes. Her mom was planning an art-themed party, so I made various hues of pink and purple, and topped each with glitter.
At the party, when I delivered the cupcakes, I arranged them on a wooden artist's palette for the centerpiece. They looked so cute!

The second order was the winner of the auction at the ball. She wanted cupcakes for her daughter's birthday, but this girl was all grown up. See, grown ups love cupcakes too! I did one dozen red velvet and one dozen chocolate, both with cream cheese frosting and sprinkles. Yum!

I enjoyed making these orders, and am looking forward to doing more!

800 Cake Pops!

2011-03-10T10:45:00.001-08:00

Recently, I was asked to donate a certificate for cupcakes to a charity auction. The event was for the Bal Swan school here, where my friend's son attends. It's a yearly event, and they raise tons of money. So of course, I was happy to donate my services for a good cause!

I also inquired about desserts for the event, and offered to make cake pops and balls to have out in dishes for everyone to munch on throughout the evening. Since they expected about 500 people to attend, they asked for 800 pops and balls, a mixture of both. So I got dipping!

It was a fun project, although time consuming and exhausting. I did everything in stages, first baking the cakes, then forming the balls, then dipping and decorating, all while bopping to the music of the 80s.
They turned out great! I did half pops, half balls, both chocolate and vanilla with lots of fun sprinkles. And everyone said how wonderful they were at the ball. It was a great experience for me, and great exposure to a new community. Although I'd rather not see a cake pop for a while :)

PS- speaking of cake pops, I hear Starbucks has them now, 3 different flavors. Must try them out!

Mardi Gras

2011-03-08T13:02:00.001-08:00

Last week my friend John challenged me to make King Cake cupcakes, for Mardi Gras. Last year I made a version of this, but it was a cinnamon vanilla cupcake topped with a glaze and colored sugars. This time, I wanted to make something closer to the traditional King Cake, which is more of a bread than a cake.

So I found a good recipe, from a real New Orleans chef, and tried to adapt it for cupcakes. It was a cinnamon and lemon- laced bread-like dough.

They looked cute, not much like cupcakes, more like little balls of dough. I had enough to make a King Cake as well, which turned out great. I love the braid, and working with dough is so fun and almost therapeutic.
I think maybe either the yeast wasn't fresh enough, or I was too impatient and didn't let it rise properly, because both the cake and cupcakes seemed kind of heavy and more like bread than it should have been. So some adjustment is needed in order to perfect this recipe.

The traditional topping for a King Cake is a sweet glaze, with purple, green and gold sprinkles. So that's what I did on both.

All in all, it turned out delicious, but this needs more work. There's always next year!

Cakes and Pops

2011-03-07T10:44:00.000-08:00

I recently did a birthday cake and pops for a real live paying client! I think it turned out great.

I've been doing more and more cake pops lately, everyone seems to love them! They're cute, bite sized, and a great way to use leftover cake and frosting. I made a big batch for Valentine's Day too. Any excuse to use more sprinkles :)

I'm currently working on a website, although I need a name for my cupcake company first. It's been the hardest thing to do, since everytime I think of a great name, I google it and find it's already been taken. I don't want to do anything that anyone else has already done, so it's been difficult with all the bakeries out there now!

More cupcakes and pops to come!

Holiday Baking

2010-12-28T11:26:00.000-08:00

As I'm trying to get my business up and running, I'm trying a few test-runs, including selling holiday treats at my husband's office. I had quite a few orders, and they all turned out great!
I made mini Derby pies, red velvet cake balls, pumpkin cake pops, and red velvet cupcakes. I was a baking machine for a few days! Oh, and just for fun, I made sugar cookies, and decorated them too.
Check it out!
Sugar cookie snowflakes with royal icing and sanding sugar.

Sugar cookie candy canes with royal icing and sanding sugar.

Sugar cookie Xmas trees with royal icing, sanding sugar, and silver dragees.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting and holly berry sprinkles.

Mini Derby Pies: Chocolate Chip-Bourbon-Pecan.

Red Velvet Cake balls- dipped in Red (vanilla) and Milk Chocolate with holiday sprinkles.

Pumpkin Cake Pops- dipped in white (vanilla) candy and topped with holiday sprinkles.

I had so much fun baking all these treats, I can't wait until I get paid to do it all the time!

Holiday Cake Balls!

2010-12-10T13:34:00.000-08:00

So I had a few leftover cupcakes from my holiday baking the other day, and what better way to use leftover cupcakes and frosting than to make cake balls!
I usually make cake pops, but decided this time to omit the pops. These look like little truffles, but are really cake, and are a bit easier to make than cake pops, since there are less steps.
I made two kinds, chocolate peppermint and gingerbread, both with vanilla frosting. I dipped them in dark chocolate, and garnished with either crushed up candy canes or holly berry sprinkles.
I was concerned with the dipping technique, since I usually have problems with this. The candy was smooth enough, and I followed the instructions in the Cake Pops book exactly. I found a good method, dip the cake balls, spoon chocolate over them to cover, and lift them out with the spoon. I used 2 spoons, the other one to take the ball off the first spoon and to drop it on the wax paper. I found that cut down on the amount of extra chocolate on the cake ball, so it didn't get too messy.

You have to decorate these immediately, since the chocolate starts to harden after only a few seconds. I learned that with the first one I did.
I packaged them up in little mini cupcake liners to bring to a friend's holiday party tomorrow. So cute! I'm thinking about making more next week to send with my xmas packages to family.
Super cute and yummy!

Martha Challenge #48 and #49- Holliday cupcakes!

2010-12-09T15:42:00.000-08:00

It's been a good long while since I've baked, not since Thanksgiving. I was sick for an entire week after, so I didn't think baking was the best idea. All better now!
I made two Martha recipes yesterday, Chocolate-Peppermint and Gingerbread cupcakes. Yum! Very festive.
First, the chocolate peppermint. These are very much like her one-bowl chocolate cupcakes, with the addition of peppermint extract instead of vanilla. I made a dozen regular and 24 minis, and topped them with a peppermint buttercream frosting. I also added mini candy canes on the big ones, and candy cane sprinkles on the minis.

These were great, made the whole place smell amazing too! Next time maybe I'll add some espresso powder to make them mocha peppermint. Yum!

Next up was gingerbread. I usually don't care for the smell of molasses, which is crucial to any good gingerbread cupcake, but these were excellent. The batter was so rich and creamy, it almost looked like peanut butter. I got 16 regulars and 20 minis out of this batch, and topped them with cream cheese frosting. I added holly berry sprinkles and mini gingerbread sprinkles on these. I just love themed sprinkles!These are denser, with a caramelized top, not as soft on the outside, but still yummy on the inside!

I am now fully in the holiday spirit, and can't wait to make some cake pops or bites from the leftovers.
Next week I might try french macarons. Wish me luck!

Martha Challenge #47- Turkey cupcakes (fail)

2010-11-16T11:58:00.000-08:00

So to get ready for Thanksgiving next week, I wanted to make cute turkey cupcakes. Turkey-looking, not turkey-tasting. Ew.

So Martha has a cute recipe in her book, I went out and bought all the ingredients, and got started.

These were the hardest cupcakes I've made in a long time. The first batch of chocolate cupcakes exploded in the oven. They all overflowed and merged into one big cake mess. Threw it out.

Second batch, I didn't fill the cups as much, but there was still some overflow, not nearly as much as before. I think it's because I used cake flour instead of regular flour. Weird!

So now I had chocolate cupcakes, and some leftover vanilla frosting from the vanilla taste test. I followed the instructions exactly, seen here. They look so cute, I couldn't wait to start decorating!
I couldn't find coconut marshmallows, so I used regular white marshmallows. I poked holes and inserted chocolate sprinkles for the eyes, came out perfect. Then I cut up the swedish fish and tried to attach the beaks. Didn't work. They didn't stick to the marshmallows. I tried wetting the cut end of the fish, tried attaching it with frosting, nothing worked. After seeing 21 droopy beaks, I gave up. Ate the marshmallows instead :)

I was tired and frustrated at that point, so I just made the vanilla frosting chocolate, spread it on top of the cupcakes, and rolled them in toasted coconut. So, turkey cupcakes became chocolate coconut cupcakes. Still yummy, less cute. OH well!

Vanilla frosting taste test challenge

2010-11-11T15:25:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was National Vanilla Cupcake Day. I have been wanting to try out a few different frostings lately, so this was the perfect opportunity.

I made 68 mini vanilla cupcakes and 3 different kinds of vanilla frosting.

First up was 7 minute frosting. I halved the recipe so I wouldn't end up with tons leftover. This frosting is made of egg whites and a cooked sugar syrup. It wasn't too hard, it just took a while to get the sugar syrup up to the right temperature.

The frosting is super fluffy and white, almost like marshmallow. I mounded it on top of the cupcakes and used some festive fall sprinkles.

Second was traditional American buttercream. This is the easiest to make, with only butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla.

I tinted it purple to distinguish from the other frostings. This is the frosting I use most often, as it is easy to make and use. It can be too sweet for some, since there's usually 4-5 cups of powdered sugar in it. I also added a tiny squeeze of lemon juice.

Last was swiss merengue buttercream. This is the trickiest to make, although it was a lot easier than in the past. This is made with a warmed egg white and sugar mix, which is beaten to stiff peaks, and then butter (4 sticks!) is added in gradually. I usually have trouble with this frosting, but it was perfect this time. After adding the butter, it looks all goopy and wrong, but you just beat it like crazy for a few minutes and it's perfectly fluffy and smooth.

I tinted this pink. It's much less sweet, but richer than other frosting. When Jason tasted it, he said it tasted fattier, and that's due to the pound of butter. This is also a recipe that I can easily adapt to be sugar-free.

Anyhoo, took these to be tasted this morning. The 7 minute frosting had flopped overnight, so I knew that wasn't going to get good reviews. I think most people like the american buttercream, which is good, since it's easier and cheaper to make than the swiss merengue buttercream. I'm glad to know that I can produce any of these frostings rather easily.

Johnny Cupcakes lecture in Denver- with cupcakes!

2010-11-04T10:06:00.000-07:00

Last nite I went to a lecture at the Denver Art Museum held by Johnny Cupcakes, the T-shirt entrepreneur. It was very informative and really pumped me up to listen to him talk about how he started his business with no start up loans or investors. I left all fired up and jazzed to get started developing my own business.

Before the lecture, 6 local cupcake shops had samples for everyone and there was a contest to vote who was the best. The bakeries were:
Mermaids Bakery, Lovely Confections, Living the Sweet Life, The Shoppe, Cake Crumbs/the Denver Cupcake Truck, and Happy Cakes. I've tried a few before, so I was interested to see how the rest were. Everyone chose 1 mini cupcake from each place, and then we all voted.

From Mermaids Bakery, I chose the mexican chocolate cupcake. They also offered a vanilla-strawberry cupcake. The chocolate cupcake was great, but the frosting was best- chocolate cinnamon! It was a light chocolate, and was super fluffy and airy, but still with a lot of flavor. I could have eaten just the frosting!

From Lovely Confections, they only had sugar cookies with frosting. It was ok, nothing special. Kind of disappointed they didn't have cupcakes!

From Living the Sweet Life, they offered red velvet, chocolate, and carrot cake. I chose the red velvet. It was very red, the cake wasn't flavorful, and the cream cheese frosting was super tangy.

From The Shoppe, which I've tasted before, they had the biggest selection. Cookies n cream, banana caramel, pumpkin spice, strawberry, and chocolate salted caramel, which I chose.

Presentation was great. The chocolate cake was not flavorful and a little dry, plus there wasn't enough of it. I know these are minis, but there was 3 times the amount of frosting as there was cake. Speaking of the frosting, it was amazing! Super rich dark chocolate sprinkled with fleur de sel, piped over a caramel. Yum!

Cake Crumbs is the retail storefront of the Denver Cupcake Truck. They only offered one flavor, pistachio. I almost passed it up, but decided to try it to be fair. The cake was good, I liked the pistachio flavor, and there were bits of nut chopped up inside. The frosting was too sweet, I could barely tolerate one tiny bite.

Happy Cakes also had a good selection. They had a sweet potato cupcake topped with a mini marshmallow, a pumpkin one I think, and a chocolate peanut butter, which I chose. The cake was great, the peanut butter frosting was crazy rich, super thick. I like that it was topped with a chocolate covered peanut.

After much deliberation, I chose Mermaids Bakery as my favorite, although Happy Cakes came in a close second. Unfortunately, not everyone else agreed with me. The people's choice was The Shoppe. I'm just not impressed with their cake, although the frosting is very good.

After the cupcakes and the lecture, there was an after party outside where people could meet Johnny and ask questions. Before he came out, there were a few food trucks parked outside. One was a pizza truck (sorry I didn't get the name), and one was the The Biscuit Bus, operated by the Denver Biscuit Company. They served sandwiches on buttermilk biscuits. Yum! I had a fried chicken biscuit with a side of sweet potato fries. It was super yummy, although the chicken wasn't very flavorful, needs more seasoning.

Then I got the chance to talk to Johnny, and he posed for a picture too. It's a terrible quality picture, but I'm glad I got the chance to ask him a few questions, and he gave me some good advice.
All in all, it was a great night, learned a lot, stuffed my face, and now I'm ready to get going!

Pumpkin Cake Pops!

2010-11-01T09:45:00.000-07:00

The last of my Halloween treats were pumpkin cake pops. They look and taste like pumpkin. I made these Saturday while watching Back to the Future :)

I followed directions from the Cake Pops book by Bakerella. She uses green tic tacs for the stems, but I couldn't find green, so I used orange. Every time I make cake pops they turn out better than the last time, so that's encouraging.

I made the balls with pumpkin cake and cream cheese frosting. Before I started I made sure that the baking sheet I had fit into the freezer and fridge, a mistake I've made before.

I melted the orange candy gradually according to the directions, and it was quite smooth, not like the chocolate I've used in the past. I'm still not satisfied with the bowls I have for dipping, maybe I need to search more for the perfect one. The pop has to be dipped in and out straight up and down, and that's my biggest challenge.

