red red velvet

This post is gonna be fairly short and sweet- ba dum chhhhhh....

So next weekend I'm lucky enough to be taking a trip to Alaska for my cousin's wedding. I seriously could not be more excited about it! Anyway, I've been asked to make cupcakes for the future Mr. and Mrs... Specifically carrot cake and red velvet. oooooohhhhhh red velvet... Now, I've never made red velvet before, so I needed to do a practice batch, and that was tonight. These aren't just any red velvet cupcakes though- I wanted to add a little umph to them. Queue the red wine! This is another instance of combining two of my favorite things.

They turned out... umm... AWESOME. They weren't very red, but that was because I thought I had enough red dye to play with, however that was not true. Didn't matter though, it was just a test for texture and taste- and boy did they ever pass it.

Pictures and recipe to come later, just wanted to give you all a little teaser.

Goodnight, my little cupcakes!

The Devil's Frenchman

Or... The best freaking cupcake you've ever put in your face...

Either of those could be the name of this post, or the cupcakes I'm writing about.

What's up, internet? Long time no see! Sorry about that, I've been super duper busy lately- but don't worry, I'm back from hiatus... and I brought cupcakes! Woo! Also, since I've been away so long, there are lots of pictures in this post to make up for it.

So a friend of mine asked me to make some cupcakes for his sister-in-law, the only specifics were something w/coffee and chocolate. Well, I can handle that- two of my most favorite things in the world, sure.

I had something in mind, so I decided to look through a bunch of recipes and kind of put together the pieces I wanted, added some things, and this is what I ended up with (and yes, I'm sharing it w/you because I'm such a nice girl):

*oh, and before we get started- this recipe makes about 32 cupcakes, so if you only need a dozen or so, you'll want to cut it in half*

Devil's food cupcakes w/French roast coffee

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 12 tablespoons (a stick and a half) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  
• 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder (my 3/4 looked more like a whole cup, but who's counting?)
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups strong hot brewed coffee (preferably French roast) *I used allegro super dark french roast
• 1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a standing mixer, beat butter at medium speed until smooth, or about 2 minutes. Increase the speed to medium-high and slowly add the sugar. Continue beating until light and smooth, or about 4 minutes. Turn the mixer off and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add cocoa powder and vanilla and beat at medium speed for 1 minute more. (Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl again, if needed.) With the mixer running at medium-low speed, add your eggs, one at a time, beating for 1 minute between each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Heat the milk just till very hot (not boiling) in either a small saucepan on the stove, or in a microwave safe dish in the microwave for about 45 to 60 seconds. Combine the hot coffee and milk together in a large measuring cup, or cereal sized bowl.

With the mixer at low speed, add the flour mixture, about a 1/4 cup at a time. Carefully pour the hot liquid into the batter, let mix for about 30 seconds, then stop mixer.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and,

using a large rubber spatula, finish combining the batter until smooth.

Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, scoop batter into cupcake liners. Bake for 18-20 minutes.

Yay, cupcakes! They turned out awesome. Picking them up, they feel like they're really light, but they taste really rich and chocolately, and fluffy, and lovely. Oh and there's a picture of the inside as I tried it. :) drooool...

Onto frosting! Ok, so I totally just made up the frosting, it's not from a recipe or anything... but I'll totally give you a run down of what I used and how I did it. You don't have to follow it to the T, frosting has a lot more room for screwing around with than cake does.

The frosting ended up more like a cross between a glaze and a mousse (a glousse? yes, please) than a regular butter cream, but I think it actually suits the cupcake better anyway. Much like the cake itself, it looks and feels nice and light and airy, but tastes super rich and decadent, and such.

