Carrot Cupcakes

Before this, I had never made carrot cake. I was never a huge fan of carrot cake--mostly I think I avoided it because recipes usually include nuts, but I was also not totally convinced vegetables would be good in cake. But when asked to make some cupcakes that would be appropriate for morning, I thought these might be a good bet. I thought these were delicious--granted, I don't have much to compare them to, but others seemed to like them as well!

Carrot Cupcakes
-1 lb. peeled finely grated carrots
-3 eggs, room temp.
-1/3 c. buttermilk, room temp.
-2 c. sugar
-1.5 c. vegetable/canola oil
-1.5 tsp. vanilla extract
-1/2 c. raisins
-3 c. all purpose flour
-1 tsp. baking soda
-2 tsp. baking powder
-1 tsp. salt
-1 tsp. cinnamon
-1 tsp. ground ginger
-1/4 tsp. ground cloves

1. Whisk together carrots, eggs, buttermilk, sugar, oil, vanilla, and raisins.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices.
3. Stir the flour mixture into the carrot mixture until combined. Divide batter into 24 lined cups and bake at 325* for 23-28 minutes, rotating tins halfway through.

Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting
-1/2 c. softened butter
-8 oz. softened cream cheese
-1 c. packed light brown sugar

1. Beat together butter, cream cheese, and sugar until smooth.

Chocolate Spice Cupcakes

In the fall and winter, I have a tendency to want to add spice to everything. So instead of a regular chocolate cake recipe, I opted for this chocolate spice cake recipe. I coupled it with a chocolate cinnamon buttercream frosting, and I was totally in love.

This recipe makes a weird batter, but the texture of this cake is unbelievable. The molasses flavor really jumped out--I ended up using organic molasses for these, and it seems to have a stronger flavor than the kind I normally buy; I'd be interested to try this again with the "normal" kind too, just for the sake of comparing. Either way, I don't think these will disappoint.

Chocolate Spice Cupcakes
-5 T. softened butter
-1/4 c. Dutch process cocoa powder
-1 t. baking soda
-2/3 c. boiling water
-1 1/4 c. flour
-1/4 t. salt
-1 t. ginger
-1 t. cinnamon
-1/4 t. nutmeg
-1/2 c. packed dark brown sugar
-1 egg, room temperature
-2/3 c. molasses

1. Add baking soda to the boiling water. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and spices.
2. Beat together butter and brown sugar until pale and fluffy. Add in the egg. Add molasses and hot water.
3. Gradually add in the flour mixture until well combined.
4. Divide batter among 12 lined baking cups. Bake at 350* for 20 minutes, rotating tin halfway through.

Chocolate-Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting
-1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
-1/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
-3/4 c. cinnamon
-1/8 c. milk
-1/4 c. butter, softened

1. Combine sugar, cocoa powder, and cinnamon. Add in butter and milk. (Adjust the consistency with more sugar or more milk, as needed.)

Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes

Fall came, and my cabinet was ready with a healthy supply of pumpkin. I don't generally need much of an excuse to make cupcakes--in this case, having pumpkin handy was reason enough. And cream cheese frosting...

Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes
-2 c. cake flour
-1/2 t. baking soda
-2 t. baking powder
-1/2 t. salt
-1 t. cinnamon
-1 1/2 t. ginger
-1/2 t. nutmeg
-1/4 t. cloves
-1/2 c. butter, softened
-1 1/4 c. light brown sugar, packed
-2 eggs, room temperature
-1/2 c. buttermilk, room temperature
-3/4 c. pumpkin puree

1. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and spices.
2. Beat together butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat until incorporated.
3. Add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with two additions of buttermilk. Once combined, beat in pumpkin puree.
4. Divide into 16 lined baking cups, and bake, rotating tins halfway through, for 15-18 minutes at 350*.
5. Frost with cream cheese frosting.

Mocha Cake with Espresso Buttercream Frosting

When Blake was visiting I had a double-birthday occasion to make cake--after a little collaboration we decided on this combination. I split the full recipe into a dozen cupcakes and a 9 inch single-layer cake.

For the cake I used the same recipe I posted here, and the buttercream recipe is the same as well, except for the addition of a heaping tablespoon of espresso powder with the vanilla.


(I managed to convince some other grad students to help me finish these...)

What made this cake extra special? I got to make it with my truly amazing (not to mention gorgeous!) birthday present:


I am either horribly spoiled, or incredibly lucky, or both. I'm also very thankful, and really impressed with how fantastic the cake came out because of this!

