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

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 #28- S'mores cupcakes

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!