Anyways, dipped the pops, added the tic tacs for stems, and let them dry. They were already super cute!
Then, I used a food color marker to draw on faces for the jack o lanterns. Or at least, I tried to. I don't know what it was, but the marker wasn't working properly. I could get maybe one or two lines out of it before it died. I tried cleaning it on a paper towel, as suggested, but that didn't really help. I gave up after 4 or 5 pops, it was too time consuming and frustrating. Maybe the pops were too cold, but I left them at room temp for a while to see if it made any difference, and none at all. Oh well!
I still wrapped up the plain pumpkin pops in fun Halloween treat bags. Gotta love the dollar section at Target! :)
According to my taste tester, these were "mmmmmmm". I love how it looks with a bite missing. Yum!
This project was certainly more successful than the last, and hopefully the next one will be even better!

Halloween Cupcakes- 2 ways

2010-10-29T11:01:00.000-07:00

I love making holiday cupcakes! This year was difficult, because I couldn't decide what kind of Halloween cupcakes to make! I had so many ideas: mummies, graves, eyeballs, witches, pumpkins, etc. I finally decided on candy corn and jack o lanterns. Classic Halloween icons.

I made pumpkin spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, a recipe I have used before. I got 2 dozen cupcakes, so I decorated them half and half.

I found cute giant candy corn at the store, so I used that as my inspiration and topping for the candy corn cupcakes. I tinted some of the frosting yellow and some of it orange, and piped around the cupcake in the appropriate colors, ending with a dollop of white on top. I also used candy corn colored sprinkles, little balls and colored sugar, to add to the effect. Each cupcake was topped with the giant candy corn. Yum!

For the jack o lanterns, I smoothed on orange frosting, and used a black glitter icing from a tube to pipe on the scary faces. I tried t make a variety of looks, from traditional to goofy to scary. The glitter really sparkled in the light and adds that something special to the design.

I wish I had time to make more fun cupcakes, but I'll have to wait until next year.
Cake pops are still on the agenda, might make them tomorrow. Fun!

Pumpkin Bonanza! Featuring Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

2010-10-27T11:54:00.000-07:00

So this week, in honor of Halloween, I've decided to make all pumpkin desserts. Monday I made pumpkin chocolate chip bars and pumpkin swirl brownies. Forgot to take pictures tho :(

Yesterday I made pumpkin whoopie pies, and I did get some pictures! They were super cute and yummy, and a cinch to make. I've made them before, but it's been a long time.

I used my whoopie pie pan for these, even though you don't have to. I only have one though, so I had to bake only 12 whoopie pie halves at a time, and wash out the pan each time. Might be worth getting another pan :)

These are super cakey and moist, with a cream cheese filling. I'm never sure how much filling to put inside them, so I start with a little and see how it goes. I did have some leftover, so I probably could have used more filling in each one.

I love the cuteness of the whoopie pies, and they're a little different from cupcakes, but still in the same family. Second cousins, perhaps.

I have 3 more recipes to make this week: pumpkin chocolate chip loaf, pumpkin cupcakes with Halloween decorations, and pumpkin cake pops. Yum!

Oktoberfest cupcakes- beer and pretzel

2010-10-21T15:36:00.000-07:00

As October is winding down, I wanted to be sure and make some beer-themed cupcakes. I searched all over the internet for a recipe, and couldn't find what I was looking for! So I ended up inventing my own.

These are beer and pretzel cupcakes, make with Paulaner Munich beer (which we drank at the real Oktoberfest) and salty pretzels.

I adapted to recipe from my chocolate stout cupcakes recipe. I omitted the cocoa powder, and used a lager instead of a stout. I also crushed up some pretzels, about 1/2 cup, and added that as well. The batter was a good texture and consistency, and when I tasted it, it wasn't too sweet or too salty.
They baked up great, golden and delicious. A few spilled over a bit, but nothing too bad. The smelled like beer bread coming out of the oven.

I decided to top them with a beer glaze, made from powdered sugar and beer. yum! I also added a pretzel on top, to amplify the sweet/salty flavor combination.

These turned out pretty well, but there are a few changes I'd like to make. They were almost too much like a bread, not tender and flaky enough. So next time I'll use cake flour, and I'll pulverize the pretzels in the food processor to get a finer crumb. Maybe brown sugar will add some depth to these as well.

I'm always apprehensive when trying a new recipe, even more so when creating one! With a few minor changes, I think these will be perfect!

Martha Challenge #46- Black Forest Cupcakes

2010-10-13T12:41:00.000-07:00

Keeping with the German theme, I made Black Forest Cupcakes. When we were in Baden-Baden, we samples some authentic Black Forest Cake, or Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte.
This is a decadent dessert, a chocolate cake layered with kirsch (cherry schnapps), cherries, and whipped cream. So good! I even found real Black Forest kirsch at the liquor store.

So I made Martha's version, but changed it quite a bit. She says to cut the cupcakes in half horizontally, like a layer cake, and layer it with pastry cream and cherries. I decided to make it more like the original cake, and used whipped cream.

So, made the cupcakes, a delicious dark chocolate cake. I also added a bit of kirsch to the batter, but it was too subtle to taste after they baked. They rose very high, and reminded me of the mountains in the Black Forest. Then I drained the maraschino cherries, and soaked them for a while in the kirsch. Half the cherries I chopped up to fill the cupcakes, and half I left whole to top the cupcakes. I made the whipped cream, and also a chocolate ganache for the tops of the cupcakes. Once everything was prepared, I set up a filling station.

I cut cones out of the cupcakes with a sharp knife, and took out some cake to make room for the filling. Then I added a few cherry bits, squirted the inside with a mixture of the cherry syrup and kirsch, added a dollop of whipped cream, and replaced the top.

To finish, I spooned chocolate ganache on top, let it set in the fridge, then piped on some more whipped cream, and added a cherry on top. So I have all the elements: chocolate, cherry, and cream.
They looked super cute, and I was so curious that I cut into one to see how it looked. The filling was great, evenly distributed.

My only concern is if the kirsch/cherry flavor is strong enough. I soaked the cakes directly in the kirsch, which has a 45% alcohol content, but I'd be interested to know if my taste testers thought it was strong enough.
Overall, I preferred my method to Martha's, since it stays truer to the original cake.

Lego Cupcakes- again!

2010-10-08T08:57:00.001-07:00

I was asked once more to make Lego cupcakes for the launch of Lego Universe, a new online game made by my husband's company, NetDevil. I made 5 dozen cupcakes for the launch party today.

I love making special themed cupcakes like these. Having made Lego cupcakes once before, I already knew how to make the bricks out of fondant. This time, I decided to make the 2x2 bricks, because apparently they are more common than the 3x2s that I made last time. I also made them in 3 different colors, red, yellow and blue.

I made the bricks one day, and the cupcakes the next. I made 2 dozen vanilla, 2 dozen red velvet, and one dozen chocolate, all with vanilla frosting. I tinted the frosting red, yellow and blue, to coordinate with the bricks.

I also tried to different decorating technique with the frosting. Using different tips for each color, I piped stars and dots all over the cupcakes. So cute! The stars kind of remind me of flowers, like hydrangeas. I then placed different colored Legos on each cupcake.

I was really pleased the way these turned out. I delivered them to the office early in the morning, in time for the launch party. They had also gotten a cake with the logo on it, and my cupcakes surrounded the cake. It was a great setup.

Although I can't imagine eating cupcakes at 8am, I'm sure everyone will enjoy them.

Martha Challenge #45- German Chocolate Cupcakes

2010-10-05T18:08:00.000-07:00

In honor of Oktoberfest and to remember our recent trip to Germany, I decided to make Martha's German chocolate cupcake recipe. According to her cookbook, German chocolate isn't German at all! It's merely the name of the kind of chocolate used in the cake. Oh well, they're still German to me!

First I made the coconut-pecan frosting. It's a cooked frosting, made of evaporated milk, egg yolks, brown sugar, vanilla, and of course, coconut and pecans. It came out very chunky and thick, maybe I added too much coconut or pecans, because it wasn't exactly a spreadable frosting. But the last recipe I used to make it, was too runny and went everywhere. I prefer this one.
Then, the cupcakes. These are a traditional buttermilk cupcake with Baker's German chocolate. The recipe called for 5 ounces, but the bars come in 4 ounces, so I added one more ounce of regular semisweet chocolate. Didn't seem to make a difference. Excellent batter, very light and fluffy, and it baked up perfectly, slightly domed. I usually have problems with chocolate cupcakes, they either rise too much and overflow or not enough. These were great.

Martha's method is to cut the cupcakes in half horizontally and sandwich the filling in between as well as on top, but that's a bit messy for me. Instead, I filled the cupcakes with about a teaspoon or so of filling, and piled the rest on top.
I had just enough frosting for 24 cupcakes, even though I baked 27. Oh well, plain cupcakes for me!
I reserved 24 toasted pecans to put on top, so there was no mistaking what these beauties are. I know people love German chocolate cake, because the filling is very rich but the chocolate isn't overpowering. All in all, a good recipe, worth saving.

I'm planning on more German-inspired cupcakes, including black forest cake, maybe an apple strudel, and some kind of beer and pretzel cupcake. Stay tuned!

DC Cupcake tastings

2010-09-28T09:54:00.000-07:00

We recently spent a day in DC tasting cupcakes, helping our friends choose a vendor for their wedding. I love cupcakes at weddings! Since I am a bit of a cupcake expert, they asked me to lend my opinion. We tried 4 places: Hello Cupcake, Red Velvet, Georgetown Cupcakes, and Buzz. We sampled 4 different flavors from each, took them all back to the house, and had everyone dig in.

We came up with a clear winner, but first, the contenders:

Hello Cupcake was super cute in the shop, very bright and cheery.

They had some great flavor selections, although they don't offer a red velvet, because they don't use artificial ingredients, such as red food dye. That was a bit disappointing, as the bride and groom specifically wanted red velvet. There are other ways to achieve the red tint, by using red cocoa or beet juice. The cupcakes were tasty though, especially the lemon.

Next up was Red Velvet, a small storefront. No room to eat, just a counter and cupcakes. Although they do have a deal with the place next door so their customers can sit somewhere if they want.

I liked that they had customized cupcake wrappers, a nice touch.

They also had a good selection of flavors, including a special daily flavor of honey-mascarpone. yum! We got red velvet, Carrot, Mocha, and the daily flavor. Ironically enough, their red velvet cupcake wasn't great.

Of course we had to go to Georgetown Cupcakes. We were all skeptical, because of the hype, the line outside, and the "reality" TV show. After waiting only a few minutes, we got inside and ordered. There was a bouncer at the door letting people in, and handing out menus to those in line to keep things flowing and organized.

Also a very cute shop, not much room for eating, but a few tables. Although with the amount of people in there trying to order, it's not a very relaxing place to enjoy a cupcake. We got caramel apple, red velvet, lemon, and chocolate hazelnut. Their cupcakes looked the cutest and came with little decorations, such as heart toppers on the red velvets.

Last was Buzz, a cafe that serves cupcakes. Sorry, no pics of the shop.

Our friends like this place for the mocha cupcake specifically, so we got that, caramel apple, red velvet, and a cute flower cupcake.

This looked like a fun place to hang out on a Sunday, read the paper, have a coffee. It's not a cupcakery specifically.

Now, the verdict. The hands down winner was.... Georgetown Cupcakes!

The hype is justified, these were great!

Best red velvet of the bunch, the only let down was the chocolate hazelnut. They were the cutest, tastiest, and cheapest of all that we tried. They also offer bulk discounts.

We had a fun day driving around buying cupcakes, and even more fun trying them all. I can't wait to see which flavors our friends choose for their wedding!

Martha Challenge #44- Cup-cheesecakes with peach jam

2010-09-08T13:48:00.001-07:00

Back to Martha's cupcake challenge, this time with cheesecake cupcakes!Last week I got some free peaches that were almost past their time, so I made a bunch of jam. Now, what was I to do with all this jam? I gave most o it away to friends, but saved just enough to make these cheesecake cupcakes, topped with peach jam.

There are a few deviations to the recipe. First, Martha uses chocolate wafers as the base, but I have never been able to find them, so I used graham crackers. Also, the recipe uses apricot jam, but I used peach. No biggie!

First I made the crust, which is crushed up graham crackers mixed with butter and sugar, and baked in cupcake tins until set.

Next step is to make the filling: 1 pound of cream cheese, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and sour cream. It was so smooth and pretty, and then I poured it into the cooled crusts. I had just enough for 17.
Then you bake that at a lower temperature until set. They smelled great! I'm not the biggest fan of cheesecake, but these smelled so good I wanted to eat one!

After they cool for at least 4 hours in the fridge, you top them with the jam. First I heated up the jam, then strained it. I had just enough jam to cover 16 of the cupcakes, so one was left plain.

This was a new challenge for me, and I think it turned out great. I would even leave the cheesecakes plain, they are delicious enough on their own.

I won't be blogging for a while, going on vacation to Germany! Hopefully I can check out a McCafe, where they sell McCupcakes. Not a joke, it's for real! And when I get back, I'll kick off October with a series of German-inspired cupcakes.

Peaches!

2010-08-31T10:14:00.001-07:00

So, a few weekends ago, there was a local peach festival. So of course I went, gobbled up some peaches and fair food, and brought a bag of peaches home too. These are Colorado Palisade peaches, in season right now, and people say they're better than Georgia peaches. Well, growing up in the South, I had to try them and see.
I decided to make 2 peach desserts with my 6 large peaches. Both are Martha's recipes, with some tweaks by me. I made peach cupcakes and peach cookies.

First, the cupcakes. Martha's recipe calls for nectarines, but peaches are a good substitute. I peeled and chopped up all the peaches at once, so I could just make the various recipes easily. They smelled so good!

After mixing up the batter, I layered the batter with the peaches so when you bit into the cupcake the peaches are in the middle. I've made peach cupcakes before, but I mixed the peaches into the batter, and they all sank to the bottom. This is a better technique.

