My very own cupcake recipe is finally beginning to take shape. I have been working with the Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcake recipe, tweaking different its and bits until I have a recipe I am in love with. My requirements: super moist, dense cake, not too sweet and must taste delicious. While many people may prefer a light, fluffy cupcake, I prefer mine fairly dense and sponge-y to complement the rich frostings I like to use.
Here's my recipe thus far!
Vanilla Cupcake (courtesy of Me)
93.75 grams self-rising flour
78 grams all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
225 grams (1 cup) granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/2 cup Milk
1. Combine self-rising flour and all-purpose flour in small bowl. Set aside. I prefer to whisk the flours together to ensure they are evenly mixed.
2. In another bowl, beat butter (room temperature, not melted) then add sugar and cream together for about 1 minute on medium speed.
3. Add vegetable oil and beat for another 2 minutes.
4. Add eggs (room temperature) 1 at a time and continue mixing until each is well incorporated.
5. Combine vanilla extract and milk (room temperature).
6. Alternate adding flour and milk, beginning and ending with flour. Do not over beat!
7. Spoon batter into cupcake liners, 3/4 full.
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 22 minutes.
9. Cool 15 minutes in pan then remove to cool completely.
This cupcake recipe is still in its infant stages but I enjoy it.
Showing posts with label recipe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recipe. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
A Turkish Spin: Pistachio Cream Filled Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting
The weekend went by in a cooking blur or at least Saturday did. We started off our day with a run to the Farmer's Market in Troy and rounded it out with an entire afternoon and evening of peeling, chopping, sifting, baking, and cooking. Yes, we were preparing a Turkish Dinner... what other dinner requires so much time and preparation? Thank goodness the eating of a typical Turkish Dinner can last for hours!
Our Turkish Menu:
Tomato Soup
Salad
Lentil Balls
Karniyarik (Stuffed Eggplant with Ground Beef
Pilav (Turkish Rice)
Pistachio Cupcakes
I could not have asked for a better dinner (unless I was in Turkey) or better company. You will never truly understand food, its tastes, textures and smells until you have literally put your hands into the thick of it and that is what Turkish food is all about..it is basically a love affair with food. Getting your hands messy and taking the time to fill each with love.
Tomato Soup with Fried Mint Sauce
Lentil Balls
My favorite! Karniyarik
During all this hard work and preparation, I focused on the cupcakes! I wanted to create a cupcake with a nod towards Turkish food using a fairly basic recipe so if all fails, I could still enjoy a plain Vanilla Cupcake.
All Pistachio based recipes are my own concoction so please if you enjoy them, pass it around but give credit where credit is due. I researched online but was unable to find any recipes for pistachio filling whether it be for Cupcakes, Macoroons, Pies, etc. Enjoy!
Pistachios are used in all things good in Turkey! Baklava, Turkish Delight, Marzipan, etc.
Pistachio Cream Filled Cupcakes with Pistachio Buttercream Frosting
Pistachio Cream (Courtesy of Me)
You will need:
4 tablespoons Whipping Cream
3/4 ounce of shelled pistachios
1/4 cup butter
1/2 pound confectioners sugar
Extra Whipping Cream
Extra shelled pistachios
This is the fun part! To begin you must prepare unsalted pistachios by shelling them, then de-skining them.
1. Shell the pistachios then soak in boiling water for 15 minutes to loosen the skins. While tedious as this may seem, it is necessary to fully appreciate the pistachios.
2. In saucepan, add your 4 tablespoons Whipping Cream and shelled pistachios, bring to a boil and boil for 2 minutes until Whipping Cream has reduced (continuously stir to keep from burning)
3. Transfer pistachio mixture to a blender and let cool for a few minutes. Puree. Do not worry if you have still have its and bits of visible pistachios pieces.
4. In a mixing bowl, beat your room temperature butter to a creamy consistency then slowly add your sifted powdered sugar.
5. Add your pureed pistachio mix to frosting and continue to beat with mixer until well blended.
At this point, you should have a Pistachio Buttercream Frosting.
6. Add more whipping cream until you reach the desired consistency for your filling cream. I added 3 tablespoons of Whipping Cream. Add additional chopped pistachios (not pistachio mixture) if you want a stronger pistachio taste and a little crunch.
