Cupcake Hero Anniversary! (and Happy Birthday to ME!)

Happy Blog-o-versary to Cupcake Hero!!! In celebration, the theme this month is a combination of past flavors.

My entry combines lime, green, liquor, cranberry, and marshmallow. AND, it feature Barbie pink frosting - perfect for my Birthday!

Cosmo Cupcakes!

Marshmallow Fondant Limes

1- 16oz bag of mini marshmallows

2-6 tbsp water

2lbs confectioners sugar

1/2 tsp lime juice

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

Frosting:

3 cups confectioners’ sugar

Pinch of salt

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

To make Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.

Place eggs and sugar in mixer and beat on medium with paddle attachment 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 just combined

Immediately divide batter equally among the 12 cupcake liners. They will be more than 2/3 full, but that's ok, because these don't rise too much.

Sprinkle a little pinch of cranberries on top of each filled liner and put in hot oven immediately.

Bake for 20-25 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.

To Make 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

To Make limes

melt 2 tbsp water and marshmallows in a double boiler

in a mixer fitted with dough hook (all greased with shortening), mix melted marshmallows and 2/3 powdered sugar until combined.

Add remaining powdered sugar, and the lime juice.

keep mixing on low until combined.

grease the ball of fondant and wrap in plastic wrap.

store in fridge over night before using.

knead in green food coloring until lime-colored

roll out, cut with a circle cutter, then cut each circle in half with a sharp knife.
let dry out and then use to garnish cupcakes.

Cupcake Hero entry coming soon...

Since this is the blog-o-versary of CH, the theme ingredient is any combination of past ingredients! So here's a hint about what I have in store: My ingredients are lime, cranberry, liquor, and (hopefully) marshmallow!

...Stay Tuned.

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.