They baked up perfectly, very fragrant, with a few bits of peaches peeking out. The recipe suggested topping them with whipped cream, but I left them plain.

I also made peach cookies, which also turned out great. Little sweet bites of peach in each one. It was a peach bonanza!

I love using seasonal products when I bake, or coming up with a recipe just to use whatever's fresh. These were indeed excellent peaches, although I can't say how they compare to others. We'll have to do a side-by-side taste test to determine that.

Cake Pops

2010-08-20T09:11:00.001-07:00

So, I wanted to practice making more cake pops, to perfect my technique. I had leftover cake and frosting from the threadcakes challenge, so I used that. It was only the tops of the cakes that I cut off to level them, and it made over 50 cake pops!
The cake was a few days old, which I think made it better to work with. Last time I tried this, I used fresh cake and it was too soft and it fell apart. I also let the mixture sit in the fridge overnight once I added the frosting.I rolled up all the little balls, froze them, and then started to melt the coating.
I had some vanilla candy coating leftover, but I couldn't get it to the right consistency. It was way too thick, and the balls I tried to dip in it just fell apart. Maybe it's the brand, I got it at the grocery store, it's some no-name generic stuff.So the next day I went out and got Wilton candy melts. These worked great! Nice, smooth consistency, great for dipping. Will have to use those from now on.So I added the sticks, and got to dipping, about 12 at a time. The candy re-melted great after each batch.
For the decorations, I had brought back Smarties from Canada a few weeks ago and wanted to use them. These are not what Americans think of as Smarties, these are more like M&Ms, but better! They are slightly flatter and have a thicker candy shell, and come in fun different colors. I loved them as a kid, and they're still great!

I added a Smartie on top of each pop, as well as a ring of colored sprinkles around it. When I look at them all together, they kind of look like eyes! but the wrong colors of course.
Then I wrapped each one in a little bag and twist tie, so they wouldn't rub up against each other. Plus, it's super cute, like they are really lollipops.

Anyways, I was very pleased how they turned out, super cute! I still need practice getting the coating smooth over the cake, but sprinkles can always cover up any flaws :)

Threadcakes Feather Cake

2010-08-13T18:13:00.000-07:00

So, I got it together and entered the Threadcakes contest this year. It's a contest where you make a cake inspired by the Threadless Tshirt designs. I chose carefully, and entered a feather cake. Check out the link! http://www.threadcakes.com/entries/view/932 I made the feathers out of gumpaste, which is an edible sugar dough. You roll it out like a pie dough, then I cut out the feathers individually using a cookie cutter. Then I embossed a vein and cut notches into the side of each one. Then, I hand painted them with food coloring to get the look I needed. That took forever. Fortunately, gumpaste can stay covered for about a week. Plus, it needs time to dry, so it gets hard.Then I made the cakes, my trusty vanilla recipe. 2 8 inch layers and 2 6 inch layers. Yum! Then I made 2 batches of vanilla frosting. Once I had leveled the cakes, I frosted them and let them chill for a while. Then the fun part, fondant!

Fondant is also a sugar dough, but it doesn't get hard like gum paste. I rolled it out and covered each cake, then stacked them. Pretty!

The I attached the feathers using royal icing, which is sugar and meringue powder and water. It's like glue. I kept adding more and more feathers until I couldn't add no more.

I took the cake to Jason's office so everyone could enjoy it. It was kinda sad to cut into it, but it actually cut nicely too. Everyone loved it, and ate it up in minutes. Sugar rush!

I took pictures of the whole process, to submit to the contest. So check out the link above and hope for the best!

Pro Cupcakes: Lego!

2010-08-09T14:31:00.001-07:00

So, a friend of mine who's making a Lego video game asked me to make Lego cupcakes for a meeting today. So I racked my brain and came up with the following: red velvet cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting, topped with individual Lego blocks made out of fondant. And the Lego logo, of course. (say that 5 times fast.... Lego logo Lego logo.......)

I made the bricks the night before, out of tinted fondant. They are edible, although not very tasty. This was rather time consuming, as I had to tint the fondant, cut out the bricks, then cut out the circles to go on top. 20 bricks, 6 circles each, that's.... 120 little circles! Then I attached them to the bricks with water and let them sit overnight. They turned out great I think!

Then I made the cupcakes, red velvet of course. I wanted very colorful cupcakes :)
I split a batch of frosting, and tinted half blue and half yellow. It was actually more like 2/3 yellow, but that's ok.Since I had 20 blocks and 24 cupcakes, I wanted the last 4 to be the Lego logo. I piped that with black frosting on yellow background. all in all, they turned out great!

When I delivered them to the office, everyone loved them. This was a great challenge, and I always forget how much I like working with fondant until I do it again. So thanks, Jordan, for the opportunity to show off my skills!

Martha Challenge #43- Maple- sweetened carrot cupcakes

2010-08-05T14:10:00.000-07:00

This recipe is designed for children, or anyone who doesn't want to consume mass quantities of refined white sugar. The cupcakes are sweetened only with maple syrup and molasses. Yum!
Since I just got back from Canada, with some maple syrup, I wanted to use it right away, and these cupcakes were perfect for that.They're typical carrot cupcakes, with the exception of the sugar. I also added a bit of honey for added sweetness. The cakes came out great, nice and domed and golden. The recipe says it makes 12 regular and 24 minis, but I got 8 regular and 24 minis. I love baking cupcakes like this because the house smells amazing!

The frosting was a bit problematic. It also is only sweetened with maple syrup. 1 pound of cream cheese to 1/4 cup of maple syrup. It was awful. Tooooooo tangy. I'm not the biggest fan of cream cheese frosting, and this was like eating pure cream cheese. I had to doctor it up a bit, adding honey, and finally, about 1.5 cups of powdered sugar. I just couldn't get it sweet enough! And by the time I was finished beating it all together, it was too runny. I chilled it for about an hour to try and firm it up, but it was still a loose frosting.

Martha piped designs with her frosting, but mine was too runny for that, so it was just blobbed on the top. I added a sprinkling of maple sugar on top of each one, to enhance the maple flavor and sweeten it a bit more.
They turned out ok, but I won't use that frosting again. And this morning I found 3-4 mini wrappers in the trash, so apparently someone liked them :)

Lime and Coconut Cupcakes

2010-07-21T15:21:00.000-07:00

This is a departure from Martha's recipes. I wanted to bake today, but didn't want to go out to get ingredients. So I looked around the kitchen, and here's what I came up with: lime and coconut! I had plenty of both, plus all the staples to make vanilla cupcakes. So I altered my coconut cupcake recipe and it came out great.

These cupcakes have shredded coconut, lime zest, and lime juice in them. The frosting is lime buttercream, and it's topped with coconut chips. Makes me want a cocktail...Yum!

I was pleased with how these all came out. The cupcakes are moist and fluffy, and you can see the flecks of lime zest in them.

I tinted the frosting to emphasize the lime-ness. It's super tart, so the coconut helps balance the flavor so it's not too overwhelming.
I had plenty of frosting, so I was generous with the piping. Plus, it's so pretty!

I topped them all with coconut flakes, which will also add a bit of crunch when you bite into them. All in all, these were a great experiment, and I'll make sure to write down the recipe so I don't forget.
Yay for creativity!

Martha Challenge #42- Meringue cupcakes with berry compote

2010-07-19T16:30:00.000-07:00

In honor of Bastille Day, I made meringue cupcakes. These were so easy and fun to make! I usually have a hard time with egg whites, but these came out perfectly and were a cinch!
It took a lot of egg whites, 6, to make one dozen cupcakes. I beat the crap out of them until they were shiny and beautiful. So pretty!
I followed Martha's instructions exactly, and piped the meringue into the prepared cupcake tins into big swoopy peaks. The meringue itself was firm and shiny and just perfect.

These baked for a long long time at a low temp, 3 hours at 225 degrees. After about an hour I rotated them and noticed they were taking on some color, so I reduce the temp to 200 degrees. After they were done, they were so pretty, firm to the touch but light as air.

If you look closely, they even seem iridescent! I left the cupcake liners on until people ate them. I served them with a strawberry-raspberry compote on the side, so everyone could dollop on as much as they like. These were a big hit! Everyone raved about them, and I was so glad, because they're a little different from what I usually make. The only thing, is you need to eat them with a fork, which is kind of beside the point of making cupcakes. But that's ok, these are fancy cupcakes and fancy cupcakes need a fork :)

Martha Challenge #41- Coconut Rum Raisin Cupcakes

2010-07-13T16:15:00.001-07:00

So, since I had leftover coconut from the last cupcakes, I wanted to use it up, and the only other coconut recipe I hadn't tried yet was this one. These are decadent!

First, you have to soak the raisins in rum. The recipe calls for dark rum, but since I only needed a little, I bought a small bottle, and the store only had gold rum. I figured it would be ok.

This recipes makes a lot of cupcakes, I got 32, even though it says it makes 36. It's a basic vanilla recipe, with the rum-soaked raisins, the rum they soaked in, coconut, and heavy cream. Yum!
They baked up quickly, after only 15 minutes, perfectly done! I was surprised at how domed they got considering there was only 1/2 tsp of baking soda in the whole recipe.

After cooling, I made the caramel-rum glaze to put on top. See? I told you they were decadent! Not sure if this turned out right, since I had a lump of hardened sugar at the end, but I just fished it out and used the glaze anyways. Wow, this stuff is strong! The rum isn't completely cooked out, so you can taste it. Whoo hooo!

So I spooned the glaze over the cupcakes and had the perfect amount. Martha says to let them set a while before serving.

I also topped a few with coconut flakes, to enhance the coconut flavor in the cupcakes. I bet these are even better after a few hours, once the glaze has a chance to soak into the cupcakes.

And the best part is, I have enough rum left over for 2 rum and cokes. Bonus!

Martha Challenge #40- Coconut-Pecan Cupcakes

2010-07-09T14:16:00.000-07:00

Next up in the Martha installment: Coconut-Pecan cupcakes with Chocolate ganache. Yum! Her description says these are candy-bar inspired, but I don't know what candy bar that might be. Mounds?

Anyways, I had to get some special ingredients for these, since I don't have coconut anything on hand. Shredded coconut, flaked coconut, and coconut milk. The recipe also called for creamed coconut, but the people at Whole Foods didn't know what it was. So I substituted butter instead.

So the cupcakes have shredded coconut and ground up pecans, in a vanilla cupcake. They smelled great and came out perfectly, although I got only 30 instead of 36. That's more than enough anyways.
After cooling, I made the chocolate ganache and dipped the tops of the cupcakes in. I had about the perfect amount, which is rare. Then I topped them with coconut flakes. Martha says to toast them, but I forgot until I was halfway done, so I just finished up.

I got these cute cupcakes boxes on clearance and had to test them out. Love the polka dots! So summery.
Jason tried one last night and when I asked him if he liked them, he just smiled with a mouth full of cupcake and said "mmm-hmmm". So I guess that's good!

Martha Challenge #39- 4th of July cupcakes

2010-07-06T10:13:00.001-07:00

So, I was a bit tardy in making these, but that's ok. Since our 4th got rained out, I decided to make cupcakes. These are decorated as Martha suggest for this holiday, with a few tweaks.
I used a red velvet cupcake recipe, and topped them off with cream cheese frosting.

Then I tinted 2 small batches of frosting blue and red so I could pipe the flag. I didn't have the red licorice that Martha used for the flag stripes, so I just used frosting instead.

I piped the blue stars with a small star tip, and the red stripes with a small round tip. I could have been a little neater while piping, but I was starving and the pizza just came out of the oven :)
These turned out really cute, and look great all together. You know I love a theme!

Martha Challenge #38- Boston Cream Cupcakes

2010-06-30T10:51:00.000-07:00

So in honor of the upcoming Independence Day holiday, I wanted to do a themed cupcake, and figured Boston cream pie cupcakes were pretty good! Plus, I'm kinda into filled cupcakes right now.
These were quite time consuming to make. First you have to make the pastry cream which goes inside. I had never made pastry cream before, but it was easy, and smelled amazing. I kind of want to make more stuff with it. It's just eggs, milk, sugar and some cornstarch, all cooked together and then strained. It came out perfect, nice and thick. This would also make a good filling for a layer cake, or of course, eclairs.

While that was chilling, I made the cupcakes. These are light and fluffy, almost like a sponge cake, but not quite. A very simple vanilla cupcake, but so divine. I baked them in red and blue star liners to emphasize the theme :)

After they had cooled completely, I made a hole in each with an apple corer. Martha's version recommends cutting them in half and putting the filling in between, but I figured that would be too messy for transporting them. So I did it my way! The cakes were so spongy that after making the hole and taking out the insides, the holes kinda closed up again, so I had to scoop more cake out to have room for the cream.

So I filled them all with pastry cream, making sure to get enough in each cupcake, and replaced the tops I had removed. There were some scraps I ate too :)

Third step, I made the chocolate ganache topping. I love making ganache, it's super easy, very rich and delicious, and everyone loves chocolate! I use the darkest chocolate I can find usually, which this time was 72%. I generously spooned the ganache over the top of the cupcakes and spread it out. It was quite thick, probably because I used more chocolate than recommended.
To finish, a few red white and blue nonpareils sprinkled on top. Perfect!

I had to crack one of these open to test it out, and to see how the filling looked. I was rather pleased with the result, the filling was plentiful, and although it was similar in color to the cake, you can see the difference in texture.

One issue I had was that these need to be refrigerated before serving, and when I took one out of the fridge to cut it open, the cake itself wasn't as soft and spongy as before. I know that chilling cake dries it out, and that's exactly what happened here. I'd recommend letting these come to room temp for a few minutes before serving them, even if you chill them overnight.
All in all, a good recipe, and one I'll definitely keep on hand.

Martha Cupcake Challenge #36 & #37: filled chocolate cupcakes

2010-06-22T17:51:00.000-07:00

So, I actually have two recipes that I tried. But the first one, I have no pictures of because the camera was dead :( I made Mint filled brownie cupcakes. They have a peppermint patty inside. Turned out great, love the chocolate-mint combo, altho the tops of the cupcakes were quite crackly, like brownies are.

