Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Lemon Buttermilk Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream Frosting, 02/24


Thanks to the wonderful southern California weather and very fruitful lemon trees (thanks Mom and Art!), I had an abundance of lemons in my refrigerator, taking up room, but I felt too bad to let them turn bad. So I found a new lemon cupcake recipe, this time from 125 Best Cupcake Recipes, for my next cupcake. Although I tend to have issues with this book because the cupcakes don't rise very well (I have decided to just amend each recipe to include baking soda), these cupcakes rose very well, and I added a little extra zest for that super-lemony taste, just in case. :) The frosting took a little time to decide, because I wanted to do something new, but couldn't decide what type of frosting to make. I settled on a Lemon Buttercream (recipe here) that, when mixed, was absolutely light and airy and, texture-wise, fabulous (couldn't taste it--Lent, remember?). For the frosting technique, I used what I think Hello, Cupcake! calls the "Rustic" Frosting technique. I plopped a glob of frosting in the middle and fanned it out to the edges, lifting the knife up at the end of each movement (girls of the '80s, imagine feathering your hair, but with frosting--that kind of wrist snap!).
So because I have absolutely no taste information on these cupcakes, here are the "reviews" from lunch: "Enough zest in the frosting to make it taste like lemon;" "The buttermilk reminds me of buttermilk pancakes I make;" "I can taste the buttermilk;" "They're so light and airy!" Those are the specifics. So to review, not too buttermilk-y, but enough to contribute to a light and airy texture, enough lemon in both the cupcake and the frosting, and good enough for seconds!!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting, 02/17


Milk and cookies anyone? These cupcakes were unique on a couple levels. First of all, they really were like chocolate chip cookie in cupcake form. The batter was a little denser, the cupcake came out a bit heavier and chewier. These cupcakes were from Crazy About Cupcakes, although I must admit I adapted them a little bit. I added mini chocolate chips to the batter (which did NOT sink to the bottom) in addition to the topping the book suggested (a mixture of chocolate chips and brown sugar on top of the cupcake before the frosting). I would have nixed this component of the cupcake, though, and instead just filled the cupcake up to the top, instead of halfway to the top as the book directed. To compensate for a lower cupcake, I swirled the frosting, which was also a new attempt on my part to create my own little recipe. So I already found my perfect cream cheese frosting recipe (to my personal liking--not necessarily the perfect combination and consistency for all), and instead of the last 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, I added cocoa powder. Although it was less cream cheese-y than I had wanted, the frosting came out very light and airy--not what I expected from cream cheese frosting. It almost had the texture of a mousse, which pretty much rocked. I enjoyed making these cupcakes because all pieces were new, and I have discovered I like finding minor adaptations to make them my own creation. Also because it was the last cupcake (or sweet for that matter) that I will be tasting without the punishment of my own self-inflicted penance because I gave up sweets--cupcakes and all--for Lent.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Pina Colada Cupcakes with Pineapple Pudding Frosting; Valentines Day Mini Cupcakes, 02/10


There were two cupcake themes today. First of all it was Claudia's birthday, and her request was from one of my favorite cookbooks, but not one I ever expected to use for Cupcake Wednesday--Hungry Girl!!!! I kid you not, these books (and website) has changed my life. Healthy, low-cal options for "regular" food, like cupcakes, dips, ONION RINGS. But I digress. So the first cupcakes were pina colada, and the frosting is a mixture of pudding, cream cheese and pineapple that tastes divine (I could eat it by the spoonful). The great thing about these cupcakes is that--despite the few ingredients--they are SUPER moist. In fact, they are such a favorite I was threatened by my brother if I did not bring some home (so as to not repeat the Runts Cupcake incident--oops!). They will reappear--Courtney is changing her request to these. So seriously, BUY THIS BOOK because it ROCKS.
The second installment was inspired from Hello, Cupcake!, a valentines day theme (and as much as I despise this holiday--and no I'm not lonely--I thought they were cute) that looked easy enough. I made some mini cupcakes from last week's batter, and then just a chocolate cake batter mix to make little chocolate ones. Then some big marshmallows and lots of valentines candy transforms these cupcakes into a box of chocoloates!!! Special shout out to mom for saving the heart shaped box. And from far away, they actually kind of look like chocolates (to quote Cher from Clueless: "It's like a Monet...from far away it looks good...")!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