Yields enough filling for 24 cupcakes at 2 teaspoons each.
Side Note: The difference between the Pistachio Filling and Pistachio Frosting is the consistency and taste. I wanted to top my cupcakes with a Vanilla Buttercream Frosting but the flavor was too sweet so I decided to add a light pistachio flavoring with the slight sweetness of Almond Extract.
Pistachio Buttercream Frosting (courtesy of Me)
You will need:
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 pound confectioner's sugar
1/2 teaspoon Almond Extract
1 ounce Pistachios
1. Blend butter and sifted confectioner's sugar then add 1/2 teaspoon of Almond Extract.
2. In your blender, puree your pistachios until you have fine pieces of Pistachio.
3. Add pistachio pieces to buttercream frosting.
Yields enough frosting for 12 cupcakes.
Vanilla Cupcake Recipe (courtesy of Magnolia Bakery)
Ingredients:
* 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
* 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
* 2 cups sugar
* 4 large eggs, at room temperature
* 1 cup milk
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I did equal parts Almond Extract and Vanilla Extract to equal 1 teaspoon)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Line 2 (1/2 cup-12 capacity) muffin tins with cupcake papers.
In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.
In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
Cool the cupcakes in tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.
To Assemble:
Take a small knife and cut out a conical shape from cupcakes. Remove. Fill hole with Pistachio Cream Filling. Cut tops of the piece your removed from the cupcakes off and replace on top of the cupcake (this is to prevent your frosting from caving in in case your filling seeps into the cupcake and creates a void) Frost with Pistachio Buttercream Filling and top with pistachio pieces and Voila!
Our Turkish Menu:
Tomato Soup
Salad
Lentil Balls
Karniyarik (Stuffed Eggplant with Ground Beef
Pilav (Turkish Rice)
Pistachio Cupcakes
I could not have asked for a better dinner (unless I was in Turkey) or better company. You will never truly understand food, its tastes, textures and smells until you have literally put your hands into the thick of it and that is what Turkish food is all about..it is basically a love affair with food. Getting your hands messy and taking the time to fill each with love.
Tomato Soup with Fried Mint Sauce
Lentil Balls
My favorite! KarniyarikDuring all this hard work and preparation, I focused on the cupcakes! I wanted to create a cupcake with a nod towards Turkish food using a fairly basic recipe so if all fails, I could still enjoy a plain Vanilla Cupcake.
All Pistachio based recipes are my own concoction so please if you enjoy them, pass it around but give credit where credit is due. I researched online but was unable to find any recipes for pistachio filling whether it be for Cupcakes, Macoroons, Pies, etc. Enjoy!
Pistachios are used in all things good in Turkey! Baklava, Turkish Delight, Marzipan, etc.Pistachio Cream Filled Cupcakes with Pistachio Buttercream Frosting
Pistachio Cream (Courtesy of Me)
You will need:
4 tablespoons Whipping Cream
3/4 ounce of shelled pistachios
1/4 cup butter
1/2 pound confectioners sugar
Extra Whipping Cream
Extra shelled pistachios
This is the fun part! To begin you must prepare unsalted pistachios by shelling them, then de-skining them.
1. Shell the pistachios then soak in boiling water for 15 minutes to loosen the skins. While tedious as this may seem, it is necessary to fully appreciate the pistachios.
2. In saucepan, add your 4 tablespoons Whipping Cream and shelled pistachios, bring to a boil and boil for 2 minutes until Whipping Cream has reduced (continuously stir to keep from burning)
3. Transfer pistachio mixture to a blender and let cool for a few minutes. Puree. Do not worry if you have still have its and bits of visible pistachios pieces.
4. In a mixing bowl, beat your room temperature butter to a creamy consistency then slowly add your sifted powdered sugar.
5. Add your pureed pistachio mix to frosting and continue to beat with mixer until well blended.
At this point, you should have a Pistachio Buttercream Frosting.
6. Add more whipping cream until you reach the desired consistency for your filling cream. I added 3 tablespoons of Whipping Cream. Add additional chopped pistachios (not pistachio mixture) if you want a stronger pistachio taste and a little crunch.
Yields enough filling for 24 cupcakes at 2 teaspoons each.