Second recipe, which I do have pictures of, is Cream-filled Chocolate Cupcakes. These are like the Hostess cakes we all had as kids. But with no preservatives or chemicals, just pure natural ingredients.
The cakes were easy, a chocolate-sour cream recipe. I find that a lot of chocolate cake recipes call for sour cream, not only for the moisture but also the tang. Martha's recipe yields 12 jumbo cupcakes, but I don't have jumbo cupcake pans, so I ended up with 28 regular cupcakes.

After cooling completely, I made the cream. It's just butter blended with marshmallow fluff. This was actually the first time ever that I used marshmallow fluff for anything. Mixing it with the butter gives it a creamier texture. When I put away the jar in the cupboard, it ended up next to the jar of Nutella. hmmmm... that sounds good!

Anyways, Martha says to dig a hole out of the bottom to fill with the cream. But I baked mine in paper liners and didn't want to fuss with that, so I filled them from the top. First I tried simply squeezing the filling into the cupcake, but I didn't get enough filling in there. So instead I used an apple corer to core out the cupcakes, saving the bits I removed. Then I filled them up, and replaced the tops.
To disguise the imperfect tops, I piped the signature white squiggle over the part that had been removed and replaced. No one will ever know! Unless they read this, that is.

I had to bust one open to see how it looked, and it looks yummy!

I was proud that mine looked as cute as Martha's, even though my technique was a bit different. These were easy to make, and are sure to delight kids young and old.

Martha Challenge #35- Tiny cherry-almond tea cakes

2010-06-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

So, it's been a while, because I lost the charger for my camera and therefore couldn't upload my photos! But I found it yesterday, so here we are again.
I was inspired last week and bought a huge bag of fresh cherries. They were delicious, but I couldn't possibly eat a whole pound of cherries myself, so I made cupcakes with them instead! These are Martha's almond tea cakes with cherries inside. She calls for leaving the pits and stems on, but I didn't want to do that, so I pitted all the cherries. I didn't have a fancy cherry pitter, so I consulted the internet on how to do this, with the cherries remaining somewhat intact. The best suggestion was to use the flat end of a chopstick and push on the pit until it pops out the other side. This worked, but was messy. Cherry juice everywhere! My kitchen and hands looked like a crime scene :).
So, The almond mini cupcakes were easy enough to make, using ground up almonds. Then I put a cherry in each one, and covered the top a little with more batter. The recipe made more than the 24 Martha predicted.
They came out nice and domed (no more problems with altitude), with the cherries peeking out. I like cupcakes that have a surprise inside, so when you bite into it there's a different texture. The cherries are sweet and the cupcakes are warm and almond-y. A good recipe, but maybe not one I'd include in my regular rotation, as it's seasonal.

Martha Challenge #33 & 34- White cupcakes & by the sea (Lost theme)

2010-05-21T12:20:00.000-07:00

After unpacking most of our boxes, and all of the kitchen, I had to christen the new pretty kitchen with some cupcakes! I wanted to make Lost cupcakes, in honor of the series finale on Sunday. So flipping thru Martha's book, I found her sea-themed cupcakes and figured those would be perfect. I used her white cupcakes recipe for the base, and a traditional vanilla buttercream for the frosting. Two challenges with one batch!

The white cupcakes turned out great. It was the first time using my new oven, which is gas and convection, so they got a litter browner than I would have liked. But other than that, super tasty.

Then I made a batch of frosting. I used the untinted frosting to cover half the cupcakes, and then dipped them in a mixture of graham cracker crumbs and demerara sugar to look like sand. I like how the sugar gives a bit of sparkle.

The rest of the frosting I tinted blue, and swirled it on top of the rest of the cupcakes to look like waves in the ocean.
I had a bit of frosting left over, so I tinted it dark gray and wrote "LOST" on the sand cupcakes and added some swirls to the ocean cupcakes for contrast.

All in all, I think these turned out well. I could have gone crazy and made some very specific themed cupcakes, but these get the message across just fine.

Martha Cupcake Challenge #32- Roasted Banana Cupcakes

2010-05-12T10:38:00.001-07:00

So it's snowing. In May. So I wanted to make a warm and cozy cupcake, and roasted banana fit the bill!

I went to the grocery store to get bananas. The recipe calls for ripe bananas. There was not one ripe banana in the whole store. Every last bunch was bright green. But I bought them anyways, since green bananas are better than none at all.

So when I got home, I asked the internet how to ripen a banana. Turns out you can put them whole, unpeeled, in the oven at 350 until the skins turn black, and they get all mushy inside. Well, that's what the recipe calls for anyways, to roast them, so I just let them roast a bit longer to ensure ample mushiness. It worked great!

These were great cupcakes, with chunky bits of banana inside. They rose up nice and puffy on top, and smelled amazing while baking.

Martha recommends using a honey-cinnamon frosting with these, but since I used that recipe already on the snickerdoodle cupcakes, I used a brown butter cream cheese frosting instead. Yummy!
Martha tops hers with banana slices, but I wanted to do something a little different. I thought about banana chips, and while at the store I found a container of them for $4. But I knew I'd only need a few, so I made my own! Again, the internet to the rescue. I sliced up two bananas and dehydrated them in the oven, at 150 for 3 hours. They turned gray and shrivelly, but were indeed crunchy. So I used those to top the cupcakes.

All in all, a great recipe. But no more for a while, we are moving and today I am packing all the kitchen stuff. Once I get unpacked next week I'll dive in again.

Martha Challenge #31- A Variation: (Mexican) Chocolate Cupcakes

2010-05-05T09:11:00.001-07:00

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, I wanted to make a themed cupcake. I've made margarita cupcakes many times, and Mexican Chocolate only once. So I decided to adapt one of Martha's recipes for Mexican Chocolate. These are regular chocolate cupcakes, but with the addition of cinnamon and chili.
Surprisingly, Martha does not have a lot of chocolate cupcake recipes in her book. I used her one-bowl chocolate cupcake recipe, which was amazing! Super easy, and the cupcakes turned out great. Big domed tops, nice and fluffy, and very chocolatey.

I added espresso powder to bring out the chocolate flavor, and cinnamon and a dash of chili powder to give it some spice. They smelled amazing baking!
Next, the frosting. Again, Martha does not have many chocolate frostings, and the only ones she did have made entirely too much frosting for the amount of cupcakes I had. So I relied on one of my own tried and true recipes, again adding cinnamon and chili powder.

I topped the cupcakes with red and green sanding sugar, to indicate the Mexican flag. I'll definitely be using this recipe again, it seems foolproof.

Cake Pops, Take Two

2010-05-04T18:31:00.000-07:00

So once again, I tried making cake pops. The first ones were difficult, but I'm getting better. Practice, practice!
I had 6 leftover cupcakes from the jack and coke batch I made a few days ago. They were still super moist, and worked great as pops. There was the perfect amount of frosting with just what each cupcake was topped with.
I used actual chocolate bark this time, since I had stocked up when I last found it in the store. It was still a little thicker than I would have liked, but it worked ok.

So it turns out, 6 cupcakes make 24-25 pops. They got prettier and more even as I went along. Next time I'll make them perfect for sure! I put these in individual wrappers, but I didn't have anything to close them with. At least they're protected and won't stick to each other.

This is a great way to use leftover cake or cupcakes. If these cupcakes hadn't been so moist, I would have needed more frosting.

Birthday Cupcakes

2010-05-02T17:20:00.000-07:00

So, for our friend Mike's birthday, he requested alcohol- related cupcakes. Since he likes whiskey, I made Jack and Coke cupcakes. I got the cola cupcakes recipe from the Coke website. It was different from most cupcakes, because you boil the butter and coke, and there are marshmallows in the batter. I assume the marshmallows are supposed to melt when you pour the hot liquid on top, but not all of mine did. I also added about 1 tbsp of whiskey to the batter.

The frosting was easy, just a typical vanilla buttercream, but with 2-3 tbsp of whiskey added. The smell was sooo strong!
And because it was a birthday, I had to write on the cupcakes. I used the easy way out, with writing tubes of icing.
These were a big hit at the party, although no one wanted to be first to dig in. Once the birthday boy had one, tho, it was fair game.
Might need to tweak the cake recipe in the future, but the frosting was a winner.

Martha Challenge #30- Strawberry Jam Tea Cakes

2010-04-28T09:29:00.000-07:00

Back to the Martha Challenge! These are strawberry-jam filled tea cakes, which are just vanilla cupcakes with jam, topped with a citrus glaze.
A few weeks ago we went to Plant City Florida, which is the strawberry capital of the world. We came home with a jar of homemade strawberry jam, and it is fantastic! So fresh and not too sweet, like liquid strawberries. So, to use up the last bits, these cupcakes were perfect.

Instead of baking them plain and filling with jam after, like I usually do, these are baked with the jam layered inside. Mine were not as neat as Martha's, and next time I might swirl the jam for a pretty look. I can also use this technique in my peanut butter and jelly cupcakes :)

They baked up great, altho some jam seeped out and made the edges sticky. They were topped with a citrus glaze, of lemon and meyer lemon. I love the combo of strawberry and lemon, I discovered it with gelato and frozen ice when I was in Italy. I like the glaze a bit thicker, but I ran out at the end, so 2 lonely cupcakes are naked!
Good recipe, good result. Will definitely use this again.

Almond cupcakes with Green Tea frosting

2010-04-13T17:13:00.000-07:00

So, another deviation from the Martha challenge. I needed to make an Asian-themed cupcake, and there aren't any in Martha's cupcake book! So, I looked elsewhere. This recipe is adapted from Baked, the book from the super awesome bakery in Brooklyn and Charleston. I have loved everything I've made from this book so far, and this is no exception.
However, this recipe was quite laborious. I had to buy some special ingredients, and it took forever!
The cupcakes are almond flavored, and very light and fluffy. There's almond extract and ground up almonds in them. I looove the smell of almond extract! After beating all the ingredients, I had to fold in beaten egg whites. I only have one mixer bowl and no hand mixer, so I had to beat these by hand. I doubt I beat them enough, but they turned out ok. Next time I'd beat the egg whites first and put them in a separate bowl while I mixed the rest. They baked up perfectly!

Next was the frosting. OMG. This was difficult and time consuming. I couldn't find the green tea matcha powder I needed, but at the Teavana store, the guy told me I could grind up green tea, so I did that. I don't think it was fine enough, but it wouldn't get any finer in the food processor.
This frosting was cooked. Never done that before. You add sugar, flour, matcha, milk and cream in a pot and whisk it while it boils until it's thick. It smelled like grass and looked like slime.
30 seconds after I took this picture I dropped the whole strainer in the bowl. So I had to re-strain the whole thing and clean out the bowl before I could continue. Then I beat it with butter in my mixer, added vanilla, and it was awesome! Tastes great, not too overpowering with the green tea flavor, and sweet enough.
The extra special topping is fortune cookies dipped in white chocolate. I added my own flair and used flower sprinkles too :) They look so pretty!

So, to finish, almond cupcake topped with green tea frosting and garnished with a chocolate-dipped fortune cookie. Yum! They look awesome, and it was totally worth all the work. I love taking on a new challenge and doing well.

Chocolate-Bourbon-Pecan Cupcakes

2010-04-07T09:06:00.000-07:00

So, taking a break from the Martha challenge, for our friend's birthday I made him Derby Pie, as requested. For those who don't know what Derby Pie is, it's a special pie named after the Kentucky Derby, with a pecan-bourbon-chocolate chip filling. In other words, to die for. Technically, you can't call it a Derby pie, because the name is trademarked, so for me it's a chocolate bourbon pecan pie.
So after making the pie, I wanted to see how I could translate it into cupcakes. I thought about making little pies, but decided on chocolate cupcakes with bourbon and pecan mixed in. And voila! delicious cupcakes. I also experimented with different bourbons, for the pie I used Wild Turkey, and for the cupcakes I used Jack Daniels. I think the Wild Turkey is more potent, the smell was overwhelming!

Now, the bottoms of these cupcakes were more well done than I would have liked, not sure if it's because of my oven, or maybe I had the rack too low. I sampled half of one so I could see the inside, and the pecans stayed pretty well in the middle of the cupcake. Very tasty!
I topped these with a bourbon whipped cream, which was amazing! Also a little pecan on the top to indicate what's inside. All in all, a good effort, might need some more tweaking, but these are a good addition to my recipe list.

Martha Cupcake Challenge #29- Meyer Lemon Cupcakes

2010-03-26T17:17:00.000-07:00

For the next Martha challenge, I decided to try her Meyer Lemon cupcakes, in honor of Easter/Spring. You see, in her book, the lemon curd sits on top of the cupcakes, which makes it look like an egg yolk. Since Springtime is all about re-birth, eggs are a perfect symbol.

First step, make meyer lemon curd. I love lemon curd, but have never made it. It's like a custard, lots of egg yolks, sugar, and lemon juice. I was pleased to find Meyer Lemons at Whole Foods, which are a cross between an orange and a lemon, so they're not as tart as regular lemons. I followed the directions for the curd, but I don't think I let it cook long enough. It was thinner than I expected, and I figured it would firm up in the fridge, but it didn't get thick enough. The direction don't say how long to cook it for, just "until thick". That's kinda vague.

Anyhoo, the cupcakes turned out great, altho it's a big recipe. I got 36, but Martha says it makes 42. They were so buttery and lemony and rather dense. It's almost like a pound cake. Smells so good!
Now, for the final steps. The recipe says to sprinkle with powdered sugar and then fill the cupcakes with curd, letting it seep out the top to form a pool. I did this a bit different. Since I'd be serving them the next day, I made a traditional vanilla buttercream, and piped it in a circle around the edge of the cupcake. And since my curd was too thin, I couldn't pipe it at all, so I just dolloped about a tablespoon on top, inside the frosting. The white and yellow really made it look like a fried egg.
So, my husband was supposed to take these to work today, but he was sick, so now I have 36 cupcakes that I don't know what to do with. Anyone want some? Come and get them!