White Chocoate Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting, 02/03



There is really only one thing that the phrase "White Chocolate" conjures up in my mind--the guy that had it tattooed on his arm with whom my friend thought it would be funny to set me up. We both got a good laugh out of that and occasionally reference him (but only to make fun of someone as lame as he has to be). But the cupcake recipe did sound good, I hadn't tried it yet, and I had white chocolate chips. The cupcake recipe is from Crazy About Cupcakes, from which I have yet to experience an icky cupcake. They are definitely flavorful with not only white chocolate chips but melted white chocolate in the batter as well. The frosting has a story behind it. I just used Pillsbury Vanilla Frosting, but there was a purpose (and laziness was not it). In the book Hello, Cupcake, they discuss how the store-bought frosting holds color better than homemade, and since I had the idea of coloring it, I stuck with store-bought and will save homemade frosting for next week. So, obviously, I dyed the frosting orange, but then rolled the cupcake in orange sprinkles (pour a whole bunch into a shallow bowl so that you never see the bottom of the bowl, that way the frosting does not stick to the bowl). And to celebrate the near-end of basketball season (high school--one of the Cupcake Wednesday-ers is the coach here), I designed it like a basketball--or as close as I could. The inspiration came from two places--Hello Cupcake for the sprinkles part (they have this AWESOME cupcake platter of "pool balls" for the pool lover that uses color sprinkles for the different colors of the balls) and Martha Stewart's cupcake book for the actual basketball. She, however, used black licorice strings for the design, and for the life of me I could not find them, so I just piped chocolate frosting dyed black instead. Then I thought they looked like spiderwebs on a Halloween cupcake, so I lined a few with white frosting. I'm not sure which looks more authentic but the whole cupcake was a neat concept and I'm glad I learned the whole sprinkle thing because it really does add to the decoration aspect of the cupcake and there are so many directions you can go!

Monday, February 1, 2010

Crazy Cake, Friday, January 29th


Alright, so it's not Wednesday and it's not a cupcake but I have to display this newest creation--CRAZY CAKE!! For Kelli's REAL birthday, I had been saving this cake for about a year. She sent me a picture of this cake on another website, and asked how on earth this was possible. I did some clicking and found the process, except I added my own little touches. First of all, it is just a regular cake mix (Fresh and Easy), and made according to the box (this is different than the other example, which did it the "Weight Watchers" way). I divided the batter into 4 portions of 1 cup, and two portions of 1/2 cup.Three colors made up each of the round cakes, because I wanted three colors per layer. Because of the watery nature of this batter, I tried my best to place a little cardboard divider as I was pouring so it didn't spread out too much--it worked out just ok. Bake the cake according to the directions, and then I repeated the process for the second cake while layer one cooled off. I even sliced off the top so it was as flush as possible (it wasn't 100 percent successful, but good enough). After everything had cooled off, I spread a little vanilla frosting on the top of the bottom layer, and put the top layer on, adjusting for maximum color exposure once cut. My next step (a day later) was to frost the cake with Kelli's favorite frosting, Vanilla Cream Frosting, and it frosted very well. I was unsure of how well I would know how to frost a cake without making unsightly dents in the frosting, but this frosting did not pull on the cake or do anything that would make my nightmares come true. I dyed some leftover Pillsbury Vanilla Frosting purple (Kel's favorite), and piped on some shells on the top and the bottom. There are so many different angles you can take with this cake (Cardinal and Gold anyone? :P ) for so many different occasions, and it's really not very hard. The one suggestion I would make is to have a second person there to help you pour (I was standing there wishing my cat Nan had opposable thumbs to help me--nothing came of it though).