Early Grey Cupcakes with Lemon Glaze

Last weekend I had an absolute craving for the Earl Grey cupcakes that I had posted previously. I changed the recipe slightly from before--I was looking for a denser cake, so I adjusted the butter and baking powder proportions a bit, but otherwise it was mostly the same. In the past I had frosted these with both chocolate and vanilla frostings, but both of those overpowered the tea flavor a bit too much. This time I thought a glaze would be ideal--particularly a citrus-flavored glaze to complement the bergamot in the tea. I think it worked! I had always shied away from glazes prior to this because of the uncontrollable dripping, but enough paper towels can make me comfortable with almost any mess, I suppose...

Lemon Glaze
-the juice of 1 lemon
-1-2 c. confectioners' sugar

1. Whisk the lemon juice with quarter cup additions of confectioners' sugar until it is the thickness desired. (Very difficult to be exact with this--just wing it until it looks and tastes right.)
2. Dip the cakes into the glaze, let most of the excess fall off, and let them rest upright on racks over paper towels until the glaze has set.

Summer Squash Cupcakes

July was a very warm month--so much so that I had (sadly!) minimal desire to bake. I made a couple batches of cookies, sure, but nothing new, and nothing that was very labor-intensive. There have been little breaks in the heat since August started--enough for me to want to try making these cupcakes, at least. I probably won't get back into a full-baking swing until next month, but hopefully I'll have a couple things to share this week.

We have been getting a LOT of zucchini and squash from the farm lately--I think all of us are running out of creative ways to cook them. I had 3 small summer squash, and decided cupcakes might be fun. I suspected it would be feasible to substitute grated squash for grated zucchini, and it definitely is. Couldn't tell the difference! Hence, squash cakes...

Summer Squash Cakes
-3 c. flour
-1 t. baking soda
-1/2 t. baking powder
-1 t. salt
-2 t. cinnamon
-1/2 t. nutmeg
-1/2 t. cloves
-1/2 c. vegetable oil
-1/2 c. olive oil
-2 eggs
-2 t. vanilla
-2 c. packed light brown sugar
-3 c. grated summer squash, some of the excess water removed

1. In a large bowl whisk together the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, beat together the oils, eggs, and vanilla. Add the sugar and beat until smooth, then stir in the squash.
2. Gradually add the flour mixture, taking care not to over-beat.
3. Pour the batter into lined baking cups. Bake 20 minutes at 350* F, rotating the tins halfway through.
4. Let cool. Top with cream cheese frosting.

Thawing Cupcakes

I made a very large batch of red velvet cupcakes a few months ago--some to share, and others to hoard. Rather than eating all of mine at once (believe me, I was tempted), I decided to try freezing them to make the joy last a little longer. I wrapped them in plastic wrap, and then stored them in an airtight container in the freezer. When I was ready for them again (during finals week...), I took them out, unwrapped them, and left them to thaw on the counter. Within less than an hour, they were perfect and fresh, and exactly what I needed to keep my spirits up during the studying!

An Order!

This week I put together a cupcake order for a friend throwing a bridal shower. It ended up being four dozen cupcakes--Devil's food and yellow cakes with buttercream or dark chocolate frosting. I was given the wedding invitation as inspiration--it was covered in blue flowers, so I tinted some fondant and tried to make some to match.

Apart from making a lot of consecutive little messes in my kitchen (that by the end had merged into one big one), it was fun to try something on a larger scale! And now I'll be ready for next time! A few photos of the finished products:

LOST!

I realize that I have officially become the worst poster ever. I apologize for this, and fully intend to make up for it soon, assuming I survive the next 7 days. The spring semester has come to an end, and after a pretty tiring few weeks of finals, my classmates and I are now preparing for our first year comprehensive exams next week. Kind of a big deal. Fingers crossed...

I had been meaning to do another month's worth of posts when I uploaded my photos only to find that I had done very little baking that was post-worthy this month. I have, however, gotten pretty into cooking--expanding my repertoire to go beyond cake... Non-baking experiments might find their way to the internet soon, but for now, my latest project, inspired by LOST for the finale-viewing I attended on Sunday!

(Chocolate-espresso cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and black and white fondant "rocks"... Game on?)

Welcoming Spring! (...with Devil's Food Cupcakes)

I'm back again, after another long hiatus--same excuses as last time! This semester has been something else. Until June, the once-monthly post explosions are probably going to be the norm.