Chocolate Stout and Baileys Cupcakes and Pops

2010-03-17T10:43:00.000-07:00

Happy St Paddy's Day! As usual, I made my world famous chocolate Guinness and Baileys cupcakes. However, I also make them into cupcake pops! It was very time consuming, and I messed up a few things, but they turned out great, and delicious too!

For anyone who doesn't know what a cake pop is, it's crumbled up cake mixed with frosting, then dipped in chocolate and decorated. On a pop! I think this is a great use for leftover cake or cupcakes, since the frosting moistens them up again. The possibilities are endless for decorating, but this time I just kept it simple.
So, the challenges I had: I first bought green candy melts, melted them, all was good, but then I tried to be creative and add Jameson whiskey to them to add flavor. The entire mixture seized up, and no mount of re-melting would get it back to liquid state. So I had to go out to the store to get chocolate bark, except they didn't have any! Apparently, it's a seasonal item. So I tried a few different chocolate products, and they ended up working ok. So half the pops were white chocolate and half were milk chocolate.
I also need to improve my rolling technique. Most of the pops weren't perfect circles, but kind of lopsided ovals. I will definitely try these again.
Oh, and the cupcakes turned out great too :)

Martha Cupcake Challenge #28- S'mores cupcakes

2010-03-11T14:48:00.000-08:00

So, I've been dying to make S'mores cupcakes, and I finally got it together to make them. These were a multi-step cupcake. Since they're topped with marshmallow frosting, they must be served immediately after they're made. So I made the cupcakes the day before, and did the frosting in the morning.
The cake part turned out well. The recipe called for graham flour, which Whole Foods didn't have. So instead I bought organic honey graham crackers, and ground them up in my food processor. It gave a really nice graham-y flavor to the cupcakes.
Then I made the ganache, a chocolate glaze on top. The ganache recipe in the book always makes way more than I need, so I'll have to figure out something else to do with the rest. I dipped the tops in the ganache, which also seals in the moisture. All this I did in one day.
The next day I made the frosting. This did not work at all. It's a marshmallow frosting, made with gelatin and a sugar syrup. I guess I did it wrong, cuz there was a big goop of gelatin in the mixing bowl that never got mixed in properly. And, the pictures showed a huge dome of piped marshmallow on top of the cupcakes, but I didn't have nearly enough. I could barely manage a tiny dollop on each one. And it was not pipe-able at all. Not good.

Also, my kitchen torch didn't work! You're supposed to brulee the marshmallow, but I couldn't figure out how to work the torch, and I lost the box with the instructions. sad :(
So I delivered the cupcakes, and when I took the lids off the containers, all the marshmallow came off, because it was attached to the lid! But this was a good learning experience. Next time, I will put mini marshmallows on top of the ganache while it's still wet, so they stick. Then I will torch them, to get them all nice and brown on top. (ps- I love the way Craig Ferguson says "marshmallow". Check it out)
Next week, a foolproof recipe... Irish Car Bomb!

Martha Cupcake Challenge #27- Maple (with a twist)

2010-03-05T09:42:00.000-08:00

So, due to requests from Jason's coworkers, I decided the next challenge would be Maple cupcakes, but with a little twist: bacon! Bacon cupcakes are the trend now, but I made them years ago. I used Martha's Maple cupcakes as the base, then adjusted them for my purposes. These came out great!

First, I made candied bacon, which is just bacon, baked with brown sugar until caramelized and crispy. However, I used maple sugar, to intensify the maple flavor in the cupcakes. These smelled amazing! I did sample a bite or two, and they were sweet and salty and crunchy and yum! The important thing is to save some of the bacon fat to use in the cupcakes.

So, making the cupcakes, I added the bacon fat, and used half brown sugar and half maple syrup, instead of all maple syrup as the sweetener. Then I folded in the bacon crumbles, so each cupcake is filled with crunchy morsels.
They baked up great, smelled amazing! Then I used a maple buttercream, which was a bit too thick, I should have thinned it a bit, but it was the perfect amount for 24 cupcakes. I topped each cupcake with a piece of candied bacon, for that added crunch, and to identify what's inside.

I get the craze with bacon, and paired with maple, it's really good, but I don't personally care for the combo. However, what the crowd demands, they get!

Martha Cupcake Challenge #26- Snickerdoodle cupcakes!

2010-02-23T09:03:00.000-08:00

This is actually a continuation of the Mardi Gras cupcakes. I had made the base for these, the cinnamon sugar cupcakes, so I decided to finish them off. The cake recipe I made exactly, and these came out big and domed, just how I like them! They smelled so good while baking.

I used a different frosting than Martha recommended. She uses a 7-minute frosting, but it takes me more like 20 minutes to make, and I didn't have the time. So instead I used another frosting in her book, Honey-cinnamon frosting. This is a traditional buttercream, but with honey and cinnamon. It was super tasty.

I piped the frosting on, sprinkled it with cinnamon-sugar mix, then added another dollop on top. At first it didn't look like I'd have enough, but I had enough for at least one more cupcake.

ps- Snickerdoodle comes from a mispronunciation of the German word schneckennudeln, which means crinkly noodles. Weird!

Mardi Gras cupcakes

2010-02-22T09:21:00.001-08:00

So, in a bit of a variation on the Martha challenge, I made cupcakes for my friend's Mardi Gras party. These were meant to resemble King Cake, the traditional cake of Mardi Gras. Even tho it's not really a cake, it's more like cinnamon roll dough.
The cupcakes were adapted from Martha's Snickerdoodle recipe. I made the cupcakes per her recipe, but switched up the frosting. King Cakes have a glaze on them, so I made a lemon glaze, and topped it with yellow, green and purple sprinkles, the official colors of Mardi Gras.

They turned out great, I even put a plastic baby into one! The tradition is, if you find the baby, you have to bring the cake next year. Not sure why it's a baby, but it's cute :) I just love any occasion to try something new.

Martha Challenge #25- Marble Cupcakes

2010-02-17T10:59:00.001-08:00

In an effort to use up leftover dark chocolate frosting, I wanted to make something that would go well together, so marble cupcakes were the winner! These were fairly straightforward, first you mix the vanilla batter, then make some of it chocolate.

The swirling part was fun, messing up the cupcakes randomly to get a marbleized pattern. As Martha says, it doesn't have to be perfect. Really, Martha? I find it hard to believe that anything she does isn't perfect :)
The cupcakes baked up nice and tall, with big domed tops. After cooling for a while, I topped them with a thin layer of dark chocolate frosting, left over from last week's chocolate salted caramel cupcakes. Since it didn't hold its shape too well when piped, I just used a spatula to spread some on.
This was a good recipe, not complicated, and they smelled so good I almost ate one, and I never eat my own cupcakes! But I have been assured they are "nom nom nom".

Martha Challenge #24- Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes

2010-02-12T12:54:00.000-08:00

Ok, next challenge, and I do mean challenge. Chocolate salted caramel cupcakes. Martha made these in mini, but I made regular sized. 50 minis apparently equals 24 regulars.
This was one of the hardest recipes yet. Three steps, and each step was difficult. The cupcakes were very spongy, and the batter was liquidy. They baked for 17 minutes. It almost seemed like they weren't done, because they were so delicate and wobbly, but they were. I let them rest overnight.
The next day, I made the frosting. I've made this frosting before, it's basically tons of butter and chocolate, with a tiny bit of sugar. It's super rich and shiny, not too sweet. But it's quite loose, not stiff at all. And, the recipe makes a ton! I had at least 2 cups left over.

Then I made the salted caramel to go inside. I've made caramel a few times before. Again, I slightly overcooked the sugar mixture, so it was a very dark caramel. At the end you stir in fleur de sel, which is a fancy french sea salt.
Finally, assembly. I cut holes in each cupcake, filled with warm salted caramel, and sprinkled more fleur de sel on top. Then I piped the chocolate frosting on top. It's really too loose of a frosting to pipe, it was running all over the place. But I was rather surprised that once piped, it held its shape on the cupcakes. Then I sprinkled more fleur de sel on top.

These were super hard to make, doubt I'll make these again. Although salty and sweet is a popular combo, I'll try to achieve it other ways.

Variation on Martha's cupcakes: Red Hot Velvet!

2010-02-10T10:29:00.000-08:00

So, since Valentine's Day is this weekend, I decided to spice up Martha's red velvet cupcakes. I have made these before, in the Martha Challenge #5. I changed up the recipe a bit, added my own twist! I used more cocoa powder, because I like a tastier cupcake. In fact, I used cocoa rouge, a reddish natural cocoa, to enhance the red color of the cupcakes. I also added cinnamon to the batter, to spice them up a bit.

These cupcakes turned out a lot darker than before, due to the increase in cocoa. I personally don't like when red velvet is like atomic red, I prefer a more natural red look. Still these probably weren't red enough. They smelled amazing!
I then topped them with traditional cream cheese frosting. I also added cinnamon to the frosting, to bring out the cinnamon flavor in the cakes. I need to adjust this recipe too, it's way too sticky and tart for my liking.

Then it was time to bust out the sprinkles! I topped some with light and dark pink sanding sugar, and the rest with hearts and kisses sprinkles. I added a good dose of red edible glitter to finish them off.
My husband had one, and he said he couldn't tell there was cinnamon in them, but I definitely could. Perhaps a little more tweaking is required before this one goes into the recipe book.

Martha Cupcake Challenge #23- Chocolate Spice Cupcakes

2010-02-03T17:02:00.000-08:00

Feeling a bit bored this afternoon, so I decided to make whatever I had all the ingredients for. Chocolate-Spice cupcakes win! These are yummy dark chocolate cupcakes with cinnamon and ginger. The recipe calls for nutmeg, but I hate that spice, so I didn't put it in. I meant to add instant espresso powder, but forgot. Next time! They also have molasses, which I had a bit leftover. I added a splash of vanilla too, because I think every cupcake tastes better with vanilla.
This was a very runny batter, made 12 exactly. Altho the recipe says to fill halfway, I filled them 3/4, and they came out perfectly domed.

The recipe calls for these to be inverted, then topped with a chocolate ganache glaze, but I used liners and kept them upright. I dipped each top in ganache, and had a ton left over. I guess I'll be making something else later in the week. The tops are nice and shiny. I put them in the fridge to let the ganache set up. They smell great, chocolatey and spicy. These would probably taste good with some hot spice, like cayenne added. All in all, a great recipe (with a few adjustments).

Martha Cupcake Challenge #22- Tres Leches

2010-01-29T14:55:00.000-08:00

The next installment in the cupcake challenge is Tres Leches cupcakes. This translates to three milks, which is exactly how these are made.
The cupcake itself is a variation of a sponge cake, very light and fluffy. Once they are baked and cooked, they are soaked with the tres leches mixture. It's condensed milk, evaporated milk, and heavy cream. Super rich! I tried pouring the milks over the cupcakes, but it was too messy, so I ended up using a turkey baster. It was perfect!

There's so much milk mixture at first it seems like it won't all get absorbed, but I just waited until the first bit was fully absorbed, then added more. I ended up with 21 cupcakes, which took 3.5 cups of milk mixture.
I covered them and let them rest overnight in the fridge to make sure everything was fully incorporated. Then I made sweetened whipped cream, and topped each cupcake with a sprinkling of cinnamon.
According to my official taste tester, these were amazing! Definitely going on the menu.

Cupcake Deviation: Whoopie Pies!

2010-01-25T10:31:00.000-08:00

For a change, I decided to make whoopie pies with my new whoopie pie pan. Although you don't really need a special baking pan for it, I love new kitchen gadgets.

According to Wikipedia, a whoopie pie is: "a baked good made of two round mound-shaped pieces of chocolate cake, sometimes pumpkin cake, with a sweet, creamy frosting sandwiched between them. While considered a New England phenomenon and a Pennsylvania Amish tradition, they are increasingly sold throughout the United States.According to food historians, Amish women would bake these (known as hucklebucks at the time) and put them in farmers' lunchboxes. When farmers would find these treats in their lunch, they would shout "Whoopie!"

First I made classic, chocolate whoopie pies with vanilla filling. These were amazing! It's like 2 little pieces of cake with frosting in between. I used the recipe that came with the pan.

Then, I started getting creative. I've made pumpkin whoopie pies before, so I wanted to try chocolate chip whoopie pies. I kind of made up the recipe, using the original chocolate one as a base. These turned out amazing, very rich. The filling was a bit too runny, so I put them in the fridge to set overnight. All you need is a tall glass of milk to go with these.

These are a fun alternative to cupcakes, and I like that the frosting is in between the cake, so there's an even cake-to-frosting ratio in each bite. I'll be experimenting more with these soon.

Martha Cupcake Challenge #21- Triple Citrus Cupcakes

2010-01-20T12:35:00.000-08:00

Next on the list is Martha's triple citrus cupcakes. She made these on her show when the book came out originally, and I'm finally getting to them. I had oranges already, so I just needed to pick up a few lemons and limes.
First, I zested 3 lemons, 3 limes, and 2 oranges. Also juiced them. Limes have a lot of zest! My kitchen smelled fantastic, as well as my hands.
This recipe made 36 cupcakes, and used 4 sticks of butter! It could be halved easily, since that's a lot of cupcakes. I added about 1/8 tsp of baking powder, since there was no leavening agent included in the recipe.
They came out great! Some were a bit lopsided, but that's probably because the batter wasn't even in the cups to start with. I love how you can see the flecks of zests in each cupcake.
The recipe then adds a citrus glaze on top, which you can use any of the three citruses for. I chose to use a combination of orange and lime. The glaze was thick, so I spooned it on top of each cupcake, and it kinda ran over the top to mostly cover it. It's pretty strong and sweet, so a little bit is enough.