French Roast Chocolate Frosting

• 4 tablespoons (half a stick) room temperature butter
  
• 3-4 cups powdered sugar, depending on taste and how thick or thin you want the frosting
  
• 1/4 cup hot brewed coffee (same as the coffee for the cake)
• 3-5 tablespoons cocoa powder, depending on how chocolatey or super chocolately you want your frosting
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  

In a stand mixer start out by mixing/beating the butter for about a minute. The order you put in all the other ingredients doesn't matter all that much as long as you start out by creaming the butter w/about 1/4 cup of the powdered sugar. Then just make sure to slowly add the rest of the ingredients gradually while still mixing on low to medium speed until the frosting is well blended,smooth,

and fluffy.And... Voila!

The cupcake + frosting combo ended up being seriously delicious. I added a little coffee

bean to the top of each one for decoration, and extra coffee aroma... mmmm.

I think these ended up being one of my most favorite cupcake flavors, and that's saying something. I wouldn't be upset if somebody made these for me... Just saying... Well hopefully you don't feel so neglected now, I promise I'm still around. If you try these out, I'd love to see them/hear how they turned out for you. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

You don't have to be a kid to love pb&j. Well, at least I don't. I've always loved peanut butter and jelly, I just crave it sometimes. So it was only fitting to me to combine two important comfort foods to make a super comfort food; Peanut butter and jelly cupcakes! It's kind of the perfect dessert, or snack, or hey-maybe even breakfast, depends on how you roll. If you hadn't guessed, I totally roll that way. :)

I had tried out the pb&j cakes a few months back, that's actually what the picture at the top of the blog is. They were so good, and pretty much exactly what I'd hoped for. My brother told me it was the best cupcake he'd ever had, so I'd say they turned out well.

The first time I tried them out I just used a boxed yellow cake mix, but I made the cake from scratch this time. Yellow cake is my favorite. It's so simple, but so delicious. I always like to add a little cinnamon in my yellow cake too, mmmm... The batter was a little whiter than I expected, but it was still pretty. It was kind of a relaxing color, as weird as it sounds... maybe it had something to do with the smell too, who knows?

I also did the filling a little differently this time. Before I kind of injected the jelly into the cupcake with a piping bag and a sharp tip, after the cake was baked. I thought I would try a different technique this time, and I put the jelly in with the batter before baking. It was easier this way, but the jelly ended up sort of sinking to the bottom while baking, so I might go back to the injection method next time. I don't think it really affected the taste, or the whole pbj experience, but I'd prefer for the jelly to be more in the middle of my cupcake. I think either way is fine, though.

They baked up very nicely, but the recipe I used takes a little longer to bake than most, about 30 minutes. Personally I find 30 minutes a LONG time to wait for cupcakes, but I'm impatient, and really like to eat them. It's probably not that big of a deal for normal people. Haha. Anyway, they came out nice and pretty and golden-y brown, and YUMMY.Mmm, I can practically smell them... Now, onto the frosting! This is where the peanut butter part comes in, in case you were wondering. Ok, I'm not gonna lie, I don't have a set recipe for this frosting, and the first batch I tried making this time was a big time FAIL. When I made it a few months back I put a little butter in, along with the peanut butter, sugar, and milk, and it turned out perfectly fine. I didn't have anymore butter this time, so I thought I'd put in a little margarine, instead. Um, yeah... DON'T DO THAT. It was a big ol' clumpy, super oily, gross mess. Yeah, I mean, really, don't do it. Luckily when I started out this time, I had a full, unopened jar of peanut butter, and I used about half for the screw-up "frosting." Totally lame that I wasted a half jar of peanut butter, but hey, I learned a lesson.

Second try... *crosses fingers* PHEW! It turned out absolutely beautiful and perfect, not to mention super tasty. I just used about a cup of creamy peanut butter, a little vanilla, powdered sugar, and a little soy milk. I didn't have any regular milk, I just don't use it that often, but the soy milk worked out great. And I could breath again, so that was also a plus. The color was really nice too, kind of a light, butterscotch-ish color. Mmmm... butterscotch... Sorry, that's for another time. The frosted cupcakes turned out so nice and pretty, and swirly and smooth. Yum.

