May 20, 2012

Strawberry Shortcake Inspired Cupcakes: Bring on the Summer BBQ’s!

Despite the fact that we’ve been having rainy days all week, somehow the nice weather manages to reach us for the weekend.  Awesome!  I’ll take a little rain during the work week if it means we have beautiful days for weekend BBQ’s.  This weekend we had two get togethers…we’re so popular, I know.  Since I was obviously going to bring cupcakes to both, I decided to go with something that would work double duty.  It had to be a cupcake that would be unique enough for my family on Saturday so I wasn’t repeating cupcakes for them but also delicious enough for our friends on Sunday.

Originally I was thinking of a candy inspired cupcake but 80 degree weather isn’t really the time to be eating cupcakes with chocolate in them.  Nice days like that definitely require a fruit cupcake, but what?  Strawberry shortcake immediately popped into my head so I decided to go with a cupcake that was more inspired by the shortcake flavors than being actual strawberry shortcake.

[Inspried by Martha Stewart]

For Cupcakes

Makes 36 (according to the recipe but mine made 34)

  • 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup cake flour, (not self-rising)
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 1/4 cups sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 large egg white
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 3 standard cupcake pans with paper liners.
  2. Into a medium bowl, sift together flours, baking powder, and salt
  3. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in eggs, one at a time, and then beat in vanilla.
  4. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the milk and beginning and ending with the flour; beat until combined after each addition. Fold in strawberries.
  5. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared cups so that each is about two-thirds full, about 2 ounces each. Bake, rotating the pans halfway through, until the cupcakes are golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer pans to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan and cool completely on wire racks.

For Frosting

Makes about 9 cups

  • 2 1/2 cups sugar
  • 10 large egg whites
  • 4 cups (8 sticks or 2 pounds) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 1 vanilla bean, insides scraped out
  1. Place sugar and egg whites in the heat-proof bowl of an electric mixer. Set bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, and whisk until sugar has dissolved and egg whites are hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. Test by rubbing the mixture between your fingers; it should feel completely smooth.
  2. Transfer bowl to mixer stand. Using the whisk attachment, beat on high speed until mixture has cooled completely and formed stiff and glossy peaks, about 10 minutes.
  3. Add the butter, one piece at a time, and beat until incorporated after each addition. Don’t worry if the buttercream appears curdled after all the butter has been added; it will become smooth again with continued beating. Add vanilla and vanilla bean, and beat just until combined.
  4. Switch to the paddle attachment, and beat on the lowest speed to eliminate any air pockets, about 5 minutes.

I was excited about these cupcakes simply for the reason that they were frosted with my favorite frosting.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Swiss meringue butter cream is awesome!  It’s not too sickeningly sweet like some other frostings and almost anything can be added to give it different flavors.

These cupcakes were super fluffy and moist with great pieces of strawberry in the cake.  And the vanilla bean buttercream was the perfect compliment.  My family raved about them, but isn’t that what family does?  When I brought them to our friend’s party, people were all over them.  And there were a bunch of people who ate two cupcakes, so I can safely say they were fairly successful.  I think I’m going to need to start  baking more fruit flavored cupcakes since they always seem to come out nicely and almost bever become dry.  I’m hoping peach will be the next fruit inspired cupcake.

xoxo,

~CurlyCupcake

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

April 8, 2012

Happy Birthday Boy Cupcake: Oreo cupcakes

Last Wednesday was my Boy Cupcake’s birthday, he’s now an old man at the ripe old age of 31 (okay, I told him he was an old man last year when he turned 30).  We had such a fun dinner at a hibachi restaurant, can you believe it was his first time?  It’s always a good time, I mean who doesn’t like dinner theater.  And my favorite part is the onion volcano, it gets me everytime they light that thing on fire.

I was wracking my brain to think of a cupcake that I should make him and tried to get some ideas by asking him what he might want.  Can you believe he told me I didn’t have to make him cupcakes?!?!  Yeah, okay, as if I’m not going to make someone cupcakes for their birthday.  I decided to go with Oreo cupcakes because even though I’ve done them before, they are soooo delicious.