Martha Cupcakes Challenge #20- Peanut butter filled chocolate cupcakes

2010-01-14T17:25:00.001-08:00

Next up in the challenge: peanut butter filled chocolate cupcakes. I am going out of order from the book to better utilize the ingredients I have on hand.
The batter was more like brownies than cake, very thick and prepared the same way. The peanut butter filling was a little too thick, it needed more liquid. The recipe says to dollop 2 tbsp chocolate, then 1 tbsp peanut butter, then 1 tbsp chocolate and then 1 tsp pb. I just eyeballed it, and ended up not putting the pb on top. It worked out ok, cuz on some you can see the pb peeking thru anyways.
The recipe says to bake for 40 minutes, but that seemed like a really long time, so I checked after 20 and they were almost done. Even baking for 5 more minutes seemed like enough. I can't imagine what they'd be like if I baked them the whole time!

Here's the inside, yummy pb filling inside a dense chocolatey cake. Martha does not frost hers, so I won't either, altho a dark chocolate frosting or ganache would be good.
These are essentially peanut butter swirl brownies, but in cupcake form. yummy!

Cupcakes Review in Denver

2010-01-13T11:02:00.001-08:00

So, yesterday I took a little tour of a few cupcakeries in Denver that I had been meaning to check out. Here's my thoughts:

First up was Big Fat Cupcake, on Adams St in the Cherry Creek area.
Nice location, corner store, altho parking was difficult. At first I was shocked that the cupcakes cost over $4, but then I saw them. They are ginormous! True to the name of the shop, these are huge, muffin sized cupcakes. I chose black and white, a classic.
This cupcake was hard to bite into, it's so big! The frosting was good, but it tastes like it's made with shortening, not butter. Nothing wrong with that, but I prefer butter. The cake itself was ok, not too flavorful, but not dry either. I could easily share this with 3 or 4 people.

Next was The Shoppe, a cupcake and cereal eatery. It's on Colfax and Steele.
There's a couple of cute shops next to it too worth checking out. There was ample seating, with people playing some games and hanging out. I ordered 2: Red velvet and Dark chocolate orange (my fave!). These were normal sized cupcakes.
The red velvet was very red, not much flavor in the cake, but the cream cheese frosting tasted like pure cream cheese, no sugar or vanilla added. I don't really like cream cheese to start with, too tangy, and this was overwhelmingly so.
The dark chocolate orange I was excited about, since I love that flavor combo. The frosting was chocolatey and rich, with lots of orange flavor. The cake was super dry and I didn't taste any orange, but maybe that's cuz the frosting was so overpowering.

Last was Happy Cakes, across the highway off 32nd St. Small little shop, very cute.
No place to sit, but there's a bench outside. They are moving soon to a bigger location nearby. There's not even a kitchen in the shop! I chose Snickerdoodle, like the cookie.
This cupcake was heaven. The frosting was the most buttery delight I've ever had. Usually, buttercream tends to be too sweet, but this was so rich and buttery tasting. The cake was very tasty, with a good cinnamon flavor, and not too sweet. My favorite of them all!

So, next time I am exploring around Denver, I'll be sure to stop by Happy Cakes. Great name, great vibe, great cupcakes!

Martha Challenge #19- Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes

2010-01-07T16:54:00.000-08:00

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book.
This is a favorite combination of my husband, the original salty and sweet mix from our childhood. Altho I personally never had a pb&j sandwich, that doesn't mean I can't give the cupcake version a try!
I have made a version of this before, with a different recipe, with similar results. The one thing prefer about Martha's recipe, is after they are baked, the cupcakes aren't greasy. When I tried these before, the papers pulled away from the cupcakes, and after a while you could see the grease seeping through. Not too appetizing.

Here are the cupcakes right out of the oven. I like their color and feel, firm and not too crumbly. The recipe says it yields 22, but I got 24, and could have stretched it to 25. I also baked them for 18 minutes instead of the 22 minutes recommended. They'd be way too dry after that much time.

The peanut butter frosting was a bit unusual. It's cream cheese base, with only 1/3 cup powdered sugar. Also, it says to fold in whipped cream. Well, I folded and folded and it looked like a big goopy mess, so I ended up beating it together in the mixer for a minute, and it came out smoothing and light. I added more sugar, since it was very salty, to about 1/2 cup. It's a fairly loose frosting. It didn't seem like there'd be enough, but I just made it.
I piped the frosting on in a circle, leaving room for the jelly.

Here are the finished cupcakes, with strawberry jelly on top. I made these according to Martha's recipe, but next time I'll fill the cupcakes with jelly too. One dollop on top is not enough jelly. And maybe I'll even make my own from scratch! It was hard to find a natural jelly in the store.
All in all, a good recipe. I will definitely use the cupcakes again, but maybe not the frosting.

New Year, New possibilities

2010-01-05T16:09:00.001-08:00

So, I have been seriously slacking. I blame it on 2 jobs plus school. However, now it's down to only 1 job and school, so I have no more excuses. My plan for the New Year:
*Find a kitchen
*Prep to sell at farmer's markets in the spring
*Marketing!
In other words, steps required to catapult me to success. When school is finished in one year, I plan to be ready to go pro. Along the way, there will be lots of baking. I will resume the Tania/Martha challenge, and fine tune my own recipes as well.
Until I get going again in a few days, here's some pics of my holiday baking: cupcake cookies!

Martha Cupcake Challenge #18- Pumpkin-Brown butter cupcakes

2009-10-23T18:13:00.001-07:00

Spooky!!! These are pumpkin-brown butter cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. Since it's so close to Halloween, I wanted to start making festive cupcakes with my holiday liners and sprinkles. These make my place smell amazing!
The batter starts with browned butter, which is just melted on the stove until golden and delicious. It has a nutty smell, very warm and fall-like. No mixer required either! The ingredients come together easily, since the butter is melted.

Here they are right out of the oven. The tops seemed a bit spongy still, but I knew after cooling for a few minutes they'd firm up, and they did. One thing I found odd, this recipe did not call for vanilla, which I love, so I added it. I think it gives a great flavor to any recipe, and always add a little bit no matter what.
I frosted these with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting, even though the recipe book calls for a brown butter glaze. I tried to use stencils to make designs with the sugar, but I think the frosting is too sticky, because they didn't really come out well. The stencils will work better on an unfrosted cupcake with powdered sugar, or on a harder frosting, like a ganache.
So I just ended up using pretty colored sugars all over.
This recipe made exactly 15, as it said it would. just enough to share with a few friends :)

Martha Cupcake Challenge #17- Applesauce spice cupcakes

2009-10-22T11:27:00.000-07:00

So, I only have photos of this one unfrosted, they got eaten up too quickly! These are applesauce spice cupcakes, with pecans inside.
They were eventually topped with cream cheese frosting. These are made with unsweetened applesauce, and lots of fun spices, like cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg (which I omitted since I hate nutmeg). They made the whole apartment smell so good! I have used applesauce in recipes before, when trying out some vegan alternatives to eggs. It certainly makes any baked good super moist and delicious! A great recipe all around.

Martha Cupcake Challenge #16- Mocha cupcakes

2009-10-18T20:42:00.001-07:00

In honor of National Chocolate Cupcake Day, I endeavored to make Martha's mocha cupcakes, since mocha = chocolate + coffee. I upped the amount of coffee in the cupcakes, using not only 3/4 cup of brewed espresso, but also a packet of Starbucks VIA Columbia roast instant coffee, and also A tablespoon of instant espresso powder. These don't have that much chocolate in them, only 2 tbsp, but it's enough to get that great mocha flavor.

Here they are fresh out of the oven, smelling soooo delicious! The recipe says it makes 24, but I only got 20. The batter was quite liquidy, and these cupcakes are moist and delicate. Chocolate has a tendency to be dryer than others, but these will not have that problem.

Now, on to the frosting. It's a 7 minute frosting, flavored with coffee. It calls for coffee extract, but I couldn't find that, so I just used the instant espresso powder to make a very strong 1/4 cup of coffee. I have made this frosting once before, for the coconut cupcakes (Cupcake Challenge #4). I ran into the same problems as last time. Although I did have a working candy thermometer, it seemed like the sugar mixture took a very long time to come up to temp. Also, I had to beat the frosting on high for 25-30 minutes, not on medium for 7 minutes, to get the glossy peaks I needed. I did some searching on the internet and found lots of other recipes that use a double boiler. I may try that next time, this is too time consuming.

This is how much frosting I had left over. Could have used another dozen cupcakes! And unfortunately, you can't save this for later, it must be used immediately, so it was either eat all that frosting myself or throw it out. (I threw it out)
So, cupcakes A+, frosting C. I am also going to submit this recipe on Starbucks.com, since they are having a contest to use the new VIA coffee. Since I don't drink coffee, this is how I use it.

Martha Challenge #15- Zucchini Spice cupcakes

2009-09-30T07:44:00.001-07:00

Here is my latest attempt at continuing the Martha/Tania cupcake challenge. These are zucchini-spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I figured I'd better get to these before zucchini was harder to find, as it's getting a bit colder now.

Here they are fresh out of the oven. These are kind of like carrot cakes, but with grated zucchini instead. They are also super filled with yummy warm spices, like cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg, perfect for a chilly rainy day. They made the house smell super good. No problems with baking this time, I merely skimped a little on the leavening and they turned out great.

I topped them with a cream cheese frosting. One thing I must say, this recipe made 24 cupcakes, and when I made the frosting recipe to go along with it, I had enough left over for maybe another dozen. I wish cookbooks would match the frosting to the cupcakes a bit better. Now I have to make even more cupcakes to use up the frosting!
These went over very well, I had my husband take them to work, all 24, and by the end of the day there were only 2 left. He said the first dozen disappeared in minutes! :) So I guess everyone liked these!
Next is mocha cupcakes I think, which I hope to get to soon. Enjoy!

Martha Challenge #14- Chai cupcakes/The Beatles

2009-09-10T14:39:00.000-07:00

So this is a 2-part post. First up- I made Martha's Chai cupcakes. Her recipe calls for minis, but I made regular sized.
Here they are fresh out of the oven. The smell is fantastic! It's perfect for fall, which it technically is now. This recipe called for a bunch of spices, of which I only had a few, and to steep the tea in warm milk, to be used in the batter. I have made chai cupcake before, simply adding the contents of a chai tea bag or two into the dry ingredients. This was a different approach. Since I didn't have all the spices needed, I also added a chai tea bag into the dry mix, in addition to the chai milk added later. These turned out great, light and fluffy with nice domed tops. No altitude issues here!
The second part of this post, is the reason why I made chai cupcakes. I wanted to make and decorate cupcakes in honor of the release of the Beatles Rock Band, and I couldn't figure out a flavor. So then I decided on chai, because the British drink a lot of tea :).

I made a plain vanilla buttercream, and lightly covered the tops of each cupcake for a blank canvas. I then tinted 3 batches red, blue and black, to make the designs I needed. As you can see, it took a bit of practice to get the lettering and designs down. But I love the results! I didn't even attempt to portray each Beatle's likeness correctly, but you get the idea with the mop tops. These were super fun, I haven't done piping like that in a while.
Now I'm off to play more Rock Band, and I'll stop to have a cupcake if I need a break :)
Cheerio!

Martha's Cupcake Challenge #13- Chocolate Chunk Cookie Cupcakes

2009-09-06T21:20:00.001-07:00

So, I finally got back to my Martha Challenge! This one actually turned out by accident. I was planning to make chocolate chip cookies for my husband, since they are his fave. But instead, I figured I'd make Martha's chocolate chunk cookie cupcakes. These are a cross between a cookie and a cupcake, with tons of chocolate chunks. I used both chocolate chips and chopped chocolate, both semisweet of course.
Again, I ran into some altitude problems. The chocolate bits sunk to the bottom of the cupcakes. I believe this is a density problem, and I know how to solve it next time. You must first dredge the chunks of whatever in a little bit of flour, which will (hopefully) suspend them in the batter while it bakes. Also, they got very dark very fast. The recipe called for a high temp, and the recommendations I read for high altitude baking say to increase the temp, so that's probably why they browned too much. It didn't affect the taste, though! I chowed down on quite a few of these myself.
Here is the inside, with the chips at the bottom. Live and learn, I guess! These were a huge crowd pleaser, and I kinda wish I had one right now :) Also, my sister made these a few weeks ago for some friends and had great results too. I can't wait to try the Peanut Butter Cookie Cupcakes!
But next week, stay tuned for some Beatles themed cupcakes, in honor of the new Rock Band and box sets (which I have both pre-ordered)

Peaches and Cream cupcakes

2009-09-02T16:18:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we were kindly invited to dinner, so I offered to make dessert (shocking!). Since this is peach season in CO, I made peaches and cream cupcakes.
These were vanilla cupcakes with chunks of peaches inside, topped with a mascarpone frosting. Although the cupcakes turned out great, all the bits of peaches sunk to the bottom. Also, the bottoms of the cupcakes got a lot browner than the rest of the cupcakes, which I think is due to my (crappy) oven. Oh how I miss my convection oven!!
Anyways, The frosting was made of mascarpone and whipped cream, with a little bit of sugar. It was very creamy and light, not too sweet. I topped these with orange sugar to indicate the flavor. I had a ton left over, so I also sliced some peaches to top them off.
These were not very sweet, which I think was partly due to the peaches not being ripe enough. Next time I may try pureeing the peaches and adding that to the batter, to impart a more peachy flavor throughout. All in all, this was a great summery treat.

Sky Cake Part 2

2009-09-01T16:18:00.001-07:00

So, once again, I made what I call Sky Cake. I previously posted about this, but now I got Patton Oswalt's album, and was reminded of how hilarious he is. Also, it was our friend Jordan's birthday, and he went to the Patton show with us months ago, so I decided it was only appropriate to make sky cake for him. I love making this kind of cake, it's so fun and festive! Perfect for a birthday or celebration.

First I mixed up the batter, and I could only find 4 different colors, so that's what I did. I wasn't sure how much batter would fill up the pan, so I just heaped one spoonful after another until it was all done.I made sure not to make it a holiday cake, so I kept the red and green apart from each other. Although that's something to try in a few months!

I'm still adjusting to the altitude, so the cake got too brown, but it took forever to bake all the way through. Every time I bake something it's like learning how all over again. Once I unmolded the cake from the pan, you could really see all the layers.