Ok one last step, I swear. Now obviously, chocolate and peanut butter go together like, well, peanut butter and jelly... But chocolate and jelly-some folks might not be so sure. Well I'm here to assure you the pb, chocolate, and jelly three-way combo of deliciousness is just that. Deeeelicious. I melted about a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave, and drizzled it over the top of the cupcakes with a toothpick. Man-oh-man, was it good.


Are you ready for it, the finished project? I sure was. I was really happy with the result, and the chocolate wasn't overpowering, like you might be worried about. It was just right. I was told, today, that the cupcake tasted like a candy bar, and I am totally ok with that. I'm definitely going to have to make these again. Thank goodness for pb&j!

Avocado Update!

Ok. So yesterday was Binya's (from the previous post) bridal shower. I was asked to make cupcakes. I, of course, obliged. Duh... The theme was international travel, since they will be traveling about after the wedding, so we all brought food representing different places from around the world. Their first stop is Mexico, so I felt like the avocado cupcakes would be pretty appropriate... but with a little twist. I made them spicy-for a bunch of spicy ladies. :) Not to toot my own horn, but TOOT! They were deeee-licious!

I started out with the same basic recipe from before, but decided to tweak it a little. Oh, and I took some more process pictures.

*Side note: I think we accidentally didn't put in enough water last time, which is why the batter was so weird. It looked like totally normal batter this time around, but both times were delicious, so it doesn't matter all that much.*

So, everything starts out the same: avocados, cocoa, flour, etc... until we get to the water.
I thought it might be fun to add a little something extra for a little more flavor. So I subbed one of the two cups of water for COFFEE-mmmm, coffee... it tasted great, and gave it a little richer chocolatey color, which I think is quite nice. Speaking of nice, let's get to the spice... Oh man, I'm so lame. I love it. I decided to make up my own little blend. I used Mexican chili powder, cayenne pepper, this chile y limon mix, and some cinnamon. I was happy with the way they all tasted together.
I used pretty equal parts when putting it all together, I didn't really measure. I added about 1 tsp of the spice mixture to the batter, and it was just a little teeny bit of a kick, exactly what I wanted. Those were really the only changes I made to the batter. The cupcakes came out really great. They were nice and fluffy, and not too spicy.

Onto the frosting. This part was a little different. Since the frosting turns out so sweet I had to put a lot more spice in it than in the batter. I started out with 2 tsp, but then I just kept adding more to taste, which is probably a good idea since everybody has different tolerance levels for spicy stuff. Oh! I remembered to document the slime stage of the frosting this time.
mmmmm... slime... The consistency of the frosting came out almost exactly the same this time- nice, thick, gooey caramel-y, and it set really well again.

I would really call these a success. The complete cupcake, with frosting, was really tasty. At first you just taste chocolate, then the heat kind of sneaks up on you after a few seconds. I really, really enjoyed them, and they seemed to be a hit at the party. They ended up looking pretty much the same as the first batch.

I also had some extra batter, so I made a tiny cake for myself. hehehe. I was curious to see how it would hold up as a cake, but it turned out really well. Hooray for experiments.


p.s. I noticed that my dress and my apron, together were very similar to the colors of the spices, avocados, and chocolate. It made me laugh, so I thought I'd show you.

Farewell, Bon voyage!

We blinded ourselves with science!

Ok, maybe not blinded... but I did try out a new crazy cupcake experiment. I also tried to remember to take pictures so you can sort of go back in time and come along for the ride. P.s. how much cooler would Back to the Future be if Marty McFly had to stop somewhere in time and make crazy time machine cupcakes? Or if Hot Tub Time Machine was renamed Cupcake Time Machine...? A LOT COOLER.