Last month, some friends hosted a cook-off. That night I became wildly impressed by the culinary abilities of the people in my department! Anyway, my contribution was a dessert (what else?)--it was early March then, so I may have been jumping the gun a bit, but I was eager to welcome spring. That inspired the butterfly cupcake project! I knew I wanted to try the Swiss Meringue Buttercream again, but I was feeling pretty indecisive about the cake, so I ended up with some Devil's food, some yellow, and a handful of marble cupcakes.

This was an interesting experiment for me--the Devil's food and yellow cake recipes were from two different sources, but were almost identical in terms of ingredients and process, so I assumed they'd be fairly similar with respect to texture. Wrong. They were about as different as possible. Both tasted good, but the Devil's food had a beautiful crumb, and the yellow... less so. I'll probably try it again (perhaps when I'm not making two batters in tandem?), but for now we'll stick with the chocolate.

Devil's Food Cupcakes
-1 1/2 c. cake flour
-1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
-1 t. baking soda
-1 t. baking powder
-1 t. salt
-3/4 c. Dutch-process cocoa powder
-3/4 c. hot water
-1 1/2 c. unsalted butter
-2 1/4 c. sugar
-4 eggs
-1 T. vanilla extract
-1 c. sour cream

1. Whisk together flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Combine hot water and cocoa powder and whisk until smooth.
2. Melt butter and sugar in a saucepan, stirring. Remove from heat, pour into a mixing bowl, and beat for 4-5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and cocoa mixture.
3. Alternate additions of flour mixture and sour cream; beat just until combined.
4. Divide into lined cups. Bake for 20 minutes at 350* F, rotating tins halfway through.

Hard to tell in this photo, but the Devil's food baked really beautifully--see how nicely they domed? And the yellow cakes were kind of flat.

Buttercream. A weakness of mine.

Some chocolate and candy butterflies (which took shockingly long to make--I wanted to document the process, but that would have required about 18 more hands). Also, I was going for more of a yellow frosting color; something weird happened there, but I think it still worked.

Happy spring!

Red Velvet Cupcakes, Revisited

And now I'm posting the recipe from the third attempt. I think these were the best. The texture is awesome, and the flavor was as close as I've gotten to my ideal! This ended up being the fusion of a few recipes--by the third time, I was not afraid of experimenting a little, and that ended up being a good decision.

Red Velvet Cupcakes (again)
-2 1/2 c. cake flour
-1 1/2 T. natural unsweetened cocoa powder
-1 1/2 t. unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
-1 t. salt
-1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
-1 1/2 c. vegetable oil
-2 eggs
-red food coloring (2 T. liquid, or 1 t. gel)
-1 t. vanilla
-1 c. buttermilk
-1 1/2 t. baking soda
-1 T. vinegar

1. Whisk together flour, cocoa powders, and salt. Beat together sugar and oil. Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and food coloring.
2. Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture in three parts, alternating with two additions of buttermilk.
3. Combine the vinegar and baking soda in a small bowl. Add to batter and mix for 10 seconds.
4. Pour batter into lined cups. Bake at 350* for 20 minutes, rotating tins halfway through.

(Same cream cheese frosting as before--it's a keeper!)

"Jarcakes"

This year, Valentine's Day fell during the Red Velvet Craze of 2010. I wanted to spread a bit of the holiday joy, so I tried to figure out how to mail cupcakes. After a little bit of research, Mason jars seemed like they would be the best option. With some inspiration from various bloggers and Etsy vendors, I decided to give it a shot. I didn't realize, however, that finding the right jars would be such a challenge. There is no shortage of canning equipment in Vermont--such things proved a bit more elusive in Rhode Island. Finally, however, I struck gold at Adler's (they always seem to have the one thing I can't find anywhere else; I should start looking there first...), so on we go!

A 4 oz. quilted jelly jar. Exactly cupcake-sized. (It sounds like you can also use wide-mouth half-pint jars.)

There seemed to be a few different ideas about how to assemble everything in the jars. I decided to slice the cupcakes in half horizontally, with a layer of frosting piped in the middle. I also tried a couple with three layers of cake; it seemed to work well too. Some of the examples I saw had the frosting on the top, but that seemed like it would be a bit messy when the lids came off.

Assembled!

I put these in the freezer overnight, and then wrapped them in tissue paper and packaged them right before shipping them Priority mail (2-3 days). Looks like they made the trip pretty well!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

I love most cakes, particularly the chocolates and the yellows and the variants thereof. More than any other, however, I love red velvet cake. I didn't try red velvet until maybe five years ago, at Tippecanoe Place in South Bend. I think their recipe has become the standard to which I compare all others, and few come close. So, this February I attempted to perfect my red velvet cupcakes--I tried three times in two weeks, learning tricks along the way; all were good, and now I think I almost have it... Here's the recipe from the second attempt!