I halved the cake so I could put frosting in between the layers, and the result was too cool. Although I know a few guys who'd have some "interesting" comments about this.

So I frosted it, with fluffy white buttercream, and topped it off with stars and moons, along with some iridescent glitter. What could evoke the sky more than that?

When we sliced into the cake, everyone was in for a sweet surprise. The cake was light and fluffy, although it did dry out a bit by the next day. But there really wasn't that much left by then :)
All in all, it was a great cake, a great day, a great birthday. I love this recipe, and will definitely make it a signature cupcake when I (someday) open my own bakery. And yes, I will call it Sky Cake :)

Mini-Vanilli cupcakes

2009-08-25T16:40:00.000-07:00

My first actual cupcake baking adventure in 5000+ elevation! I started with minis, since I figured they were harder to mess up. I did quite a bit of research, and found that I needed more moisture and less leavening to have recipes turn out great. So I estimated, and skimped on the baking powder, added about 1 tbsp more milk, and used jumbo eggs instead of regular. These turned out great! No problems whatsoever. I love making minis because they bake fast, are fast and easy to decorate, and you can eat more than one!

Featured on Cupcakes Take the Cake!

2009-08-16T09:09:00.000-07:00

So daily, I check the blog Cupcakes Take the Cake for news from the world of cupcakes. Much to my surprise, this morning my very own blog was mentioned! It's about many bloggers baking their way through Martha's Cupcakes book. Let me tell you, this has made my day, possibly even my week :) It has certainly encouraged me to continue baking and posting for the world to see. Thanks to the girls at CTTC for including me in what I consider to be the bees knees of cupcake blogs :) Now to get back to baking!!!!

Martha Challenge #12- cookies and cream cup-cheesecakes

2009-07-30T19:44:00.000-07:00

Cupcake Challenge #12: Oreo Cup-Cheesecakes!

It's been a while sine I've been able to bake, since we moved to Colorado! I finally got (most) of my kitchen stuff unpacked, so I was able to bake today! Today was National Cheesecake Day, and I've never made a cheesecake before, so I decided to tackle the challenge. I decided to make individual cheesecakes, in keeping with the cupcake theme, and Martha of course had the recipe for me.

These are cookies and cream mini cheesecakes, with an entire Oreo as the crust on the bottom.
These did not require a bain marie, which made it easier for me. I had no issues with altitude, since these had no leavening agent in them. They sunk a bit in the middle, which I'm guessing is due to overfilling. I wasn't sure how to tell if they were done. The recipe said to bake for 22 minutes, or until set. I checked them frequently, and they seemed ok at 22 minutes, but I probably could have let them bake a few more minutes. Then they had to cool in the fridge for 4 hours or more. My tast-tester said they were delicious, but maybe not firm enough in consistency. That's also perhaps why they sank. All in all, a good first attempt at cheesecake, and one more recipe down!

NKOTB cupcakes

2009-07-11T19:03:00.000-07:00

So, in honor of the New Kids concert tomorrow night, I made cupcakes! I'm actually going to bring them to the concert and see if I can give them to the guys. I follow them on twitter, so maybe I can make contact! I'm also trying to use up the contents of my fridge and pantry before I move next week. So I made Choc-Guinness cupcakes with vanilla-Guinness frosting. I had leftover 2 bottles of Guinness, and tons of butter, so that's what I made. This is my recipe, not Martha's, although she does have a stout recipe in her cupcake book that I haven't tried yet.
The frosting turned out a bit too runny for my liking, hence the blobby shape of it on the cupcakes. I'm keeping these in the fridge in hopes the frosting will set better.
I tinted fondant and busted out the good ol' cookie cutters to make the shapes. It's fun to work with, but a bit messy. My fingers are now red from the food coloring. A professional would have used gloves, but this is me, after all!
So, that's all the baking from me for a while. The movers are coming next week, and then I'll have to try my recipes at a higher elevation! I'll continue with the Tania/Martha project once I have everything unpacked at the new place. Now, off to clean the kitchen!

Cupcake Challenge #11- Blueberries and cream cupcakes

2009-06-29T01:18:00.000-07:00

Blueberry-Vanilla cupcakes topped with Whipped Cream and Blueberries. I made 24 minis and 24 regular sized.
These were simply vanilla cupcakes, with blueberries mixed in, topped with fluffy whipped cream and fresh blueberries. The recipe called for 2 cups of blueberries for the batter and more to put on top. I used a whole 2 pints in total, because I wanted to make sure each cupcake had enough blueberries. The regular ones had 3 or 4 a piece, but the minis had only 1 each.

Here they are right out of the oven, smelling fantastic!

I dug around my cupcake cabinet and found these blue striped liners. I love how you can see the blueberries through them, it lets you know what to expect when you take a bite! These would have been good also with just a sprinkling of powdered sugar.

Here's a finished cupcake all by itself.

This was a good recipe for the summertime, as blueberries are in all the markets. The whipped cream on top is light enough to not take away from the fresh taste of the fruit. The minis can be devoured in one bite!

Here's the inside, with the yummy blueberries.

I was concerned that they'd all fall to the bottom of the batter, but that didn't happen. I'm guessing it's because the blueberries are light enough, as opposed to a heavier fruit such as raspberries. In that case, most recipes recommend dusting the fruit (or whatever else) with flour before folding it in, so they will remain suspended in the batter and not fall to the bottom.

So, next recipe coming up is zucchini-spice, but I may hold off. When baking today, it got sooo hot in the kitchen, it was really unbearable, being 110 degrees outside. We'll have to wait for a day when it's only 105 before baking again :)

Cupcake Challenge #10- Banana pecan cupcakes with caramel buttercream

2009-06-26T13:17:00.000-07:00

Banana-pecan cupcakes with caramel buttercream. A brand new experience for me! Never made banana cupcakes or caramel buttercream before. These smelled so warm and homey while baking. I used fresh bananas of course, and toasted pecans both in the batter and on top as a garnish. This recipe made 33, instead of the indicated 28, and cooked in under 15 minutes!

Here they are right out of the oven, smelling so fantastic. I don't actually like to eat bananas, but the smell is great.

These were so moist and delicious, almost like a muffin. They would be great eaten as-is, with no frosting, but Martha recommends frosting, so that's what I did!

This frosting recipe was complicated, a variation on Swiss Merengue Buttercream, which always gives me problems. Since there were multiple steps, I really could have used an extra mixer bowl so I didn't have to clean it out before each step. First I had to cream the butter, and then make the caramel, which I had never done before. I may have let it cook a bit too long, but it still tasted great. Caramel is made by boiling a sugar syrup until golden brown, then adding heavy cream. once cooled, it's a gooey sticky mess, but oh so good.

Here's the finished caramel in the pan.

It actually wasn't as hard as I thought, and easy enough to clean up. Although I did use a trick I'd seen somewhere before. The recipe says to wash down the sides of the bowl with a wet pastry brush to prevent crystallization. I had seen a trick, where you simply put the lid of the pot on top whil it's boiling, and the condensation will trickle down to prevent the sugar crystals from forming. It worked like a charm!

While the caramel was cooling, I made the Swiss Merengue. I have made this a few times before and screwed it up a few times too, so I knew what to look for. Although I was a bit disappointed that Martha did not include any descriptions or pictures of what it's supposed to look like during the process. Once you beat the egg whites and sugar, then you add the butter, and the mixture usually looks curdled and all wrong. I've learned from experience to chill the mix before beating the ever loving shit out of it. Then it turns out great!

Here is the finished frosting, with caramel added:

Swiss Merenge Buttercream is a lot lighter and less sweet than an American buttercream. Although it uses sometimes twice as much butter, there's also a lot less sugar. It relies on beaten egg whites for volume and stiffness, while the other relies on a pound of powdered sugar. My mom prefers the Swiss Merengue Buttercream for its taste, but I prefer the American buttercream for its ease to make and its durability.

Here's a finished frosted cupcake, sans pecan topper.

All in all, this was a very challenging recipe, and I feel more confident about making Swiss Merengue Buttercream now. This would be a great trest for the fall, and these cupcakes could even be eaten without frosting for breakfast.
Next up: Blueberry cupcakes with whipped cream. So summery!

Cupcake Challenge #9- Tiramisu cupcakes

2009-06-23T15:40:00.001-07:00

Tiramisu cupcakes: vanilla sponge cake soaked in coffee syrup, topped with mascarpone frosting, sprinkled with cocoa powder. Deee-lish! I have made tiramisu cupcakes before, but I just used my regular vanilla cupcakes and topped them with mascarpone frosting. These are a little more involved. First of all, the cake itself is a sponge cake, very very light and airy. And this recipe called for infusing a vanilla bean in warm milk before adding it to the batter, which leaves little specks of vanilla in the baked cupcakes.

Here they are right out of the oven:

Then, I made a coffee syrup. The recipe called for adding marsala wine too, but I omitted that, mostly because I'd have to buy a whole bottle for only 1/4 cup worth. If I were making more than one batch of these, I'd do it, but not for just one use. The cupcakes were brushed with the coffee syrup multiple times. The recipe says to use 1/3 cup coffee and let it absorb into the cupcakes. I used maybe half of that, and they were soaked through.

Here are the cupcakes after brushing them with the coffee syrup:

They look a little messy and soggy, but they smelled wonderful! The mascarpone frosting was next, which was simply whipped cream folded into the cheese with a little bit of sugar. I also added a drop of vanilla, because it makes all frostings taste better :) I dolloped the frosting on top of the soaked cupcakes.

Here they are, so fluffy and mouth-watering!

The final step was to sprinkle cocoa powder on top, just like real tiramisu. These must be eaten the same day, because the coffee syrup makes the cupcakes too soggy to keep overnight. I like that the cake and frosting are both light and airy, it makes you feel not as bad when eating them! Although this recipe was a lotmore work than my own, I think it's better, and would definitely use it in the future.
Next up: Banana-Pecan cupcakes with Caramel Buttercream. Tasty!

Cupcake Challenge #8- Chocolate Malted cupcakes with vanilla frosting

2009-06-18T19:31:00.000-07:00

Chocolate malted cupcakes with fluffy vanilla frosting. I've never made anything with malted flavor before, because I don't really like it. Although I know chocolate and malted are a classic flavor combination, because my husband used to make chocolate malted milk a lot, back in the day :) These cupcakes rose quite high, with a nice domed top. Sometimes chocolate cupcakes tend to over-rise and then deflate in the middle, but these didn't. The batter was very runny, which made it difficult to scoop into the tins. This was due to the use of oil instead of butter. The recipe called for 1 cup of sour cream as well, but I only had a half cup. It didn't seem to make a big difference. Sour cream is often used in chocolate recipes to add tang and moisture, since they tend to dry out more than vanilla does.

Here they are out of the oven, not too dark chocolate, just enough.

And here's the final result, frosted and sprinkled. I thought chocolate sprinkles were an appropriate topping. The frosting is just your typical vanilla buttercream. Although, I used only 2 sticks of butter instead of 3, and had the perfect amount of frosting for 27 cupcakes.

These were a new recipe for me, and I'm glad to have tried it. The malted powder mixed with milk didn't smell very good to me, but I assume that's how it's supposed to smell. Now I have a whole contained of malted milk powder and no other use for it! Didn't try these, gonna get opinions from other people.
Next up is tiramisu cupcakes! I have made these before, using my own recipe. Let's see how Martha's stacks up!

Cupcake Challenge #7- Devil's food with chocolate ganache

2009-06-16T22:08:00.000-07:00

Cupcake recipe #7- chocolate overload!!! ( You can wipe away the drool now!)

Soooo delicious! Devil's food cake with a rich chocolate ganache frosting! The answer to any chocoholic's wish. These were a cinch to make, although the instructions were a little different than I was used to. The recipe called for melting the butter and sugar together before beating it, and the cocoa powder to be dissolved in hot water before adding it to the mix. Usually butter and sugar are creamed together and the cocoa is added with the flour as a dry ingredient.

Here they are fresh out of the oven:
These turned out very moist and light, I could eat 5 or 6 of the cake alone. The frosting however is super rich, and that I can only have a bit of. A ganache is only chocolate and cream, melted and cooled to the proper consistency. The cooling takes the longest amount of time, and waiting is difficult! But it turns out glossy and thick and easily spreadable without being too runny.

Here is my dessert this evening:

A glass of red wine and a chocolate cupcake.... a perfect pairing! :)
Next up is malted chocolate cupcakes, although I need to buy malted milk powder still, the store I was at today didn't have it!

Cupcake Challenge #6- Rhubarb cupcakes

2009-06-15T16:56:00.001-07:00

Ok, so this one was a real challenge. Rhubarb cupcakes? Never had rhubarb before! Its consistency is like celery, but softens when cooked.

Here it is all chopped up:
The recipe called for 2 cups diced in the actual cakes, then one additional cup chopped on top. The topping was whipped cream with a sugar syrup and rhubarb, but it said to serve immediately. The sugar syrup would no doubt make the cupcakes mushy if left out too long. Well, since I didn't know when they would be consumed, I opted to forgo the topping, serving them as is. I tried to think of some other kind of frosting to put on top, but I didn't want to take away from the rhubarb flavor itself with a super sweet buttercream. So these were naked. :)
They turned out great, a good choice for summertime, and I'd like to try them again with the recommended topping.
Next up: Devil's food cupcake with ganache topping. Chocolate overload!

Cupcake Challenge #5- Red Velvet with Cream Cheese frosting

2009-06-10T17:02:00.000-07:00

Ok, Day #5 of the Tania/Martha cupcakes challenge is red velvet, everyone's favorite. I've made this flavor quite a few times, with many different recipes. This one isn't the best recipe I've ever used, but it's good, very reliable, and likely to please everyone.

These are super red! The recipe called for oil instead of butter, which makes for a lighter cupcake, but the batter is also runnier, so it's a bit harder to scoop into the liners.

