months of silence but still at work

So..I know it's been months since I've posted. I have been keeping up with cupcakes although the hot weather of the summer slowed production.

Coming soon will be my thoughts and stories on creating
-honey frosted banana cupcakes
-amaretto pineapple cupcakes
-peanut butter and jelly cupcakes
-chocolate cupcakes
-three citrus cupcakes
-blackberry-cornmeal cupcakes
-one-bowl chocolate cupcakes
-red velvet cupcakes

I think that's it.

Tiramasu Cupcakes

In the job I have, motivating students and rewarding them for good work can be an asset in achieving great results. With this in mind, I invited my new student leader team to dinner. I made some lasagna and we talked about good things in the past year and good things they want to see happen on campus in the year to come. To cap off the meal I treated them to Martha's take on an Italian classic, Tiramasu.

Having never had tiramasu before I'm not sure what I was getting into but I read the recipe to prepare. And I knew that Tiramasu needed coffee, less than a cup. Those who know me, know I don't know how to brew coffee to save my life. (Plus for such a small amount). So when I went to the store to get the marscapone cheese (for the icing) and marsala wine (for the syrup) I stopped by Dunkin Donuts for a small cup of black coffee. It worked.

The batter for these are very eggy and bake up almost like a thick eggy custard. Then you paint them with the coffee -marsala syrup until there is none left (that's like a million strokes per cupcake--so I got tired and cheated and poured a tablespoon each on them). Then let them rest and soak in the goodness. Whipping up the frosting was simple. It's like making sweet marscapone mousse. (I only used half the tub of marscapone. I used the rest for a quick dinner with my husband. boiled pasta, sauteed some onions and cherry tomatoes then tossed it all together with the marscapone--it melts and turns into a kind of sauce. Not bad).

To add flare for the presentation for my students I dusted the tops with cocoa powder arranged them on a plate and presented them to shouts of WOOHOO.



I had leftovers which my community group got to enjoy (as usual) and also brought some to the Zila's house since Jen and I were having lunch. Turns out, tiramasu is Jon Zila's favorite dessert so I won Friend of the Day award.

Last Bite: These were addictive little suckers (maybe the coffee, maybe the marscapone...) and they feel very fancy but are fairly simple despite being 3 steps (cake, syrup and frosting). These will stay in the upscale rotation or whenever I'm having an Italian night.

Chai Tea Mini Cupcakes

(Sorry for the lapse).

So 3 weeks ago we held our last Large Group of the semester for my students at Rutgers. Now some of them (hey guys) read this so I figured I would treat them on this last get-together with a cupcake. But which to choose. Well, when you are leading a chapter that has grown to 80--I started looking at which cupcakes have a high yield. Enter the Mini Cupcake. These little cuties pack in that great taste in bite-size bunch. My students are a big fan of Bubble Tea so I thought the Chai Tea minicakes would be a nice fit.



This cupcake uses black tea or chai tea bags to flavor the milk that one adds to the batter. It smells so good as you make it. Then to boost the spice factor you add cinnamon and nutmeg and cloves to the flour mixture. As they baked they smelled a bit like plain dunkin donuts munchkins. It was nice.

These cakes are dense little nuggets and to top them off Martha suggests a sweetened condensed milk icing to complement the chai flavor and reflect the use of sweetened condensed milk in authentic traditional chai tea. It's a sweet liquidy frosting that requires you to dip the cupcake in and then it hardens. It's nice and all but the icing only asks for about 1/2 the can of Sweetened condensed milk which then leaves the question: What do you do with the rest of the can? (I came up with nothing).


The students loved them and were so happy to be able to sample part of the cupcake experience. The cakes get drier and denser as time goes on but that works well when having them for tea.

Last Bite: These are cute little cakes with a nice subtle savory flavor that could work for a classic tea time but I think I will more likely make this as a big cake, maybe a Bundt cake and use the frosting as a glaze.

German Chocolate Cup Cake

So last Tuesday our current community group got back together with our old community group to hang out. Ever since the split we do this on occasion. Yes there was a split. See...when you have 10-12 adults together that becomes a very large community group so we split at the start of the school year to encourage better conversation. So I thought, well, 10-12 adults gathered, plus 8-10 kids. Time for more cupcakes.

Looking over my book and cross-checking with my ingredients I decided upon the German Chocolate Cupcake. I have memories of my mom making German Chocolate cake as a kid. She loved it because of that coconut goop you put on top which, as everyone seems to agree is what makes it a German Chocolate cake, the caramelly coconut frosting topping. Which is kinda funny to me since there are no coconuts in Germany. So how the two became associated I wonder...

So, according to Snopes.com the German in GCC comes from Sam German who designed the chocolate that went into the cake. Some woman in Texas used his chocolate to make a cake and topped it with the famous coco-nutty frosting and General Foods (who owned the chocolate) published the recipe to boost sales.

