Variation on Martha's cupcakes: Red Hot Velvet!

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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!