Side Note: The difference between the Pistachio Filling and Pistachio Frosting is the consistency and taste. I wanted to top my cupcakes with a Vanilla Buttercream Frosting but the flavor was too sweet so I decided to add a light pistachio flavoring with the slight sweetness of Almond Extract.
Pistachio Buttercream Frosting (courtesy of Me)
You will need:
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 pound confectioner's sugar
1/2 teaspoon Almond Extract
1 ounce Pistachios
1. Blend butter and sifted confectioner's sugar then add 1/2 teaspoon of Almond Extract.
2. In your blender, puree your pistachios until you have fine pieces of Pistachio.
3. Add pistachio pieces to buttercream frosting.
Yields enough frosting for 12 cupcakes.
Vanilla Cupcake Recipe (courtesy of Magnolia Bakery)
Ingredients:
* 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
* 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
* 2 cups sugar
* 4 large eggs, at room temperature
* 1 cup milk
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I did equal parts Almond Extract and Vanilla Extract to equal 1 teaspoon)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Line 2 (1/2 cup-12 capacity) muffin tins with cupcake papers.
In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.
In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
Cool the cupcakes in tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.
To Assemble:
Take a small knife and cut out a conical shape from cupcakes. Remove. Fill hole with Pistachio Cream Filling. Cut tops of the piece your removed from the cupcakes off and replace on top of the cupcake (this is to prevent your frosting from caving in in case your filling seeps into the cupcake and creates a void) Frost with Pistachio Buttercream Filling and top with pistachio pieces and Voila!
Monday, August 16, 2010
Buttercream Frosting: Try Outs Open Today
Tips:
Friday it was full steam ahead. I whipped up a Meringue Buttercream, a Strawberry Meringue Buttercream and a Vanilla Buttercream.
Meringue Buttercream Frostings:
I whipped and whipped and whipped egg whites and granulated sugar over my home made
broiler until the sugar dissolved and again I whipped until I had a nice sticky meringue with my handheld mixer. True, a handheld mixer, is not the best choice for concocting fabulous creations but it works in a pinch although I did have to take a break from time to time to let the mixer cool. I am unsure if this affected the frosting or not. I was never able to achieve "stiff" peaks in my meringue but it was nice and sticky and fairly thick so I began adding my cubed butter, 3 sticks of it! Needless to say, the frosting was very buttery and quite rich. Overall, I had a decent Meringue Buttercream Frosting even if it was too buttery for me.
Don't worry if your mixture begins to curdle upon adding butter! Continue mixing until you achieve a smooth consistency.
For the Strawberry Meringue Buttercream, I pureed 2 ounces of strawberries then mixed it with half of the already prepared Meringue Buttercream Frosting. The frosting was much better than the plain Meringue Buttercream as it masked the butter flavoring and it tasted like 100% real strawberries!
Side Note: Can anyone tell me if pureeing the Strawberries instead of simply chopping them up made a difference in the consistency of the frosting? The first time I added chopped strawberries to my first Buttercream Frosting, the frosting instantly took on a more liquid-y consistency. This time, with the pureed strawberries (resulting in a decently thick sauce), the consistency of the frosting did not change much. I do not know if this can be attributed to the ability of the Meringue Buttercream Frosting to hold up better or if it was the change in texture.
Meringue Buttercream Frosting Recipe (courtesy of http://www.perfect-wedding-day.com/buttercream-icing-recipe-1.html)
4 oz (1/2 cup) egg whites
8 oz ( 1 cup) granulated sugar
12 oz (3 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into cubes
Pinch of salt
1. Combine the egg whites, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl and place over simmering water.
2. Continuously beating with a whisk, heat until egg whites are hot and all the sugar is dissolved (~140 degrees). If the sugar is not completely melted, your final product will be grainy, so make sure!
3. Remove from the heat and place on the mixer. Whisk on medium speed until meringue is stiff, and the mixing bowl is cool to the touch. The meringue will be white with a bright sheen, and very sticky!
4. Switch to the paddle attachment, and on medium speed add the butter a few cubes at a time. Please note, if the meringue is not completely cool, the butter will melt instead of combining evenly.
5. Continue beating until all the butter is incorporated. At one point it may appear as if the mixture has “broken”, looking watery and separated like curdled milk. Continue mixing…it will all come together, I promise!
