Martha Challenge #40- Coconut-Pecan Cupcakes

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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.