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Week Thirty-Five: S’mores Cupcakes

August 22, 2009 in Cupcakes, Internet Recipes, Uncategorized, Weekly Baked Good | 3 comments

(This week’s recipe came from the awesome blog How to Eat a Cupcake.)

So last week’s cookies went over pretty well with my coworkers, but I decided this time around, I needed to step it up a bit and do something a little more dramatic. So I decided cupcakes would be the way to go. I trolled around on the Internet for a while, looking for an exciting cupcake recipe when I found the S’mores Cupcakes at How to Eat a Cupcake. They looked pretty simple to bake, but were showstoppers once decorated. Winner!

The recipe started with crushing up graham crackers. My food processor unfortunately is in storage right now, so instead I filled up plastic zip-top bags with crackers and rolled them with my rolling pin:
Graham cracker crumbs

The graham cracker crumbs were mixed with flour, baking powder and salt. Butter and sugar were creamed together in the mixer and four eggs were added one at a time, followed by some vanilla. The graham cracker crumb/flour mixture was added, alternating with milk. Finally, mini chocolate chips were added to the mixture:
S'mores Cupcake Batter

The batter was doled out into cupcake tins and baked for roughly 18 minutes until they were nicely browned:
S'mores Cupcake

Once the cupcakes were cooled, I went to work mixing eight egg whites with sugar over a double boiler. Once this had reached a temperature of 160 degrees F, it was transferred to my stand mixer which was fitted with the whisk attachment, and whisked for about ten minutes until it was light and fluffy and spreadable:
Marshmallow-y topping

I put the marshmallow-y mixture into plastic bags and cut off the tip to form a makeshift piping bag. Each cupcake got a generous swirl of meringue, a dusting of crushed graham cracker crumbs and a square of Hershey’s chocolate:
Decorated S'mores Cupcakes

I think they came out quite cute:
S'mores Cucpake
S'mores Cupcake

I had a ton of the meringue left over, so I thought I’d make myself a little snack:
S'more

These cupcakes went over very well at my work. One of my coworkers remarked that they were better than Crumbs, which is a highly regarded bakery in the city. Quite the compliment!

It was quite an adventure getting them there. I take a bus from where we are temporarily staying in New Jersey into Port Authority in New York City. From there, I walk about three blocks to my job. On the walk, as I was stopped at a crosswalk, a guy leaned over my cupcake carrier (which is clear plastic and see-through) and said, “Are those cupcakes? Is that chocolate in there?” to which I replied in the affirmative.
“Are they for a party?” he asked.
“No,” I said. “I’m taking them to work, just because.”
“I wish I was at your job!”
This prompted the guy on the other side of me to ask, “Can I have one?” I probably would have given him one if I could have gotten that carrier open with one hand, which I couldn’t. So I told him that unfortunately, I needed them all for my coworkers.
“Let’s just follow her to her job!” the first guy said.
Further up the street, where people lurk, waiting to hand you a flyer or ask you, “Hey, do you like comedy?” I was confronted by yet another person.
“Hey! Do you like come…whoah! Cupcakes! Those look awesome! Enjoy!”
So, word to the wise. If you don’t want people to hand you flyers, carry cupcakes.

This week one of my coworkers requested a baked good with caramel, so I found something that looks pretty awesome. More next weekend.

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Week Twenty-Four: Birthday Cupcakes and Strawberry Shortcake

June 9, 2009 in "Martha Stewart Baking Handbook", Cupcakes, Internet Recipes, Strawberry Shortcake, Weekly Baked Good | 1 comment

(The strawberry shortcake recipe this week came from “Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook”. The cupcake recipes were cobbled together from a couple of online recipes.)

Once again, I got sidetracked from posting by an illness.

Just as I was getting over my allergic reaction from last week, I woke up Thursday with a raging earache. I ended up going to Urgent Care (again) and finding out that it was Swimmer’s Ear. I got some ear drops and Vicodin (!) and went home. The next morning I woke up to a small fire burning in the other ear as well. Yup. Swimmer’s Ears. I’m doing much better now. Between the drops and the Vicodin, I’m feeling much happier.

My plan last week was to bake two cupcakes for a friend’s birthday that were inspired by flavors of ice cream available at Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams. I wasn’t planning to bake the cupcakes until Thursday morning and then I was going to frost them Friday night before the party.

On Sunday, I got a real urge to do some baking. I started flipping through the “Martha Stewart Baking Handbook” at work and stumbled on the strawberry shortcake-variation baking powder biscuits. They looked amazing and pretty easy. So I decided I would make those for dessert that night.

The biscuits were super simple and consisted of sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and butter. Once the dough came together, it was rolled out and I cut out my biscuits. While they baked, the strawberries were mascerated in lemon juice and sugar:
Mascerating strawberries

I also whipped up some Vanilla Whipped Cream:
Vanilla whipped cream

In just a few minutes, the biscuits were ready:
Shortcake variation baking powder biscuits

The biscuits were cut in half and the shortcakes were assembled:
Strawberry shortcakes

Delicious. Oh man, I could eat this every night! The strawberries were very sweet, which was good because the biscuits and the whipped cream were not overly so. Mmmm mmm.

On to the cupcakes!