6. Increase speed to high, and beat until smooth.
Now for the real success story:
I now understand why you should sift your powdered sugar before attempting to mix up a buttercream. Your one pound of powdered sugar suddenly transforms to twice its amount and makes for a lighter, yet thicker buttercream. I can only hypothesize that my frosting came out better because there were absolutely no clumps in my powdered sugar and every last bit was able to smoothly mix with the butter while in the past, without sifting, the powdered sugar and butter never creamed together so well possibly due to tight balls of sugar in the mixture. With the sifted powdered sugar, the buttercream blended so well, my mixer was on the verge of losing the mixing fight. At one point, I had to take a break before the mixer overheated because of the nice, thick consistency of the buttercream.
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 pound powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk, if necessary
I did not need to add milk.
Taste Testing:
Finally, with the help of Soner, I was able to taste test my various frostings with cupcakes I baked earlier that day! While Soner liked the consistency of all the frostings and for the most part the taste, the Meringue Buttercream had way too much butter for him and the Vanilla Buttercream had too much almond oil. He enjoyed the Strawberry Meringue Buttercream but found the texture a bit odd. I believe if the frosting had been piped, he would not have had a problem with texture. Myself, I loved the Vanilla Buttercream, that nice kick of sweet Almond Oil along with its thick, creamy consistency. I am not a big fan of the Meringue Buttercreams but who knows what the overall taste, texture and consistency would be if my egg whites had formed stiff peaks as they should have.
- Sift powdered sugar before creaming with butter for a thick, consistent buttercream
- Separate eggs while cold for easy separation then allow egg whites to warm to room temperature (about 30 minutes) for a faster whip and better volume
Friday it was full steam ahead. I whipped up a Meringue Buttercream, a Strawberry Meringue Buttercream and a Vanilla Buttercream.
Meringue Buttercream Frostings:
I whipped and whipped and whipped egg whites and granulated sugar over my home made
broiler until the sugar dissolved and again I whipped until I had a nice sticky meringue with my handheld mixer. True, a handheld mixer, is not the best choice for concocting fabulous creations but it works in a pinch although I did have to take a break from time to time to let the mixer cool. I am unsure if this affected the frosting or not. I was never able to achieve "stiff" peaks in my meringue but it was nice and sticky and fairly thick so I began adding my cubed butter, 3 sticks of it! Needless to say, the frosting was very buttery and quite rich. Overall, I had a decent Meringue Buttercream Frosting even if it was too buttery for me.
Don't worry if your mixture begins to curdle upon adding butter! Continue mixing until you achieve a smooth consistency.
For the Strawberry Meringue Buttercream, I pureed 2 ounces of strawberries then mixed it with half of the already prepared Meringue Buttercream Frosting. The frosting was much better than the plain Meringue Buttercream as it masked the butter flavoring and it tasted like 100% real strawberries!
Side Note: Can anyone tell me if pureeing the Strawberries instead of simply chopping them up made a difference in the consistency of the frosting? The first time I added chopped strawberries to my first Buttercream Frosting, the frosting instantly took on a more liquid-y consistency. This time, with the pureed strawberries (resulting in a decently thick sauce), the consistency of the frosting did not change much. I do not know if this can be attributed to the ability of the Meringue Buttercream Frosting to hold up better or if it was the change in texture.
Meringue Buttercream Frosting Recipe (courtesy of http://www.perfect-wedding-day.com/buttercream-icing-recipe-1.html)
4 oz (1/2 cup) egg whites
8 oz ( 1 cup) granulated sugar
12 oz (3 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into cubes
Pinch of salt
1. Combine the egg whites, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl and place over simmering water.
2. Continuously beating with a whisk, heat until egg whites are hot and all the sugar is dissolved (~140 degrees). If the sugar is not completely melted, your final product will be grainy, so make sure!
3. Remove from the heat and place on the mixer. Whisk on medium speed until meringue is stiff, and the mixing bowl is cool to the touch. The meringue will be white with a bright sheen, and very sticky!
4. Switch to the paddle attachment, and on medium speed add the butter a few cubes at a time. Please note, if the meringue is not completely cool, the butter will melt instead of combining evenly.
5. Continue beating until all the butter is incorporated. At one point it may appear as if the mixture has “broken”, looking watery and separated like curdled milk. Continue mixing…it will all come together, I promise!