Ok, sorry about that. So one day, I'm playing around on stumbleupon.com and I find this recipe: http://betchacanteatjustone.wordpress.com/2009/08/30/the-vegan-avocado-cake-as-a-cupcake/ . Whaaat? Yes, avocado chocolate cupcakes. Interesting, right? Well my almost-sister-in-law, Binya (over at http://heyhijabi.com/ ) , and I had been talking about having a cupcake date. Obviously I'm all over that, and Binya is vegan, so I was super interested in trying to make these cupcakes that she could actually eat.

I'm actually not the hugest fan of avocado, normally, but I've had it in some sweeter contexts before and really enjoyed it, i.e. BUBBLE TEA! yessss... So I had a little faith that these could be yummy.

Let's get down to it. First the batter. It looked... well... GROSS. There, I said it, gross. I'm not gonna lie, I was a little worried. Before we added the dry ingredients it looked like some sort of crazy swamp water or something. I kind of wish I'd been warned via the recipe. It's ok though, you're being warned here, once the dry stuff was added it wasn't as scary anymore. It did, however, take on a really strange consistency. It was similar to that of almost a pizza dough or something.

Again, I was a little worried. I was convinced they wouldn't bake, or rise correctly. It was really sticky and dense, and just kind of sat there in the cups. Apparently, though, I had no reason to worry. They came out perfectly! They were these lovely little chocolately domes. And they just popped right out of the papers. I was so excited!



Of course I had to do a tasting-well, two tastings... muahahaha. One pre-frosting, and one with frosting. They were so very, very interesting. There was almost this sort of little shell, or crust on the top, and the inside was wonderfully fluffy and really quite perfect. Not too mushy, not too dry. You could barely taste the avocado, and the chocolate wasn't overpowering (actually I put in a lot more cocoa than the recipe called for, so if you're into chocolate, I'd recommend going that route). They would be really good for people who like treats (and who doesn't?!) but aren't too big into super sweet stuff. Here's proof I took a bite, you know, in case you needed it... So pretty.

NOW, on to the frosting. Oh boy, was that fun. I really, really regret that I didn't think to take a picture before I put the cocoa in, because it looked a whole lot like this... Yeah... Nickelodeon slime, a little Double Dare, anyone?

Anyway, if you look at the picture of the frosting on the website where I found the recipe, mine didn't look ANYTHING LIKE THAT. Haha. I really have no idea how mine came out so different, I totally followed the recipe... Oh well, it was still totally delicious. It actually had the look and texture of a really dark, rich caramel- like the kind you'd dip an apple in to make caramel apples. So it didn't look like buttercream, but I'd say that's still pretty appealing.

It was kind of gooey and runny, so I added more sugar and cocoa to thicken it up a little, then stuck it in the freezer for maybe about 15 minutes? It set a little bit, and that's where the caramel thing happened. I definitely wasn't angry about it. It was super tasty, and actually pretty refreshing. It was also pretty, and when we tried to put it on the cupcakes it set really well. I kind of expected it to run all over the place and be a big disgusting ugly mess- but it wasn't... Hooray! The frosting tasted a lot more like avocado, but it was really, really good. So anyway, here we are, finished product (and yes they do sort of look like little pudding cups):


I would love to see how these work out for you, if anybody decides to try it out. Enjoy!

three strikes-you're out!

Oh, hello there friends. I've been well, thanks for asking. As you may have noticed, there's this thing that goes on during Spring and Summer called baseball. I know, sounds weird right? I think there's a stick and a ball or something like that...

All kidding aside, I'm not what you'd call a "sports fan" or even someone who "understands" sports. But I do actually enjoy going to baseball games. I'd never been to one until about two years ago, so this is still pretty new to me. Who knows-maybe one day I'll actually cheer for a specific team. It's more the experience of going to the game... finding your seats, pretending you know what's going on, people watching, drinking ridiculously over priced beer, all the food and-AHA! I bet you knew I had an ulterior motive here. I didn't really want to talk about baseball, I wanted to talk about food! What else is new, right?