Red Velvet Cupcakes
-2 1/4 c. cake flour
-1 1/2 t. baking soda
-pinch salt
-1 c. buttermilk
-1 T. white vinegar
-1 t. vanilla
-2 eggs
-2 T. unsweetened natural cocoa powder
-2 T. red food coloring
-3/4 c. unsalted butter
-1 1/2 c. granulated sugar

1. Whisk together buttermilk, vinegar, vanilla, and eggs in a large measuring cup. Combine food coloring with cocoa in a small bowl to form a paste. Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.
2. Beat together butter and sugar. Add the flour mixture in three portions, alternating with two additions of the liquid mixture. Add the cocoa mixture, and beat until the batter is well combined.
3. Pour into lined cups. Bake at 350* for 20 minutes, rotating tins halfway through.

Cream Cheese Frosting
-1 c. unsalted butter
-12 oz. cream cheese
-4 c. confectioners' sugar
-3/4 t. vanilla

1. Beat together butter and cream cheese until fluffy (2-3 minutes).
2. Add sugar, 1/2 cup at a time and beat until smooth. Add vanilla.
3. Frost cupcakes. (I tried piping--it seemed to hold its shape pretty nicely!)

Look at that gorgeous color!

(And these baking cups are amazing. They're grease-proof, and Sweedish.)

Mocha Cupcakes

And I'm back!

Apologies for the six week hiatus--it corresponds directly to the beginning of a very hectic semester! School has decided to be extra challenging these days, and I'm okay with that, but it has severely minimized the time I can consider "free". Also, my computer has chosen to play mind games with me lately, so both of those things have factored into my lack of posting. There has certainly been no shortage of baking activity, however, so I plan to make up for that now! I've got a month's worth of posts, and I'm determined to do nothing else this evening... That brings us to the first: Mocha Cupcakes!

Priya and I decided to host a get-together about a month ago, so I figured that would be a good occasion to make cupcakes. Really, I can't think of many occasions that wouldn't be improved by cupcakes, but ordinarily I don't have a house full of other people to help eat them. So this was ideal. I thought these came out very well--the texture was excellent. Both the coffee and chocolate flavors were detectable, and it didn't seem to me that either was overwhelming. And the frosting was pretty astonishing. I'm still fairly new to the frosting-making, so I was very pleased with the finished product. It was very much the buttercream flavor, but the consistency was far silkier than any I've ever tried before. And it was wonderful to work with--I tried a bit of piping, but look forward to experimenting with it further. I didn't take any photos during the baking phase (party-prep...), but I did manage to get a couple shots of them all dressed up. Black-tie?

Mocha Cupcakes
-2 1/4 c. cake flour
-2 T. unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder
-1/2 c. unsalted butter
-1 1/2 c. light brown sugar
-2 eggs
-1 t. vanilla
-1 1/2 t. baking soda
-1/4 t. salt
-1/2 c. sour cream
-3/4 c. boiling water
-1 1/2 T. espresso powder

1. Whisk together flour and cocoa. Mix boiling water and espresso powder. Allow it to cool.
2. Cream together butter and brown sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Beat in vanilla, baking soda, and salt.
3. Add flour mixture to butter mixture in three portions, alternating with two additions of the sour cream. Add espresso mix and beat until smooth.
4. Pour batter into 24 lined cups. Bake at 325* for 22 minutes, rotating tins halfway through.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting
(**The original recipe I had was for 5 cups; this makes about 3 cups, which was more than enough to frost 24 cupcakes, but the fractions are a little unconventional...**)
-3 egg whites
-2/3 c. granulated sugar

-pinch of salt

-1 c. + 3.2 T. unsalted butter
-1 t. vanilla

1. Heat egg whites, sugar, and salt over a pan of simmering water, whisking continually until the mixture is warm and the sugar has dissolved.
2. Remove the bowl from the heat, and with the whisk attachment of an electric mixer, whisk the mixture until stiff (not dry) peaks form. Continue mixing until the mixture is fluffy and cool.
3. Add the butter a few tablespoons at a time, whisking continually. Add vanilla.
4. Switch to the beating attachment, and beat until all the air has been removed and the mixture is completely smooth (the recipe said 2 minutes, but that wasn't enough for mine--I just kept beating until it looked like frosting, and that approach seemed to work too). At this point, you can add food coloring and continue blending to tint the icing; I left mine white.
5. Spread or pipe onto cupcakes.

(Here they're modeling my new Wilton cupcake/cake carrier--it's awesome!)