6. Increase speed to high, and beat until smooth.
Now for the real success story:
I now understand why you should sift your powdered sugar before attempting to mix up a buttercream. Your one pound of powdered sugar suddenly transforms to twice its amount and makes for a lighter, yet thicker buttercream. I can only hypothesize that my frosting came out better because there were absolutely no clumps in my powdered sugar and every last bit was able to smoothly mix with the butter while in the past, without sifting, the powdered sugar and butter never creamed together so well possibly due to tight balls of sugar in the mixture. With the sifted powdered sugar, the buttercream blended so well, my mixer was on the verge of losing the mixing fight. At one point, I had to take a break before the mixer overheated because of the nice, thick consistency of the buttercream.
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 pound powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk, if necessary
I did not need to add milk.
Taste Testing:
Finally, with the help of Soner, I was able to taste test my various frostings with cupcakes I baked earlier that day! While Soner liked the consistency of all the frostings and for the most part the taste, the Meringue Buttercream had way too much butter for him and the Vanilla Buttercream had too much almond oil. He enjoyed the Strawberry Meringue Buttercream but found the texture a bit odd. I believe if the frosting had been piped, he would not have had a problem with texture. Myself, I loved the Vanilla Buttercream, that nice kick of sweet Almond Oil along with its thick, creamy consistency. I am not a big fan of the Meringue Buttercreams but who knows what the overall taste, texture and consistency would be if my egg whites had formed stiff peaks as they should have.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Butterscotch Frosting.. A success.. Thus far!
And breathe out... Whew! I can finally breathe an excited sigh of relief. I think I just held my breathe for the duration while "whipping" up some Butterscotch Frosting,... holding,..holding,...holding,... did it work?! It did!
My plan today was to give White Chocolate Frosting another go but I am down to my last two ounces of white chocolate chips and 1/2 a stick of butter. I googled White Chocolate Frosting and decided on the first easy recipe I could find and set to work. I substituted Butterscotch Chips for White Chocolate chips since it was the only 4 ounce thing I had on hand (4 ounces on the dot I was meant to make Butterscotch Frosting obviously!) and got to work. My recipe:
I substituted butterscotch chips for the white chocolate and melted in the microwave. The butterscotch were melted but definitely not liquid-y. I decided this probably worked best so my frosting would be thicker. While still warm (to keep the butterscotch from re-hardening), I added the confectioner's sugar, salt and butter. The frosting tasted great with those ingredients but was quite lumpy so I threw in the 1 tsp of Vanilla and Voila! A smooth, creamy Butterscotch frosting was made!
I frosted frozen Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcakes I made last week and now we will wait and see how the frosting sets. Until then, feast your eyes on yumminess!
My plan today was to give White Chocolate Frosting another go but I am down to my last two ounces of white chocolate chips and 1/2 a stick of butter. I googled White Chocolate Frosting and decided on the first easy recipe I could find and set to work. I substituted Butterscotch Chips for White Chocolate chips since it was the only 4 ounce thing I had on hand (4 ounces on the dot I was meant to make Butterscotch Frosting obviously!) and got to work. My recipe:
4 oz. white chocolate
3/4 c. confectioners' sugar
Dash salt
2 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 c. confectioners' sugar
Dash salt
2 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
Melt chocolate; blend in confectioners' sugar, salt and butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating thoroughly after each. Stir in vanilla. (For more, use 1 cup confectioners' sugar and 4 tablespoons hot water.)
I substituted butterscotch chips for the white chocolate and melted in the microwave. The butterscotch were melted but definitely not liquid-y. I decided this probably worked best so my frosting would be thicker. While still warm (to keep the butterscotch from re-hardening), I added the confectioner's sugar, salt and butter. The frosting tasted great with those ingredients but was quite lumpy so I threw in the 1 tsp of Vanilla and Voila! A smooth, creamy Butterscotch frosting was made!
I frosted frozen Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcakes I made last week and now we will wait and see how the frosting sets. Until then, feast your eyes on yumminess!
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
If at first you don't succeed, throw it all away!
