SHF: Cupcakes

The challenge for Sugar High Fridays this time was 'cupcakes'. Normally, I'd welcome an excuse to play with cupcakes, especially after the cookie crusade I've been on lately. But I just wasn't feeling it. I have an idea (that I'm excited about) for this month's cupcake hero, but I feel like it has sapped my cupcake creativity. And I didn't want to cheat and enter it into both. The way I look at it, the point of participating in these sorts of things is to push myself to try new things; if I'm doubling up, there's no point in participating in more! So... last night, I sat down with my collection of cookbooks, and started with the ones I hadn't baked from yet. I went through a couple in search of a recipe that didn't require a grocery store run, and finally settled on the Martha Washington Chocolate Mousse Cake from:

The challenge was to do something a little different from a typical cupcake, and on this I may have strayed. It is essentially a chocolate/chocolate cupcake. It's just a bit more grown-up. There's ganache instead of butter cream, and more importantly, there's chocolate mousse filling! The end result was far from Duncan Hines cupcakes with a clown on top served at a 6 year old's birthday party. These had a decadence to them. (But I couldn't resist adding a spot of color to the otherwise brown-on-brown color scheme that tastes wonderful, but doesn't inspire me in terms of presentation.)

Here's the recipe, modified from "City Tavern: Baking and Dessert Book":

Cake

1/2 lb butter (2 sticks)

4 eggs

1 c sugar

5 c cake flour

1/2 c cocoa powder

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 c whole milk (Mine had expired - oops!, so I used 1/2 half and half, and 1/2 skim, and it seemed to work)

Preheat oven to 350F

Beat butter and sugar on med speed until light and fluffy

add eggs, one at a time, beating each until blended

sift together dry ingredients

add dry ingredients and milk, alternately, on low speed until just combined

fill lined cupcake tins a little past 3/4 - these guys are thick, and don't rise as much as other cupcakes

(This is the best batter I've ever had in my life ... seriously! I think I probably ate at least 3 cupcakes worth of batter before it even made it in the oven. It's amazing!)

bake 20-25 minutes

Mousse

2 oz semisweet chocolate

1/4 c heavy cream

2 egg, separated

(subject to revision - I am putting in amounts from memory at the moment)

Melt chocolate in a double boiler

whisk in egg yolks

set aside for 1 min to cool

whip heavy cream in a chilled mixer bowl, with a chilled whisk, until soft peaks form - cover in plastic wrap and put in fridge to chill

in a clean, dry, mixing bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form

fold chocolate and whipped cream together, gently

gently fold in egg whites

cover and chill for at least 1 hour

ganache

6 oz semisweet chocolate (I used ghiradelli)

1/2 c heavy cream

bring cream just to a boil, then pour over chocolate

let sit for 1 min, allowing cream to start melting the chocolate

whisk together, then cover and refrigerate until cooled to desired consistency (I'm impatient, so I didn't let it cool for long, and just dipped the tops of the cupcakes in for a ganache-glaze)

to assemble

place mousse in pastry bag, fitted with a metal tip (I use a medium-sized tip. Usually, I use a round tip, but I couldn't find the one I wanted, and used a star tip this time - basically, it doesn't really matter)

insert tip in top of cupcakes and squeeze filling into inside of cupcake

dip top of cupcake in ganache to coat

add a sprinkle ;)

Cupcake Hero - cocoa OR Ugliest Cupcake Ever!

This was a challenge. I prefer to bake with chocolate, not cocoa powder. I am comfortable it - the way it melts, combines, and tastes. My past attempts to use cocoa powder have been disappointing. Admittedly, I have only used Hershey's in past, and I have not used recommended recipes, but recipes found on boxes and cans, etc., but I really have been disappointed with past results. So... I try again!

I started by investing in some good cocoa. I didn't go with the recommended Askinosie Cocoa Powder. I have no good excuse other than fear of their shipping charges. Instead, I bought a kilo (which, may have been a little overboard) of Valrhona cocoa powder. I fell in love as soon as I took it out of the box. There is actually something erotic about the feel of a bag of good cocoa on your hand. I feels so fine, even through the bag. Seriously. This is almost the same high that I get from wandering aisles of books (in a library or a bookstore). Yeah, it's that good.

As some of you may have noticed, I'm on a banana kick. I love them. I love them more when they are combined with chocolate. So I opted for a banana chocolate cupcake for this challenge. I used 2 recipes from one of my so-far-unused cookbooks, Cupcakes!

I used the chocolate portion of the Neapolitan cupcake recipe to make the chocolate batter, and the banana cupcake recipe for the banana portion. I halved the banana recipe and did some impressive math (at least for me) and halved the whole recipe for the Neapolitan cupcakes but tripled, then halved the cocoa/milk addition to the recipe to make it all chocolate.

I was surprised at just how liquid the banana batter was and how un-liquid the chocolate was. I had to revise my original plan of piping them into the tin to get the same effect as a soft-serve swirl cone. Instead, I just dumped in the banana and then piped in a chocolate center. Right? Right!

Baked at 350 for about 15-20 minutes.

I had visions of filling this with whipped ganache from the Junior's cookbook, then topping it with normal ganache and a candied banana slice. What a disaster.

The cupcake center (the chocolate part) was way to dense to even poke through, much less fill. So, no filling.
I went ahead with the ganache topping. That was fine.
Then I thought to pipe the whipped ganache on top to make it prettier. It probably would have been glorious, if I'd waited until everything had cooled. Oops. Instead, it started out beautiful but has since turned into a gooey, drippy mess.
Oh yeah! The bananas! Basically, they were way to gooey and buttery to be considered a topping. Why did I go ahead and sit them on top? Because I make bad decisions.