[Inspired by Annie's Eats]

For Cupcakes

Makes 12

  • 12 whole Oreo cookies
  • 1 1/4 cup flour
  • 1/4 Tsp. salt
  • 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter (room temperature)
  • 1 Tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 plus 1/3 cup sugar
  • 2 large egg whites
  • 1 Tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 2 cups roughly crushed Oreo cookies (about 15-20 cookies)
  1. Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Line the wells of two cupcake pans with 12 paper liners
  2. Place an Oreo at the bottom of each cupcake liner
  3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine butter and sugar and beat until light and fluffy
  4. Mix in egg whites one at a time, blending well after each addition then add vanilla extract
  5. In a separate bowl combine flour, salt, and baking soda
  6. Add half of the dry mixture to the butter, sugar, and egg mixture
  7. Mix in the milk, blending until just combined
  8. Add in remaining dry ingredients and mix to combine
  9. Gently fold in crushed Oreos with a spatula
  10. Divide among cupcake liners and bake for 18-20 minutes

For Frosting

  • 8 oz. cream cheese (room temperature)
  • 6 Tbsp. unsalted butter (room temperature)
  • 1 Tsp. vanilla extract
  • 2 Tbsp. milk
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  1. Beat cream cheese and butter together until well blended
  2. Add in powdered sugar one cup at a time and add in milk to desired consisstency
  3. Mix in vanilla extract
These cupcakes are pretty amazing.  When I took them out of the cupcake carrier to have one for Boy Cupcake’s birthday, all you could smell was the Oreos and the cream cheese frosting.  Yum!  I’ve made these before but this time I added in more crushed Oreos to the batter and left them in bigger chunks, which was perfect.
I gave the rest to Boy Cupcake to take to work and he said he grabbed one and then they were all gone pretty early in the morning.  Success!  Oreo cupcakes are definitely on the must make list, and they are definitely in my top 10 favorites…maybe even top 5!
xoxo,
~CurlyCupcake

1 Comment

Filed under Birthday Cupcakes, Chocolate

March 16, 2012

St. Paddy’s Day: Green Velvet

Happy St. Patty’s Day!  Okay, about two months too late.  I apparently wrote out the entire recipe for these cupcakes but never finished the post or published it, so here are my St. Patty’s Day cupcakes.  

Since I’ve done the Irish Car Bomb cupcakes, I wanted to bring a different kind of cupcake to the Southie St. Patty’s Day parade.  Why not a green velvet cupcake in honor of the day?  Lots of people are all about the red velvet and all you have to do is change up the color for a different kind of cake, so why not?

[Inspired by The Cupcake Project]

For Cupcakes (Makes about 24)

  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1 Tsp. baking soda
  • 1/2 Tsp. salt
  • 1 Tsp. baking soda
  • 2 Tbsp. cocoa powder
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup canola oil
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 1 Tbsp. white vinegar
  • 2 Tbsp. green food coloring
  1. Preheat oven to 250 and line cupcake tins with 24 liners
  2. Mix together flour, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl
  3. Beat eggs and sugar together until light and golden
  4. Mix in food coloring and cocoa powder until well combined
  5. Alternate mixing in flour mixture and butter milk until just combined
  6. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake for 20-22 minutes

For Frosting

  • 8 oz. cream cheese at room temperature
  • 1 stick softened butter
  • 3-4 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 Tbsp. whiskey
  • Green food coloring
  1. Cream together butter and cream cheese until well combined
  2. Mix in powdered sugar one cup at a time
  3. Add in whiskey and mix until just combined
  4. Mix in green food coloring for desired color

The verdict on these cupcakes?  Well even though people told me that they liked them, I wasn’t really a fan of these.  They had a really strange color pattern in the cake with the mixture of the cocoa and the green food coloring.  I just didn’t find the color appealing.  Maybe less cocoa next time?  Also, I wasn’t a fan of the flavor.  Everyone at the parade ate them and when I brought the leftovers to work, they went like hot cakes.  I was actually surprised because I thought they almost had a bitter taste to the cake.  But some people are just into cupcakes and will eat any kind.  I think I tend to be a little pickier than the average cupcake eater.  I did have a drunk Southie woman stop me while we were walking back to the car and offer my money for a cupcake.  I gave her free cupcakes and for some reason my phone number because she wanted to buy cupcakes but I didn’t have business cards, stupid, I know (on a side note I am working on business cards, so if anyone wants to make me a cupcake logo, that all that’s holding me back).