Tips:
I have these great aspirations for cupcakes so good you cannot eat just one which may defeat the purpose of these individually portioned treats but isn't it nice to have goals? It all started Friday when I thought to myself, "Wouldn't white chocolate filled vanilla cupcakes topped with strawberry buttercream frosting be delicious, like a flavor packed White Chocolate Covered Strawberry?" These were my exact thoughts,.. too bad my cupcakes nor the frosting were receiving my well thought out ESP signals. Instead they took on a mind of their own. The perfect little Vanilla Cupcake basically spit out my idea of a white creamy chocolate-y 
middle and sunk my chocolate every time I tried, tried again even after I dusted them with flour to keep the chocolate suspended within the batter. I tried placing two melting chocolate disks pushed down in the middle of the batter, placing a grouping of white chocolate chips in the middle of the batter and finally sprinkling as many white chocolate chips as the cup would hold on top of the batter in high hopes that even if the chocolate did sink, there were so many chips, they would be scattered throughout the cupcake. Finally, success! I cut open a fresh still warm from the oven cupcake and my white chocolate chips came oozing out of the bottom middle... 5 minutes later...poof! The chocolate hardened into a crunchy state. Not exactly my idea of white chocolate tastiness but I digress.
On to my fabulous buttercream.. or it was until I added 1 cup of chopped strawberries turning my once stout buttercream to a creamy mess. At first I thought I added too many strawberries, which I did, 1 cup to 1 lb of confectioner's sugar is not an even match but even after adding another pound and counting, my perfect buttercream was destroyed. The only saving grace is it was definitely tasty when paired with my Vanilla Cupcakes (with the crunchy white chocolate floating around the bottom) but in the end it all met its doom in my trash can. I could not handle constantly cleaning up drips from the counter top with every bite I took.
Monday I took another stab at Strawberry Buttercream frosting, white chocolate cupcakes and a new recipe for White Chocolate frosting. My thinking being, if I cannot succeed at Strawberry Buttercream this time, I have a fall back because I know I cannot mess up icing with an egg white base.
Wow, have th
e mighty fallen! Strawberry Buttercream Frosting... FAIL! Still a creamy mess! White Chocolate frosting ...FAIL! Everything was going great until I added the butter and white chocolate then it became a lumpy creamy mess! White Chocolate cupcakes...FAIL! This time I added 10 ounces melted white chocolate chips to the recipe trying to replicate the addition of white chocolate chips from another recipe I read online but using my Vanilla Cupcake recipe. This actually was not too disasturous. Because I had leftover yolks from the White Chocolate frosting debacle, I thought I would replace two out of the 4 eggs in my Vanilla Cupcake recipe with egg yolks to try to obtain the denser 
texture everyone seemed to love in the yogurt version of the Vanilla Cupcakes. I added a couple tablespoons of water to offset the liquid. The taste of the cupcake was Vanilla Cupcakes. I added a couple tablespoons of water to offset the liquid. The taste of the cupcake was quite delicious, however, it seems there was not enough "binding" in the batter to hold the cupcakes together so while very moist and great texture, the cake, out of the cupcake wrapper fell to pieces.
I look forward to the day when I will get it through my thick skull to make only one change at a time to a recipe. Maybe if I had left the recipe and eggs alone and simply added the chocolate, I would be sitting here today raving about my great cupcake skills! Maybe if I had only adjusted the eggs and not added any chocolate, I would also be raving about my great cupcake skills. Instead, I am defeated and overly sugared up with a trash can full of cupcakes and frosting.
On a more positive note, I have purchased Shirley Corriher's book Bakewise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking and will soon be learning everything I can about why I use baking powder in some recipes and baking soda in others, why my cupcakes sink and how to make them more moist. Crossing my fingers, it will be a good investment.
Strawberry Buttercream Frosting from Southern Living
Yield: Makes 2 1/2 cups
Ingredients
* 1 cup butter, softened
* 2 (16-ounce) packages powdered sugar, sifted
* 1 cup finely chopped fresh strawberries
Preparation
Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer 20 seconds or until fluffy. Add powdered sugar and chopped strawberries, beating at low speed until creamy. (Add more sugar if frosting is too thin, or add strawberries if too thick.)
White Chocolate Buttercream Icing from eHow
Step 1
First you need to make sure you have White Chocolate that has "Cocoa Butter" as one of the first two ingredients on the package.
Step 2
Take the chocolate and place it into a bowl and place the bowl over a pan of simmering water. Be careful not to let any water get into the chocolate or it will bind up. You may also place the chocolate into a microwave safe bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and microwave for 10 seconds at a time. Removing it after each 10 seconds and stir.