So tonight (after a night out with the girls, and before embarking on a 5.5 hour early morning drive), I plan to try to cover it all up with some banana buttercream. It'll hide all the messiness, right?

Update later, hopefully with something presentable.

Ice Cream Cupcakes

I was inspired by Cupcake Project's ice cream cupcake challenge. I had a huge bag of strawberries in my freezer, and had thought that they'd make a good ice cream. Then, I found vanilla ice cream in a 1/2 gallon jug from the local creamery in my grocery store. It seemed like the universe was suggesting that I make strawberry ice cream, and of course that meant that the cake had to be chocolate!

I used a star-shaped pan to bake the cupcake in, and then used the same pan to freeze the soft ice cream in. I cut the cupcake in half, and placed the moulded ice cream in there, and then froze it all together. I served it covered in hot fudge with a strawberry. :)

As it turned out, the ice cream didn't come together perfectly, and I'm not sure why. So, no more trying ice cream in a bottle. It did freeze solidly in the freezer, but I think the end result was closer to ice milk than ice cream... and that doesn't make me happy! However, the cake froze much better than I hoped, and was actually quite good, even right out of the freezer. The combination was definitely a good decision, and the ice cream, while not amazing, still tasted OK.

Cosmo cupcakes

I love alcohol, pink, and sugar, so these were a must! I found a blog (which unfortunately appears to be have been abandoned) that is exclusively cocktail-based cupcake recipes, and I really wanted to try the cosmos. I was invited to a crawfish boil this weekend and promised to bring baked goodies. I took the rice krispy treats and these, and they were a real hit!

I thought I'd go ahead and reprint the recipe here for your convenience.

Ingredients

For Cake:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs (room temperature)
3/4 cup unsalted butter
2 tablespoons of triple sec
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup dried cranberries

For Frosting:
3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
Pinch of salt
A stick of room temperature butter
2 tablespoons of sweetened lime juice (such as roses)
1 tablespoon of milk
A few drops of red food coloring
1 lime for garnish


Be especially careful not to open the oven during the first 20 minutes of baking as it will increase the chances of your cupcakes falling flat on their butts. This recipe has a little extra weight on top also due to the cranberries so just trust me on this one and keep your sticky fingers off the oven door for the first twenty minutes. The cupcakes when done should be golden brown and irresistible looking. (I know one of mine never made it to the frosting stage!)



For Cake:Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with cupcake liners. Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and give it a quick stir to combine. Place eggs and sugar in a bowl and beat on medium with an electric mixer until light and foamy. About 2 minutes. Melt butter (about 1min in microwave) and pour over eggs and sugar whilst beating. Add triple sec to eggs, sugar and butter mixture then turn mixer to low. Add half the dry ingredients to the mixer. Add milk and orange juice Add remaining dry ingredients. Continue mixing until remaining dry ingredients are combined (no more than a minute) being careful not to over mix the batter. Immediately divide batter equally among the 12 cupcake liners. I like to use an ice cream scoop to do this. Helps keep each cupcake uniform size. Sprinkle a little pinch of cranberries on top of each filled liner and put in hot oven immediately. Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick stuck into the middle of the cupcakes comes out clean, with no crumbs. Place on a baking sheet to cool.
When cupcakes are completely cooled you can begin to make the frosting.Place 1 cup of confectioners’ sugar, salt and butter in a bowl and cream together using a stand or electric mixer on high until light and fluffy. Turn the mixer to low, add half of the remaining confectioners’ sugar, the lime juice and milk, then the remaining half of the sugar. Turn mixer to high and beat until fluffy and of piping consistency. Add food coloring until the color of the frosting looks similar to Barbie pink Frost cooled cupcakes in your favorite way Garnish with a slice of lime

Giant Cupcake!

I finally got a chance to use my new pan! One of my friends has a birthday tomorrow, so we went out to lunch (and shopping) to celebrate. I thought this sounded like a great excuse to bake a giant cupcake, so out came the pan!

I have a few recipes that I've been looking forward to trying out, but everyone else seems certain that red velvet is the way to go. After weaseling out of making little red velvet cupcakes for tomorrow, I felt that I did have to give in to the birthday girl's request today. So... I tried a new recipe. I can usually depend on Southern Living not to lead me astray (because they believe in butter as much as I do), so I went with one of their recipes. Because of the shape of the giant cupcake pan, I had to leave it in the oven for a little over an hour and a half. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, since it was so deep, but I still would be happier if it would cook more quickly! I'm impatient. I also used the Southern Living recipe for cream cheese icing. I was afraid that I would need more than one batch of the icing, but I think it was actually a bit more than I needed, with the shape of the cake. The icing was also a little less sweet, and a little softer than I might normally make, but I was happy with it. I imagine that t could have made it a bit stiffer and sweeter by adding more powdered sugar, but frankly, it sounded like too much work.

Tomorrow, it's regular-sized cupcakes and rice krispy treats!

Charleston Recap

I made a special point of making the girls swing by the Cupcake bakery in Charleston so that I could try them out and return with yummy pictures. Unfortunately, they had signs asking that no pictures be taken in the store, so I had to settle for a picture from their website.

I chose a chocolate peanut butter cupcake. There was no way I could even sample more than one after all the sweets we had already eaten. Hot pralines are irresistible! The cupcake was good, but not amazing. The icing looked lovely piled high on the cupcake, but I think presentation has to come after taste. The icing was wonderful (better than the fairly plain cake), but there was way too much of it. The cupcake was smaller even than normal (not filling the liner), so there really was more icing than cake. Boo! Still, I loved the peanut butter icing; with 1/4 as much, it would have been better.