It's good to be back!

Tiramisu Cupcakes

Until quite recently, I had not tried tiramisu--it has very quickly become a favorite. Imagine my intrigue, then, when I found a recipe for tiramisu cupcakes. To be honest, I was completely intimidated by the process. There were a lot of steps involved, and each seemed like it could offer very real potential for failure--I very nearly put this attempt off until another day. But upon further consideration, I decided to give it a go. I'm horribly spoiled by still being on vacation, and that meant I had all of yesterday to devote to this project. I visited several stores in the morning to gather up all the necessary ingredients, and spent the better part of the afternoon tackling this recipe... very cautiously! After a few hours, and several rounds of dish washing, I had a finished product that was actually pretty good! Certainly different from real tiramisu, but quite nice all the same. I will definitely be making these again.

Tiramisu Cupcakes
-1 1/4 c. cake flour
-3/4 t. baking powder
-1/2 t. course salt
-1/4 c. milk
-1 T. vanilla
-1/4 c. unsalted butter
-3 eggs + 3 egg yolks
-1 c. sugar

1. Heat milk and vanilla in small saucepan. Stir in butter until melted. Let cool 15 minutes.
2. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together in small bowl; set aside.
3. Whisk together eggs, egg yolks, and sugar. Set bowl over pan of simmering water and whisk by hand for ~6 minutes (until sugar is dissolved). Remove from heat, and whisk on high until fluffy, pale yellow, and thick enough to hold a ribbon on the surface for several seconds.
4. Fold flour mixture into egg mixture. Add 1/2 cup of batter into milk mixture to thicken; fold milk mixture into batter.
5. Divide batter among 18 baking cups. Bake at 325* for 20 minutes, rotating tins halfway through.

Espresso-Marsala Syrup
-1/3 c + 1 T. freshly brewed espresso
-1 oz. sweet marsala
-1/4 c. sugar

1. Stir together coffee, marsala, and sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Let cool.
2. Using a pastry brush, brush syrup onto cakes until all syrup is gone. Allow it to be absorbed for 30 minutes.

Mascarpone Frosting
-1 c. heavy cream
-1 c. mascarpone cheese
-1/2 c. confectioners' sugar

1. Whisk together mascarpone cheese and confectioners' sugar.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk cream until stiff peaks form.
3. Fold cream into mascarpone mixture until fully combined.
4. Frost cupcakes. Refrigerate in airtight containers. Dust with cocoa powder before serving.

(Brushed with syrup!)

Mmm.

Earl Grey Cupcakes

With all the studying that happened this week, I was looking for any excuse to take a bake-break. We decided to turn a group study session into a study 'party' by bringing cupcakes. They even got dressed up for the occasion...

These have a very subtle early grey flavor, and the recipe makes a moist, not-too-sweet cake. The batter rises much more than expected, though, so don't fill the cups too generously. I used a vanilla frosting this time, but I think citrus or chocolate might better complement the tea flavoring.

Earl Grey Cupcakes
-2/3 c. whole milk
-2 tea bags (Earl Grey)
-1 1/2 c. flour
-2 t. baking powder
-1 t. salt
-1/2 c. unsalted butter, room temperature
-1 c. sugar
-2 eggs

1. Heat the milk with the tea in a small saucepan. Bring it to a boil, then remove it from heat and allow the tea to steep for about 30 minutes until milk is cool.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
3. Cream together butter, sugar, and eggs.
4. Alternately beat in flour mixture and milk.
5. Spoon batter into cups.
6. Bake at 350* for 22-25 minutes.

(Don't fill them this much!)

All dressed up...

...and ready to go!

Confetti Cupcakes

With both Renee and Kara in town for the weekend, confetti cake was a must. We threw together a quick batch, and added a bit of cream cheese frosting for good measure--perfect!

Former Favorites: Vegetable Garden Cupcakes

Having had a few baking successes within the last several months, I decided to go ahead and document them here. (In other words, if I can't be in the kitchen tonight, I can at least take a little time off from homework to add a post or two... right?)

First up are the vegetable garden cupcakes. These were my project for my mom's birthday this summer, and I couldn't imagine a better way to make chocolate cake and chocolate frosting more "healthy". Inspiration goes back more than a decade to a vegetable garden cake that Martha Stewart featured on her show--as I recall, it was the cake that mom and I made for my 9th (or 10th?) birthday. The original recipe called for marzipan vegetables--our attempts with that failed, so we used frosting (meticulously piped by mom). For the cupcakes all these years later, I decided to play around with fondant. Decidedly fun!