I glittered them! I had more frosting left over again. I usually pipe frosting on, it's faster and looks nicer I think, but this section of the cookbook is called "Swirled and Sprinkled", so I've been putting the frosting on with an offset spatula. Honestly, I think the only reason people love red velvet cupcakes is becasue they are red, and they are a cream cheese frosting delivery system.

I on the other hand, prefer to cake to the frosting. This one was super yummy! The slight cocoa taste to the cake is perfect, and the tangy frosting (just a bit) offsets that nicely. Tomorrow... rhubarb!! That will be a new experience!

Cupcake Challenge #4- Triple coconut cupcakes

2009-06-09T16:24:00.000-07:00

So, I took a bit of a break over the weekend, but here I am back again! These are coconut cupcakes with coconut frosting topped with shaved coconut, hence triple coconut cupcakes! The cakes themselves were easy enough, but the frosting was difficult. It's a traditional 7 minute frosting, except mine took more like 20 minutes. Although I had a few mishaps along the way, these turned out great! I didn't have a can opener to open the can of coconut milk, and my candy thermometer broke just as I was ready to use it, so I had to eyeball the cooked sugar mixture for the right temperature. The frosting took much longer than expected, and made a lot more than I needed. Unfortunately, you can't save this kind of frosting, it must be used immediately. I needed about 6 more cupcakes to use it all up. Oh well! They all turned out great anyways.

The cupcakes right out of the oven. This recipe made exactly 20.

Whipping the frosting- 20 minutes (or more) at full speed! My poor tired mixer!
One cupcake frosted, pre- coconut flakes.
A few comments on Martha's recipes so far: I like how each recipe yields exactly the right number of cupcakes, but some are 20, some 24, and some 36! I would have preferred just a dozen. Also, when the instructions say, beat till soft peaks form, an estimated time frame would be nice too. So if I think they're soft peaks but it hasn't been as long as the book recommends, I'd go a little longer. See what I mean? Tomorrow, everyone's favorite... red velvet!

Challenge Day 3: Yellow Buttermilk cupcakes with Fluffy Vanilla Frosting

2009-06-05T18:04:00.000-07:00

Day 3: Yellow buttermilk with fluffy vanilla frosting. These were fairly simple, plain cupcakes, a great crowd pleaser. I had run out of cake flour, so I used regular all purpose flour. I think the cake flour yields a more tender, lighter cake, but these were great anyways.
They baked for 17 minutes in my convection oven. The batter made 38, instead of the 36 indicated. A few cupcakes melted over, but most of them came out with a nice domed top.

I frosted them with your traditional american buttercream, butter and powdered sugar plus vanilla, and topped them with yellow sanding sugar. Very cheery I think! This is what people think of when you say cupcake: sweet frosting, great moist cake, very nostalgic.
Probably going to take a few days off, start again on Monday. Next up is coconut cupcakes, although I'm having a hard time finding all the ingredients: I still need coconut milk and coconut extract (they're very coconut-y).

Cupcake Challenge Day 2- Carrot cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting

2009-06-04T17:01:00.000-07:00

Day 2: carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. They turned out so well! The recipe called for golden raisins, which I usually don't add, but I did this time. Again, the recipe yielded exactly what it said it would: 24 cupcakes. And they baked for 19 minutes at 325 degrees convection, instead of 24-28 minutes at 325 conduction as instructed. These were not as heavy as most carrot cake recipes are, and they smelled divine. Although I'm not a fan of carrot cake, I do so love the smell.
Here they are after baking. A few got too big and collapsed, I may have overfilled the cups, even though I used the same scooper for all of them.

Here are a few all frosted and decorated. I love sprinkles! :) These were a cinch to make, didn't even need a mixer, except for the frosting. Also, no butter in carrot cake, just vegetable oil. But the frosting called for 2 sticks of butter and 12 ounces of cream cheese, which seemed like a lot. I did have a bit leftover, which I'll save for the red velvet cupcakes next week !

I brought them to another local fire department, and they were very excited to have them. I'm excited for tomorrow, yellow buttermilk cupcakes with fluffy vanilla frosting. A classic! So far, I'm really having a good time with this project, although I am going through a lot of butter :)

Cupcake Challenge Day 1- Chocolate Chip cupcakes with Dark Chocolate Frosting

2009-06-03T17:33:00.000-07:00

Day 1 is complete! After picking up ingredients for the rest of the week this morning, I got started on recipe #1. These are chocolate chip cupcakes with a dark chocolate frosting. I followed the recipe to the letter. The only problem I had was with the egg whites. You're supposed to beat them to stiff peaks, but I wasn't sure what that was, and there wasn't an explanation of what it's supposed to look like or how long it takes. When it got to the stage I thought it should be, I added the rest of the batter, but it all turned liquid again. The cupcakes turned out fine, so I guess I did it well enough. I ended up with 30 cupcakes, just as the recipe indicated. I usually end up with more than usual, so it was nice that this turned out great. I baked them for 16 minutes in a convection oven, although the recipe calls for 22 minutes in a regular conduction oven. The convection really speeds up the baking time.
Here are the cupcakes before they go in:
And after...

Making the frosting was different than I'm used to. The recipe called for 4.5 sticks of butter and 1.5 pounds of chocolate. Wow! The result was a super rich chocolate frosting, although it was a little too runny for my liking. Maybe because it was so hot today? But it tastes amazing! And I love how the chocolate is super shiny and glossy.
Frosted cupcakes:Scrumptious! And I had to sample one myself:All in all, a great recipe. The cupcake is light and airy, since it uses only egg whites, and the frosting is decadent. I piled a lot on, because I had a lot, but it could do with much less, as to not overpower the cupcake. I dropped the 29 cupcakes off at the local fire department, those guys could use a sugar rush :)
Tomorrow... carrot.

Tania/Martha Cupcake Challenge

2009-06-02T19:33:00.000-07:00

In honor of the new cookbook, Martha Stewart's Cupcakes, I challenge myself to re-create each of the 175 recipes in the book. This challenge is also inspired by the new movie, Julie/Julia, about a woman who blogged about recreating all of Julia Child's recipes. Since I prefer baking to cooking, I plan on cupcakes only. I'll post pictures each day of my results, along with comments and observations. I plan to give away the cupcakes I make each day to senior homes, firestations, or to anyone who'd like to have them. I look forward to this challenge, and hope that I will inspire others to get in the kitchen and start experimenting. Happy Baking!

Sprinkle overload

2009-05-18T12:38:00.000-07:00

So, we'll be moving soon, and I wanted to start getting rid of some excess stuff in the house. So I made chocolate guinness cupcakes, since I already had all the ingredients for that, and topped them with a smorgasboard of sprinkles! Whatever sprinkles that were holiday themed and half-used, they went on the cupcakes.

The result was very colorful. Altho I used a ton of sprinkles, I still have a ton left! I may have to do this a few more times before the move.

Cupcakes in Boulder

2009-05-09T12:55:00.001-07:00

On a recent trip to Boulder to scout apartments (we're moving!) I checked out Tee & Cakes, right off Pearl Street Mall. It was nestled between a chocolate store and a gelato store. Sugar overload! The bakery is super cute, selling cupcakes, cakes, various baked goods, and T's! I bought 2 cupcakes, chocolate and vanilla, to give to my friend. Unfortunately, they managed to tip over in transit. :(

Altho they didn't look so great anymore, they still tasted wonderful!

Cinco de Mayo cupcakes- two kinds!

2009-05-04T15:25:00.000-07:00

I couldn't decide what to make for Cinco de Mayo, so I polled my friends on facebook and they said to make both choices: spicy chocolate and margarita. So here they are!

Spicy chocolate cupcakes! I used dark Valrhona cocoa powder, a dash of espresso, 1 tbsp cinnamon, and a dash of chili powder to make these decadent treats. Everyone's favorite, and a true Tania invention!

Then, we have margarita cupcakes! Lime and tequila combines for the best, most refreshing sugary bite! The rims are rolled in sugar and salt. I've made these before, and they're always a crowd-pleaser.

trip to Asheville- with cupcakes!

2009-04-23T11:14:00.000-07:00

So, last weekend I was in Asheville, NC for my mom's birthday. I made a point to check out at least one cupcake shop while I was there. We went to Short Street Cakes on Haywood Rd. It's a cute little shop that mainly deals in custom orders, but also has cupcakes available for retail.

We had 3: the Deep Dark Chocolate, the Almond and Chocolate, and the Caramel Apple. The chocolate frosting was amazing! And also vegan, I believe. The staff were friendly and answered all my questions. So thanks to Short Street Cakes for the yummy treats!

Grapefruit cupcakes

2009-04-16T16:58:00.001-07:00

A few months ago my friend Donna gave me grapefruits from her tree! I squeezed and zested them, to use in cupcakes later, and put everything in the freezer. Today I used about half the zest and juice from 3 large grapefruits for a dozen cupcakes. I used a traditional vanilla recipe, reduced the vanilla, added about a tablespoon of zest and use the juice instead of milk. They are tart and yummy! The sweetness of the frosting is cut by the tartness of the grapefruit. I tinted the frosting slightly yellow, added sprinkles and glitter. They're all packed up and ready to go on the plane with me tomorrow. I'm going to try and hit a few cupcakeries in Asheville while I'm there.

Easter Peeps!

2009-04-13T11:53:00.000-07:00

My favorite Easter candy is marshmallow Peeps! In fact, I prefer to eat them a bit stale. So I made Easter Peeps cupcakes! They are carrot-ginger cupcakes, with lemon cream cheese frosting, tinted pale green. I topped them with chicks and bunny sprinkles, then with either Peeps or jellybeans. Can you believe not everyone likes Peeps? They were a big hit at the Easter BBQ. I just love how colorful they are!

Chocolate Easter Cupcakes

2009-04-07T10:33:00.000-07:00

So, the other day, my friend Amy suggested that I make Cadbury Creme Egg cupcakes for Easter. So after some research and thought, I decided the easiest way would be to make chocolate cupcakes with the eggs inside them. Then when you cut them open, the yummy egg centers are gooey. So, I put Cadbury mini and regular sized eggs into the cupcake batter before I baked them, and they seemed to turn out great. Until I cut them open. The eggs had sunk to the bottom, and the chocolate shell had hardened, making it hard to eat. The larger eggs did a little bit better, but still didn't give me the results I wanted. Back to the drawing board! I'll have to assemble my own version I think, and fill the cupcakes with pastry creme after baking, to give the appearance of a Cadbury Egg. Oh well! They were still delicious!
Here's the inside:

Peanut butter and jelly cupcakes

2009-04-04T12:02:00.000-07:00

So, after reading a post on cupcakes take the cake, http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com/2009/04/would-you-eat-peanut-butter-and-jelly.html, I decided to post about my own peanut butter and jelly cupcakes. I've tried this twice, with differing results. The second time was definitely better. These were the first try, a little messy looking. I put dollops of jelly on top to show what flavor was filled inside.

These are also peanut butter cupcakes, filled with jelly, topped with peanut butter frosting. I added purple sanding sugar to indicate the flavor of jelly inside. I just love cupcakes with a surprise! Both times the liners fell away from the baked cupcakes, not sure why. These are super rich and must be enjoyed with a cold glass of milk.

Springtime!

2009-03-31T12:28:00.000-07:00

The weather is so beautiful here in Phoenix, so springtime cupcakes are only appropriate! Here are fantastic orange creamsicle cupcakes, made with oranges off my very own tree! They're also filled with orange cream for a yummy surprise. They're a big hit and remind me of my childhood, when the ice cream truck would come around every evening.
ps- there is actually an ice cream truck in my neighborhood today! But sadly, all the ice cream varieties are different from what I remember.

Leave the gun, take the cannoli

2009-03-24T12:43:00.001-07:00

So last week we went to a free screening in the park of the Godfather. One of my favorite lines from the movie includes cannolis, so I made cannoli cupcakes! They are an almond cake, filled with traditional cannoli ricotta filling, and topped with a vanilla buttercream with chocolate chips. I shared them with people sitting nearby, and everyone loved them. I just can't resist a theme!

I cut open a cupcake to see the filling, but it's hard to distinguish because the cake is about the same color. You can kind of tell, it's the denser-texture stripe in the middle. Although I had put chocolate chips in the filling, not every cupcake got some, and this one didn't. It was still delicious! Even better after being refrigerated for a while.
I love trying new recipes, because I always learn something in the process.

Sugar-Free

2009-03-19T10:45:00.000-07:00

One of my friends is diabetic, so I've been experimenting with sugar-free or reduced sugar recipes. I've found it easy to do in the cupcakes, but harder in the frosting. I use agave nectar in the cakes, which is sweeter than sugar, so you use a lot less, but it's all natural and the body metabolizes it slower, so it doesn't cause a spike in insulin. But for the frosting, it's more difficult. I usually use an easy buttercream, with multiple cups of powdered sugar. I've also attempted a swiss merenge buttercream, which only uses a small amount of regular sugar. This is the easiest to convert to sugar free. I use either agave nectar or stevia, a natural sugar alternative, in lesser amounts. This technique is a lot harder, so it's taken me a few more tries to get it right. But the result is yummy! No one can tell these cupcakes are sugar-free! And although it's not wise for anyone, much less a diabetic, to eat all 6, one or two is ok.

St. Patrick's Day 2009

2009-03-17T10:35:00.001-07:00

Here are the photos from this year's batch of Irish cupcakes! Again, chocolate-Guinness cupcakes with (green) Bailey's buttercream. So yummy! I used a different cocoa powder this time, and it was amazing! I'll have to continue using it in the future. My husband ate 3 last nite :)

St. Paddy's Day

2009-03-13T10:11:00.000-07:00

It's almost time, once again, for my most requested cupcake. I call it an Irish Car Bomb, after the drink, because it's a chocolate Guinness cupcake topped with Bailey's buttercream. It's amazing! A big hit with the fellows, for sure. These are pics of last year's, since I'm not baking this year's until Monday. They are super yummy, and the only cupcake that I make that I can eat more than 1 of. Although they're great any time of year, they're best enjoyed on March 17th. I even got some special decorations for this year's batch. Come back on Monday and check it out!