So now we know, it was originally German's Chocolate Cake. Whatever, still tasty.

So..into the kitchen. Now what makes GCC special is the use of melted chocolate to add the chocolate flavoring to the cake. It was silky and looked delicious as I poured it into the cake batter and then mixed it by hand (with love). It felt so decadent. As the cupcakes were baking I got going on the topping. Now, in all honesty, I don't like coconut. Sure, I'm down for a pina colada but actually coconut flakes tend not to be my favorite. But I honored my vow. The topping is a caramel coconut pecan (we used walnuts because they are just so similar and I had walnuts and I like walnuts and sometimes walnuts are acceptably exchanged for pecans...) frosting which creates its caramel by melting brown sugar (hello, old friend) with a can of evaporated milk. You swirl this on the stove top with some butter until it thickens then pour over the caramel and nuts and mix.

As the cupcakes came out, I continued to have doubts. First off, they go into the pan naked, no liners (a reason later). Now, Cupcake liners are not only gosh-darn cute, but they are incredibly useful in getting beloved confections out of the pan in one piece with little to no mess to clean up. This was not the case here. Despite my penchant for spraying pans til they drip, I had trouble getting my little cakes out. Some, did not make it intact. A moment of silence. ...

The cakes looked light and kinda dry, and the coconut laden frosting was not beckoning me. But I topped them (Martha cuts hers in half, hence the no liners, and layers the frosting like a miniature cake but, cupcakes are small and hard to cute in half like that. Plus time, was running out).

Off to the party. Feeling clever, I packed my little chocolate cakes in a pizza box (hey, it was a pizza party) and brought the frosting alongside to top upon arrival. Less chance of a mess everywhere and my glare at Jon as he drives.

We arrived, I topped...dessert hour arrives, and they are a hit--with the adults. (Most of the kids ran for the brown sugar pound cakes--hey, they look traditional). But the adults oohed and aahed over the german chocolate cupcakes. Tim, who vows to eat only one of my new cupcakes a week was adamant against having any cupcakes at all. And then I mentioned the new ones I made. Beeline to the desserts.

In actuality, it wasn't until almost a week later, that I finally tried one of these babies. And I knew what all the buzz was about. The cake was actually moist, helped by the frosting which gelled the coconut so well with the caramel that it wasn't overly coconutty. And the moments of crunch produced by the walnuts were my favorite of all. I ended up eating all the leftovers, one day at a time.



Last Bite: So, preconceived notions are not always to be believed. I doubted my enjoyment of this entry in the cupcake excursion but I was really satisfied with the end result. I think next time I might take the cup part out and make it in a bundt pan, slice it in half and layer the caramel gooey frosting. Easier than trying to get 24 little naked cupcakes out.

Brown Sugar Pound Cake

Another Sunday, another cupcake. Feeling less than energetic today I decided I wanted to try to find a simpler cupcake (read: 1-2 steps) and that had all the ingredients that I already had in the house. This one did, with the exception of 1 egg. (It called for 4 eggs, I only had 3 in the house). So...go Sous go. Off the store with Jon, while I took a nap. That's fair, right?

So...all ingredients in hand, well, house; we begun. It is a fairly simple recipe. Mix the dry ingredient: 3 cups of reg flour--this makes it very dense, cause it's a pound cake. Mix the wet ingredients: butter vanilla, eggs and 2 1/4 cups of brown sugar--brown sugar, why you taste so good. Jon kept reaching over me to sneak tastings of brown sugar.

Why is it that brown sugar is so good like that. We don't sneak tastes of white sugar (unless it's rimming a blueberry margarita:-)). But Brown sugar...yum

Well, 2 1/4 cups of brown sugar translated into one good cupcake. Simple and elegant.

And to top these beauties Martha suggests the Brown Butter Icing. More Yum.
This one melts butter, well, until it's brown--which gives it this nice almost nutty flavor. Mix that with a boatload of confectioner's sugar (look--this endeavor is about cupcakes. It's not meant to be healthy) and some vanilla. It was smooth, tasty and a light milky caramel color. While still warm and liquidy I dipped each cupcake top into the icing (vs. slathering or piping on) This is a fast and easy way to top cupcakes and using less icing than slathering.

It can even be done with store bought icing. Just microwave it for like a minute so it softens (you don't want it to become pure liquid and bubbly), stir then dip each cupcake upside down into the icing and give a small twist as you life it out and set it right side up again. A smooth, perfectly topped cupcake with a glossy sheen. This definitely stretches your icing. You can top 2 batches of cupcakes with 1 can of frosting this way.

These little babies were well received. One reviewer even commented that they are his favorite so far. And they were a hit with the kids (but less face it, lots of sugar covered in sugary butter--who wouldn't want that?).