Step 3
Take the egg whites and beat till soft peaks form. Now start to gradually add the sugar a little at a time. When all the sugar has been incorporated beat on high till stiff peaks form.
Step 4
Add the butter a little at a time.
Step 5
Now add the melted white chocolate while beating slowly and then beat till smooth. You're done.
This will make about 6 Cups of Icing.
- Dust chocolate chips, blueberries, chopped strawberries, etc. with flour to prevent sinking in batter.
- Separate your eggs when cold but allow the egg whites to reach room temperature before beating to achieve more volume and stiff, firm peaks.
I have these great aspirations for cupcakes so good you cannot eat just one which may defeat the purpose of these individually portioned treats but isn't it nice to have goals? It all started Friday when I thought to myself, "Wouldn't white chocolate filled vanilla cupcakes topped with strawberry buttercream frosting be delicious, like a flavor packed White Chocolate Covered Strawberry?" These were my exact thoughts,.. too bad my cupcakes nor the frosting were receiving my well thought out ESP signals. Instead they took on a mind of their own. The perfect little Vanilla Cupcake basically spit out my idea of a white creamy chocolate-y 
middle and sunk my chocolate every time I tried, tried again even after I dusted them with flour to keep the chocolate suspended within the batter. I tried placing two melting chocolate disks pushed down in the middle of the batter, placing a grouping of white chocolate chips in the middle of the batter and finally sprinkling as many white chocolate chips as the cup would hold on top of the batter in high hopes that even if the chocolate did sink, there were so many chips, they would be scattered throughout the cupcake. Finally, success! I cut open a fresh still warm from the oven cupcake and my white chocolate chips came oozing out of the bottom middle... 5 minutes later...poof! The chocolate hardened into a crunchy state. Not exactly my idea of white chocolate tastiness but I digress.On to my fabulous buttercream.. or it was until I added 1 cup of chopped strawberries turning my once stout buttercream to a creamy mess. At first I thought I added too many strawberries, which I did, 1 cup to 1 lb of confectioner's sugar is not an even match but even after adding another pound and counting, my perfect buttercream was destroyed. The only saving grace is it was definitely tasty when paired with my Vanilla Cupcakes (with the crunchy white chocolate floating around the bottom) but in the end it all met its doom in my trash can. I could not handle constantly cleaning up drips from the counter top with every bite I took.
Monday I took another stab at Strawberry Buttercream frosting, white chocolate cupcakes and a new recipe for White Chocolate frosting. My thinking being, if I cannot succeed at Strawberry Buttercream this time, I have a fall back because I know I cannot mess up icing with an egg white base.
Wow, have th
e mighty fallen! Strawberry Buttercream Frosting... FAIL! Still a creamy mess! White Chocolate frosting ...FAIL! Everything was going great until I added the butter and white chocolate then it became a lumpy creamy mess! White Chocolate cupcakes...FAIL! This time I added 10 ounces melted white chocolate chips to the recipe trying to replicate the addition of white chocolate chips from another recipe I read online but using my Vanilla Cupcake recipe. This actually was not too disasturous. Because I had leftover yolks from the White Chocolate frosting debacle, I thought I would replace two out of the 4 eggs in my Vanilla Cupcake recipe with egg yolks to try to obtain the denser 
texture everyone seemed to love in the yogurt version of the Vanilla Cupcakes. I added a couple tablespoons of water to offset the liquid. The taste of the cupcake was Vanilla Cupcakes. I added a couple tablespoons of water to offset the liquid. The taste of the cupcake was quite delicious, however, it seems there was not enough "binding" in the batter to hold the cupcakes together so while very moist and great texture, the cake, out of the cupcake wrapper fell to pieces.I look forward to the day when I will get it through my thick skull to make only one change at a time to a recipe. Maybe if I had left the recipe and eggs alone and simply added the chocolate, I would be sitting here today raving about my great cupcake skills! Maybe if I had only adjusted the eggs and not added any chocolate, I would also be raving about my great cupcake skills. Instead, I am defeated and overly sugared up with a trash can full of cupcakes and frosting.