A few years ago at Comfest, Jeni’s unveiled their Root Beer Float. It is quite possibly the most amazing thing ever. It’s a deceptively simple combination of Frostop Root Beer and Honey Vanilla Bean ice cream. So good. When I thought about what cupcakes I wanted to make that would capture the essence of Jeni’s, I knew I wanted to make a root beer cupcake. Jeni’s most popular flavor is the Salty Caramel, which I actually don’t like. For some reason, I can only taste the salt and not the caramel. But who am I to question the tastes of the masses? I had to make a Salty Caramel cupcake as well.

I didn’t take many photos of this process, as my ear was killing me while I was baking them. But I do have some photos of the completed cupcakes:
Salty Caramel and Root Beer Float Cupcakes

Salty Caramel and Root Beer Float Cupcakes

The Root Beer Float Cupcakes were frosted with a Honey Vanilla Bean Buttercream frosting (delicious!). The Salty Caramel Cupcakes were topped with a caramel frosting that never quite thickened up the way I wanted it to. It turned out tasting pretty good, but I wish it had had a little more height to it. To make up for the lackluster presentation, I drizzled some caramel over the tops, put a caramel candy on each one and then added just a pinch of fleur de sal. That salt was amazing. It provided just the right amount of salt to a really sweet cupcake.

They were a big hit at the party. The guests seemed to be evenly split between which was their favorite:
Salty Caramel Cupcakes

Root Beer Float Cupcakes with Honey Vanilla Bean Buttercream Frosting

I definitely want to make the Root Beer Float Cupcakes again. The Salty Caramel Cupcakes were awesome, but they were a lot of work. The Root Beer cupcakes were much easier. Yum!

This week I’m working on two different things. Tonight I made my first pizza from scratch. On Wednesday, I plan to make French Almond Macaroons. More on both of these later this week.

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Week Sixteen: Raspberry Cupcakes with Framboise Frosting

April 16, 2009 in Cupcakes, Internet Recipes, Weekly Baked Good | 4 comments

This week I once again cobbled a couple of recipes together from the Internet. This is the Raspberry Cupcake recipe. And this is the buttercream frosting that I tweaked a little with Framboise.

Let me start off by saying that I LOVE Framboise. It is quite possibly the most perfect alcohol ever created. I am not a beer fan, but there’s something about that raspberry flavored goodness. Mix it with some ice and ginger ale, and I am a happy woman.
Framboise

So I got really excited thinking about how I could incorporate Framboise into frosting. I couldn’t find an established recipe for it online, so I just went with a buttercream frosting and winged it. The cupcake part was pretty easy. I found a raspberry cupcake recipe online and followed it. The recipe began by combining cake flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt, and then adding two sticks of butter that have been cut into one inch cubes:
Butter

Now that I’ve made these, if I ever make them again, I will know to cut the butter even smaller. Basically when you’re finished with the batter, you end up with chunks of butter (because you don’t cream it prior to mixing it into the flour). The chunks of butter melt into the cupcake, which is nice, but it’s kind of messy. The cups on my cupcake tin had a layer of butter in the bottom even though I baked the cupcakes in papers. Surprisingly, they’re not the least bit soggy, but they are quite delicate.

Once the butter was mixed into the flour mixture just until the butter was coated, milk, eggs, raspberry yogurt and vanilla extract were whisked together in a bowl:
Milk n' eggs n' yogurt
(I feel like this would make an AWESOME batter for French Toast. Note to self: Try this sometime.)

This mixture was added to the flour/butter mixture in three parts. Once it was just incorporated, a little over a cup of fresh raspberries were added, and the mixture was poured into cupcake cups:
Raspberry Cupcake batter

These were baked for 25 minutes, during which time I started on the Framboise Frosting. This was a pretty standard buttercream frosting recipe, which included one softened stick of butter which was creamed in the mixer. A cup of powdered sugar was added in until it was creamy. At this point, I changed the recipe up a bit. I added vanilla extract, milk and the Framboise. Once this was incorporated, I added more and more powdered sugar until it resembled frosting:
Framboise Frosting

I loaded up a pastry bag and star tip with the frosting and went to work:
Raspberry Cupcakes with Framboise Frosting

Alas, my frosting wasn’t quite thick enough. I added so much powdered sugar to that mixture, and it never really got any thicker than this. So a lot of my cupcakes have frosting dripping over the edge. It’s all good though. I popped those babies in the fridge and the frosting hardened up on the spot. So no more gooey mess. That frosting tastes AMAZING though. I almost made myself sick eating it. I just. Couldn’t. Stop.
These cupcakes are pretty good. I only had two (one tester to make sure they were baked all the way through and another with the frosting). I am still not the biggest fan of berries. I somehow ALWAYS manage to take a bite and crunch a seed right in my teeth. It’s a very unsettling feeling eating something soft and then crunching a seed. I’m the only person I know with this issue. I’m sure my co-workers will devour them:
Raspberry Cupcake with Framboise Frosting
Raspberry Cupcake with Framboise Frosting

Next week I’ll be baking on Thursday morning. Rob and I are driving to New Jersey Friday for a friend’s wedding over the weekend and I plan to bake something cookie-ish that we can eat in the car. I’m not sure yet what it will be. I will have to do some research and pour over my cookbooks to find the most suitable item!

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