Last Bite: These were a simple alternative to your average cupcake. They seem different and special. I think these would be great for an adult birthday and the kids won't mind eating them as well.

Carrot Cupcake

After the Firemen ate all the snickerdoodle cupcakes (and to be fair, I've gave them all to them). I had to bake another batch of cupcakes for my community group. But, instead of repeating a recipe, I saw this as a chance to keep plowing through. Now, my apologies to CG who have been deprived of the snickerdoodle. I promise to make it for you one day.

So what did I make...well carrots were on sale.

The Carrot Cupcake!



I LOVE Carrot cake. And I do mean carrot cake, not hummingbird cake or morning glory cake (that's when someone destroys a perfectly good carrot cake by adding pineapple, raisins and coconut. That is NOT a carrot cake!--Walnuts are acceptable especially since walnuts are always acceptable). Jon and I even chose Carrot Cake as our wedding cake.

This one uses 1 POUND of carrots! That's a lot of carrots. And a lot of shredding (thank you Sous!). It also uses what feels like a whole lot of oil. (And end result--it IS a whole lot of oil). This produces carrot cupcakes that certainly are moist and carrot intense. It almost felt healthy eating them.

Traditionally, carrot cake gets topped with cream cheese frosting (yummm...). But since I was out of cream cheese (sigh). I decided to go sans frosting. I told myself, you've made cream cheese frosting from scratch before so it's not really cheating. So...the carrot cupcake muffinesque.

Like I said before, this guy was tasty with sweet carrot flavor but very oily--which only felt worse as time went on. The box I transported them in became soaked with oil after a few days (yes-there were leftovers. The recipes yield at least 24 each time and there are only 6-8 of us gathered). Those who are local, now you know. Drop by on a Monday for a tasty (day-old) cupcake.

Last Bite: As far as carrot cakes go, this one was super-oily but did feel more like a healthy savory carrot muffin (despite the oilyness) Than a good cupcake. I'd stick to the Duncan Hines box mix for carrot cake. It's just so much easier, tastes better-and like a cake. Plus, if you time it right can cost $1.

Snickerdoodle

Do you remember Snickerdoodle cookies from childhood? I remember first having them at a girl scout bake-off. Sugar cookies rolled in cinnamon sugar? Amazing! They are such soft sweet delicious cookies. Well, yes, Martha and her people turned that cookie into a cupcake.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Last Saturday Jon and I woke up to the sound of engines idling and voices on megaphones. Turns out, our local firemen were doing their duty putting out a fire 2 doors down. Now, I've been visiting these firemen each holiday giving them a baked treat to thank them for serving on the holiday instead of being with their families.

It was kinda cool to watch them work (don't worry, everyone got out of the house and they put out the fire). And since I am a big fan of the firemen I decided they needed a treat from working so hard.

SO out came Martha and perusing the cupcakes to find one that could be made quickly (few steps) and with what I already had in the house. Hello, Snickerdoodles! Nice quick recipe with basic ingredients (plus Buttermilk which I already had) and the frosting was the 7 minute frosting -which I still had leftovers (the recipe for the frosting makes twice as much as needed previously). So here we go.

The batter was really easy to whip up. Now to re-inflate the frosting. It was incredible--it tasted just like the cookies, but in a rounder, fluffier form. Topping off the frosting with a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar was a perfect finish.



Last Bite: Meet my future kids favorite cupcake! I would definitely keep these in the running. They are easy to whip up and so delicious. I'm sure vanilla frosting could be substituted for the "7" minute frosting and still render the cupcake a success.

Strawberry Cupcakes

(I'm playing catch-up here with the blogging).

For Easter, Jonathan and I decided to host a brunch for our church community group. So, besides a frittata and ham and champagne cocktails (of course) there needed to be cupcakes!

For this special occasion I decided upon the strawberry cupcakes. Strawberries were on sale at A&P ($2 for a whole container) and my friend Tim said he would prefer fruited cupcakes to celebrate the occasion (and his completion of his qualifying exam--go Tim).

Now the strawberry cupcakes ask you to chop up 20 strawberries or so and add them to the batter to create little pockets of real fruit within the cupcake. It also calls for cake flour--a new ingredient. So off to the store with us. For those who decide to search for cake flour (it produces a lighter, fluffier crumb in the batter than all-purpose flour does) let me inform you: It does not come in bags. Jon and I searched up and down the flour section finding all-purpose, bleach, whole wheat, bread...but no cake flour. Just as we decided to give up, suggesting that our, albeit close yet paltry, A&P did not have such a delicacy, a woman passing by pointed to a row of boxes up top (next to the cornstarch) simply saying "It comes in a box". So...oh. We graciously thanked her, grabbed it, flaunting our noviceness and checked out.

