November 2009

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(This week’s recipe came from “Cupcakes Galore!” by Gail Wagman.)

For Halloween, I wanted to bake something that would invoke childhood. Halloween, no matter how old you are, is always about dressing up and candy. And when you’re older, booze. So when I saw the Chocolate Malt Cupcake in Gail Wagman’s cookbook, I knew I had to give it a try.

The recipe started off with an incredibly light cupcake batter that included Ovaltine. (“Be…sure…to…drink…your…Ovaltine? A crummy commercial?”). This batter is so light that it’s scary. It seems more like frosting than batter. Getting it into the cupcake tins was kind of a nightmare:
Chocolate Malt Cupcakes

Chocolate Malt Cupcakes

They baked up fine, if a little fragile. Light cupcakes require a really light hand, which I sometimes don’t have. It’s why I like heartier fare:
Chocolate Malt Cupcakes

The recipe included crushed Whoppers candy in the batter, which I wasn’t a fan of. I feel like the Ovaltine got the malt aspect across just fine. The other weird thing was that the cupcake papers started pulling away from the cupcakes! I think it’s because the batter was so light that it didn’t even stick to the papers. Weird.

The frosting was much easier. And tasty!!! Chocolate malt is actually a pretty good flavor when it’s not on the inside of a Whopper and all crunchy:
Chocolate Malt Frosting

To make these the ultimate in Halloween cupcakes, I had to top them with candy! I picked up some miniature candy bars at the grocery store and topped each cupcake with a candy:
Candy wrappers

Chocolate Malt Cupcakes

These went over very well at work. I carried them around to different offices and forced people to say, “Trick or treat.”

I also made some Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cinnamon Rum Frosting (Danae over at The Busty Baker gave me the recipe for that delicious, delicious frosting) to take to my sister-in-law’s Halloween Party. They were also a success, but I neglected to take photos of the process. This is all I’ve got:
Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cinnamon Rum Frosting

(I ran out of frosting for those last two cupcakes, so they just got some powdered sugar.)

Next up, a Free Form Apple Tart!

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(This week’s recipe came from “Cupcakes Galore!” by Gail Wagman.)

I’m sooo behind! Eek! My job’s kept me really busy (I started daytime hours, so while I have a more normal schedule, it also means I have more time to read, watch TV or play video games rather than update my blog). But fear not, I haven’t missed a week of baking.

A few weeks ago, I made Apple Tarte Tatin Cupcakes. This is another cheater post, as I made these earlier this year to take on TV with me when Carmen Owens and I pimped CupcakeCampColumbus on a morning show. But these cupcakes didn’t really get their due, and I think they’re pretty fantastic, so here they are again!

The cake part of this cupcake is a pretty straightforward brown sugar cake:
Apple Tarte Tartin cupcake batter

The cool part comes with the apples:
Apples for Tarte Tatin cupcakes

The apples are sliced into 16 pieces and then fried in butter in a skillet. Tip: Make sure you get firm apples. I think I got Braeburns or something, but they started falling apart as soon as they hit the pan. I managed to salvage enough for the cupcakes, but it was a pain!
Apples for Tarte Tatin cupcakes

Carmelizing some apples

Once the apples had caramelized with butter and sugar, they were placed on top of the cooled cupcakes:
Tarte Tatin cupcakes with Carmelized Apples

Meanwhile, I whipped up some caramel to drizzle over the apples. This caramel never quite thins out the way I think it should…it stays very thick and starts to harden as soon as it’s removed from the heat. But it tastes amazing:
Caramel

Tarte Tatin cupcakes with Carmelized Apples

Tarte Tatin cupcakes with Carmelized Apples

My coworkers really enjoyed these cupcakes. The general opinion is that these are the best thing I’ve brought in so far.

Next up, Chocolate Malt Cupcakes for Halloween (posted just a few weeks too late!)

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