Would I make these again?  I think I would with a few tweeks to the cupcake part.  I would probably use gel food coloring so that I could use less coloring.  I tend to think that that could possibly eliminate the taste I didn’t like because I had to use almost an entire bottle of green food coloring to get the color.  I might also use a little less cocoa powder if I wanted to make sure the color was better in the cake.  I wouldn’t call these cupcakes a failure by any means since they did have some good parts to them.  Try them for yourself, maybe you’ll like them a little more than I did.

xoxo,

~CurlyCupcake

1 Comment

Filed under Holiday

March 12, 2012

A Sad Attempt at Frosting Roses

I can’t even tell you how long I’ve been wanting to seriously up my frosting skills.  I have this huge set of frosting tips but I always use the same ones to pretty much swirl frosting on top of my cupcakes.  I’ve been dying to take a Wilton cake decorating class but it’s really hard for me to get there after work because I have to go home to get my car first.

I figured YouTube could be the next best thing to taking a decorating class.  I mean, I discovered how to swirl the frosting to sort of make it look like a flower, so they must have a bunch of how-to videos to make frosting flowers.  They do!  And they’re really good, in fact they’re so good the people on them make it look too easy.

I almost don’t even want to show these pictures but it’s all about practice, so I’m putting them out there even though they’re so far from perfect, I can’t even deal with it.  I can’t figure out how to keep the edges of the frosting from cracking , maybe my frosting is too thick?  It was just a test batch that I used for practice, so I’m thinking of thinning it out next time to see if it’ll help.

I have no idea how people can do it so well but they do it at the grocery store, so it can be all that hard, can it?  I mean I don’t know but I assume Stop & Shop doesn’t hired trained pastry chefs or anything.  It’s definitely a tough adventure but I’m going to keep going until I can make beautiful roses.

xoxo,

~CurlyCupcake

Leave a Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

March 11, 2012

Beer+Cupcakes= Blue Moon Cupcakes

Pinterest quickly became my favorite pass time ever.  I can’t even tell you what a sad day it was when I discovered it was blocked at work.  Now what am I going to do to avoid doing work?  I do all of my pinning from home now, so the frequency has definitely died down but I still find amazing looking cupcakes to add to my cupcake wish list board.  I came across a pin for Blue Moon cupcakes and decided to add them to the wish list since they were a fun idea, but I didn’t think I’d really make them any time soon.

I wanted to make some cupcake this weekend but decided I only wanted to do something new so that I could write about it.  Of course I decided to consult my Pinterest board and found the Blue Moon cupcakes which I had forgotten all about. Boy cupcake likes Blue Moon, so I decided I’ve give them a shot, I mean how bad could beer and a cupcake be?

[Inspired by Miss Make]

Cupcakes (makes 12)

  • 6 Tbsp. softened butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 1/4 cup flour
  • 1 Tsp. baking soda
  • 1/4 Tsp. salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 Tsp. vanilla
  • 1 Tsp. orange zest
  • 1 Tbsp. orange juice
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup Blue Moon beer
  1. Prepare cupcake pan with 12 liners and preheat oven to 350 degrees
  2. Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy
  3. Add in eggs one at a time mixing until just incorporated and add in vanilla, orange juice, and orange zest
  4. Mix together flour, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl
  5. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternating with the milk and then beer until everything is mixed together
  6. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown

Frosting

  • 2 egg whites at room tempreture
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 Tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1 Tbsp. orange juice
  • 1 Tsp. orange zest
  • 1/4 Tsp. cream of tarter
  • 1/3 cup water
  1. In a saucepan, mix sugar, water and cream of tartar. Cook on medium heat until sugar is dissolved and mixture is bubbly.
  2. In a large bowl, beat egg whites, vanilla and orange juice until soft peaks form. Slowly add hot sugar mixture, beating continuously. Beat for 7 minutes until stiff peaks form.
The smell of Blue Moon while they were baking had me really excited for these.  When they came out of the oven, I brushed them with a little of the leftover beer in the bottle before giving it to Boy Cupcake to drink.  This made them super moist and I think added some more beer flavor since it kind of cooks out.  I frosted these with a crap ton of frosting and there definitely could have been less frosting (I know, that sounds like a crime to say).

These were a win.  The cake was moist but fluffy and the frosting was super light and almost marshmallow-like.  There was a lot of orange flavor in the frosting, which I might tone down next time so that you could taste more of the beer but overall they were “refreshing” according to Susical and “F*ing awesome” according to Boy Cupcake (he’s so eloquent with words).

xoxo,

~CurlyCupcake

1 Comment

Filed under Blue Moon

March 6, 2012

Andes Mints

You’ll have to excuse me for playing catch up here but it seems like I make lots of cupcakes and never take pictures of them so they never make it to the blog. Or I forget I take pictures since they get buried deep in my email, so a post never gets made. I was trying to clear all of the junk out of my gmail and I found these pictures from before Christmas time! But I figured I’d post about them because they were delicious (I mean, aren’t all of my cupcakes?), and festive not only for Christmas but the wintertime.

I had a long debate about what kind of cupcakes to bring to our family Christmas get together. I wanted them to be festive for the holidays but they also had to be something special. I scoured Pinterest…which I’m sure I’ve mentioned is just about the best website out there. And finally decided on Andes Mints cupcakes. Everyone likes mint and chocolate together, right? And if you don’t, Santa is going to leave a lump of coal in your stocking.

[Inspired by Mel's Kitchen Cafe]

Cupcakes (makes about 24)

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 cup boiling water
  1. For the cupcakes, preheat oven to 350°F and line cupcake tin
  2. In a large bowl, stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
  3. Mix together eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; using a handheld electric mixer or an electric stand mixer, beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.
  4. Stir in boiling water, the batter should be on the thinner side.
  5. Fill the muffin cups 2/3 full and bake for 18-20 minutes

Chocolate mint filling

  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips
  • 3 tablespoons heavy cream
  • 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
  • 1/3 cup powdered sugar
  1. lace the chocolate chips and heavy cream in a small microwave-safe bowl and heat for 1 minute at 50% power and stir
  2. Repeat the process until the mixture is smooth.
  3. Stir in the peppermint extract and powdered sugar, whisking until smooth. Let the mixture cool to room temperature (but don’t let it get too stiff) and pour it into a squeeze bottle or a ziploc bag.
  4. Once cupcakes are cooled, cut a hole in the middle of each and fill with chocolate mint filling

Frosting

  • 1 and 1/2 cups sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  • 5 large egg whites
  • 4 sticks unsalted room temperature butter, cut into pieces
  • 1 Tbsp. mint extract
  • Green food coloring to desired color
  • 1 package Andes Mint candy (for garnish)
  1. Place sugar and egg whites in the heat-proof bowl of an electric mixer. Set bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, and whisk until sugar has dissolved and egg whites are hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. Test by rubbing the mixture between your fingers; it should feel completely smooth
  2. Transfer bowl to mixer stand. Using the whisk attachment, beat on high speed until mixture has cooled completely and formed stiff and glossy peaks, about 10 minutes.
  3. Add the butter, one piece at a time, and beat until incorporated after each addition. Don’t worry if the buttercream appears curdled after all the butter has been added; it will become smooth again with continued beating. Add mint extract, and beat just until combined.
  4. Switch to the paddle attachment, and beat on the lowest speed to eliminate any air pockets, about 5 minutes. Add in a few drops of green food coloring at a time until frosting reaches desired color.
  5. Frost cupcakes and top with an Andes Mint candy