Back to the cupcake: The batter is a light vanilla-esque batter with the strawberries added in, very light, very sweet and thus produced, as the cake flour said it would, a light fluffy cupcake.

To top these yummies, Martha suggests the Strawberry Meringue Buttercream. I have no idea what her thing for meringue is but, here we go. So, more separating egg whites, more whipping for what feels like ever and then, to get that strawberry-ness you puree several berries and add the liquid to the fluffy meringue. Sounds easy enough. As we added it, our meringue proceeded to deflate. And despite whipping that sucker for 20minutes straight, we just could not recover the fluffiness. It was like think, pink, tasty soup. (The picture shows a towering swirl that would make soft-serve ice cream jealous). Feeling defeated, I slathered the goop on the cupcakes and added a slice of strawberry to pretty it up.

In all honesty, they still tasted really good! And they were a hit at Easter. The icing, although not towering, was still very tasty and a great compliment to the light fluffy cake and tidbits of strawberry underneath.

Last Bite: As long as picture perfect presentation isn't a concern, these make for some tasty light cupcakes that any strawberry fan will be delighted over.

P.S. The picture isn't of mine but it gives a good idea of what they looked like. They were all eaten on Easter before I got a picture. I guess that proves how tasty they were.

Lemon Meringue

So...now that I had the book and had salivated over all 300+ pages it came time to actually start baking these little beauties. But where to begin?

I decided going from cover to cover just wasn't as interesting nor as practical (certain ingredients just aren't available or are just better certain times of the year so I first listed all the cupcakes according to season (which ones would be great in the fall, spring, summer, winter). This is not an unusual thing for me to do. Since being a preschool teacher I naturally divide the year up into seasons, months, holidays and each gets their due. Some foods only appear in their given month in my house and my taste buds seem to have acclimated to this cycle.

After looking over the entries in my new spring list I still had no idea which to pick first. (Really, how do you choose?).

Well, earlier that week while preparing dinner I asked my husband to bring home a lemon for the meal I was making. Being of a thrifty sort he bought me a whole bag of lemons. Apparently, it was cheaper to buy the bag than just one. So now I had 10 lemons and, unlike Giada De Laurentiis can't seem to find a use for lemon in every meal. And that's when I decided...I'll make a lemon cupcake.

Flipping through the lemon meringue cupcake caught my eye--more for it's fun swirl than for the taste of lemon since I am not a fan of lemon desserts. But with Jonathan's excited "yes,please" I set out to read the ingredient list and see what else I needed. Besides a whole carton of eggs and the normal stuff that I had, I needed Buttermilk.

Buttermilk adds a moistness to the cakes as well as ups the flavor just a bit.

With all ingredients in hand, I set out. With my sous by my side, grated lemons and separating eggs I began.

Like most things, I picked a complicated one first. There's the actual cake to make, then the lemon curd topping and finally the "7 Minute Frosting" which Martha suggests that acts as the meringue. Just for the record, it takes more than 7 minutes.

Using every bowl I had, and scraping out some egg yolk (need only the whites for the meringue--the yolk adds protein that inhibits the whites from fluffing). We managed to get these babies in the oven and the curd in the fridge and I have to admit, the batter tasted good!

The next day we topped and swirled them and then Jonathan got to play with the torch and fire 'em up. With their green wrappers (bought especially for the occasion) and brown swirl tops they looked great and tasted really good as well.

The cake is denser than most cupcakes but that holds up well to the tartness of the curd and the sweetness of the frosting.

First cupcake, a success.

Last Bite: These are delicious cupcakes that really look incredible when displayed. I would do them again for special occasions but there is so much work that goes into them that I wouldn't keep them in the everyday running.

Frosted Ambitions:Martha Stewart Cupcakes

For my birthday, my mother-in-law gave me a Target gift card (yay!) and of all the fabulous things in the store ('cause it's my favorite store) I decided to purchase the Martha Stewart Cupcake book. Now this is a book that I had had my eye on for a while, perusing the delicate creations and fantastic cover as part of me longs to be Martha-like (i apologize to those who just gagged a little). With its clean crisp photos and lay-out, I could resist no longer and thus happily purchased it.

Now, for those who know me, you know of my delight in baking (and that I'm pretty handy with a whisk and spatula). So I have decided to create each of the cupcakes in the book at a rate of about one per week.

As I do this I want to thank my wonderful sous chef, Jonathan who I know will sigh as I make a mess in the kitchen, delight in the treats I create and help chop, stir, pour and whatnot. You make it so easy. I also want to thank my community group as you will inevitably be the consumers of most of my cupcakes (but at least we know who's bringing snack each week).

And for the rest of you...may it inspire you to eat a cupcake or bake your own.

glorianne