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