Well let's get to it, then. First off, I think I really am going to have to write a letter or something. As a vegetarian, having to smell hot dogs all over the place and not being able to eat them is very sad... Veggie dogs, now! It's ok though, I had a soft pretzel. I've been appeased for the time being.

Now on to the point of this whole post/blog/my entire life... Cupcakes! Or... should I say CUBcakes?! Ahhhh, I love bad puns. Are there actually good puns? Who cares? Here we go. I actually made these a few years back for my future father in law's birthday. They were really fun to make, mostly because I really love writing in frosting. I have no idea why, but for some reason I have wayyy better handwriting in frosting than in pen or pencil. Maybe it's a subconscious thing, like I prefer cake to homework, or something... Anywhooo- Cupcakes! Yay!



P.s. the Cubs actually did win, at the game I attended on Sunday, so the picture at the top is not a lie.

Monsters, Part Deux

Well, well, well... we meet again, friends. I was trying to think what the subject of this second post should be, and I decided it should just be a continuation of the first one. Because, of course, I have more than one example of monster cupcakes. Well at least I think this qualifies as a monster... That's Muno, from Yo Gabba Gabba! I've never actually seen the show, but making the cupcakes was fun. I hope that doesn't make me lose any of my decorator street cred. Cause that's what I'm really concerned about-what they're saying about my cupcakes, you know, on the streets...

ANYWAY

Originally I was just supposed to make a cake for a two-year-old's birthday party, but it was really last minute and I ended up not having a box big enough for a cake big enough for the amount of people at the party, yadda, yadda, yadda... So I decided to make cupcakes as sort of "cake-cessories" to supplement the cake. And yes, I will take credit for making that up.

I know, I know, this is supposed to be a CUPcake blog. But hey, I got love for the big cakes, too, alright? Ok, great, thanks. First things first, le cake. Or I guess if I'm going the pretend French route I should go all in... Voila! Le Gateau- I thought he turned out pretty darn cute. So that was the main event. Although the wart-y type things on the "actual" guy on the show kind of creep me out, I sort of really like them on the cake version for some reason. This cake and the cupcakes were really some of my most favorite to decorate. They were so fun. I love doing kids' cakes.

Ok, onto the cupcakes! They were seriously so fun to make. Every big, goofy eyeball, each weird, pointy tooth, and kind of gross little monster wart I piped, the more excited I was.

The more I look at these little guys, the more they remind me of another fairly famous monster with only one eye, whom I would absolutely love to turn into cupcakes... I'll let you think about that one, and have to get back to you if/when it happens. So here they are, mini Munos! Hope you enjoy. :)

M is for new blog! wait, no it's not...

So this is my blog, people. I'll take this time to introduce myself to all you sugar addicts out there in the land of the internets. My name is Laura, and I like cupcakes. A lot. I love making them, decorating them, EATING THEM(nomnomnom), you know... the usual... Wow, this is really starting to sound more like a support group than a blog post... Oh well, I suppose we'll see where this takes us.

Anyway, I'm pretty much always thinking about cake in one way or another. What kind of cake can I make next? What kind of frosting? What can I turn into cupcakes? When's the next time I get to eat cupcakes? That sort of thing. Basically the point of this blog is to share ideas, get ideas, and show you what has become of ideas I've had.

So let's get down to business, and explain the title of this post... Lately I've been thinking HOLY CRAP I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S MAY ALREADY! That's where the M came in. M is for May aaaaaand Monsters! Which is what my latest project was. A good friend of mine has a little girl who just turned one and she loooooves Elmo. So for her party I made Elmo and Cookie Monster cupcakes. As a lover of cupcakes and Muppets, I was really excited to try these bad boys out. I'd actually been wanting to try out some Sesame Street cupcakes for a while so I was happy to have this opportunity. Soooo without further ado, here they are! Happy monster viewing!