Everyone at the family Christmas party loved these cupcakes. The chocolate mint really made them special, it tasted like there was an Andes Mint candy inside of them. The cake was very fluffy but really stood up to the mound of frosting on top. These are the perfect wintertime cupcake if you like chocolate and mint, and let’s face, who doesn’t? I’m putting these on my holiday party go-to cupcake list because they’re definitely not as hard as them seem with all of the ingredients and directions.

xoxo,

~CurlyCupcake

Leave a Comment

Filed under Chocolate

February 24, 2012

Nuts for Nutella!

Sunday was a dedicated day to try a recipe from the Cupcake Wish List so I could cross another one off.  I asked the great people of Facebook what kind I should try:

1. Oatmeal chocolate chip with cinnamon frosting

2. Nutella swirl with Nutella buttercream

3. German chocolate with coconut pecan frosting

It turns out that people really like Nutella, I had no idea it was going to be so popular.  It was almost a unanimous vote for Nutella except for my mom who voted German chocolate.  Sorry Mom, I’ll have to make you some of your own German chocolate cupcakes next time I’m home.

I had been wanting to try a recipe for self-icing Nutella cupcakes for a while now, so I thought I’d use this as my cupcake but can you really have a cupcake without a nice glob of frosting on top?  I can’t so I had to accompany it with a Nutella buttercream using my favorite Swiss meringue buttercream as the base.

[Recipe adapted from iheartcuppycakes]

Ingredients

For cupcakes:

  • 10 Tbsp. softened butter
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 Tsp. vanilla
  • 1 and 3/4 cup flour
  • 1/4 Tsp. salt
  • 2 Tsp. baking soda
  • 12 generous Tsp. Nutella

For frosting:

  • 5 egg whites
  • 4 sticks softened butter (cut into pieces)
  • A pinch of salt
  • Remaining Nutella from jar (about 3/4 cup)

Instructions

For cupcakes:

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and prepare cupcake pan with 12 liners
  2. Cream together butter and sugar until light and smooth (about 2 minutes)
  3. Add in eggs one at a time until fully incorporated
  4. Mix in flour, salt, and baking powder until just mixed together
  5. Divide into 12 cupcakes (about 3/4 full)
  6. Top each with with a generous teaspoon of Nutella and swirl into batter with a toothpick, folding some of the batter up and over the Nutella
  7. Bake for 20-22 minutes

For frosting:

  1. Place sugar and egg whites in the heat-proof bowl of an electric mixer. Set bowl over a pan of simmering water, and whisk until sugar has dissolved and egg whites are hot to the touch. Test by rubbing the mixture between your fingers; it should feel completely smooth.
  2. Transfer bowl to mixer stand. Using the whisk attachment, beat on high speed until mixture has cooled completely and formed stiff peaks, about 10 minutes.
  3. Add the softened butter, one piece at a time, and beat until incorporated after each addition. Don’t worry if the buttercream appears curdled after all the butter has been added; it will become smooth again with continued beating. Add vanilla, and beat just until combined.
  4. Switch to the paddle attachment, and beat on the lowest speed to eliminate any air pockets, about 5 minutes. Once the frosting is smooth, fold in Nutella until incorporated and frost cupcakes.

The verdict?  Nutella cupcakes are awesome!  They had a little crunch on the top from the Nutella swirl layer and the buttercream was not too sweet with a nice hint of chocolate and hazelnut.  Boy Cupcake said “Two thumbs up” and “scrumdiddlyumptious” (he dared me to spell it.  Take that!) and I have to agree.

It also gave me the chance to try out a new frosting technique to make it look like a pretty flower.  It was super easy and it looks really pretty.  The only downside is that you don’t get as much frosting as you do with a big swirl.  I’ll admit it, I actually put a little extra on top when I ate mine.  Yum!

So what should be the next adventure off the Cupcake Wish List?  Let me know!

xoxo,

~CurlyCupcake

 

2 Comments

Filed under Nutella