On a more positive note, I have purchased Shirley Corriher's book Bakewise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking and will soon be learning everything I can about why I use baking powder in some recipes and baking soda in others, why my cupcakes sink and how to make them more moist. Crossing my fingers, it will be a good investment.Strawberry Buttercream Frosting from Southern Living
Yield: Makes 2 1/2 cups
Ingredients
* 1 cup butter, softened
* 2 (16-ounce) packages powdered sugar, sifted
* 1 cup finely chopped fresh strawberries
Preparation
Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer 20 seconds or until fluffy. Add powdered sugar and chopped strawberries, beating at low speed until creamy. (Add more sugar if frosting is too thin, or add strawberries if too thick.)
White Chocolate Buttercream Icing from eHow
Step 1
First you need to make sure you have White Chocolate that has "Cocoa Butter" as one of the first two ingredients on the package.
Step 2
Take the chocolate and place it into a bowl and place the bowl over a pan of simmering water. Be careful not to let any water get into the chocolate or it will bind up. You may also place the chocolate into a microwave safe bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and microwave for 10 seconds at a time. Removing it after each 10 seconds and stir.
Step 3
Take the egg whites and beat till soft peaks form. Now start to gradually add the sugar a little at a time. When all the sugar has been incorporated beat on high till stiff peaks form.
Step 4
Add the butter a little at a time.
Step 5
Now add the melted white chocolate while beating slowly and then beat till smooth. You're done.
This will make about 6 Cups of Icing.
Friday, August 6, 2010
I did it! Buttercream-y delicous-ness!
I did it! I created buttercream frosting and it tasted fantastic! I was shocked, awed and I couldn't wait for Soner to come home to exclaim, "You did it! Congratulations! World's best frosting! just like Will Ferrell in Elf. So maybe it wasn't that great but it was a pretty monumental moment for me. Too bad I ruined it when I dumped a cup of chopped strawberries into it this morning. A little too over zealous. I guess I should have been happy with one milestone at a time.
One piece of advice, purchase a food scale. It will be the best decision of your life! Maybe I am being a bit dramatic but you can purchase one for $30 and finally take the guess work out of over-packing the flour or under packing the brown sugar. You can also eliminate the need to dirty up all of your measuring cups. Place the bowl on top of the food scale, turn it on and the scale will automatically eliminate the bowl and whatever ingredients you already have inside and start at "0." It is genius especially when I want to add sugar to the bowl already containing butter.
Next week I will begin tweaking the Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcakes and taste test any other winning recipes people send my way. Til then, I look forward to my next sugar induced coma!
Here's the buttercream recipe a friend gave me:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 pound powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk, if necessary
One piece of advice, purchase a food scale. It will be the best decision of your life! Maybe I am being a bit dramatic but you can purchase one for $30 and finally take the guess work out of over-packing the flour or under packing the brown sugar. You can also eliminate the need to dirty up all of your measuring cups. Place the bowl on top of the food scale, turn it on and the scale will automatically eliminate the bowl and whatever ingredients you already have inside and start at "0." It is genius especially when I want to add sugar to the bowl already containing butter.
Next week I will begin tweaking the Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcakes and taste test any other winning recipes people send my way. Til then, I look forward to my next sugar induced coma!
Here's the buttercream recipe a friend gave me:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 pound powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk, if necessary
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Cupcake Experiment #1 using JoyofBaking.com Vanilla Cupcake Recipe
We are in a very experimental mood lately! Yesterday, we began the great cupcake experiment in a quest for the perfectly moist and tasty cupcake because let's face it, people want the whole package, not just a pretty face (the frosting)!
First vanilla cupcake recipe up, JoyofBaking.com's Vanilla Cupcake. Here's where things become a bit dicey. I wanted to try 3 different add-ins with my cupcakes along with the original mix but we are on a major food overhaul (diets are for those who cannot stick to a plan for the long haul!) so I broke out the handy recipe ingredient converter and converted that baby down to 1/4 of its original size rendering me 3 cupcakes of each mix but such a small amount of mix is not so easy to... mix and while all of the ingredients were perfectly measured out (thank you new food scale!), the eggs may have gotten lost in there a bit. Who knew you could actually use "half" an egg! (Not just because the recipe converter said so..you can actually do it...I read up on eggs...a lot!)
So I measured, mixed, added and baked and voila! We have our first test cupcakes! Our add-ins were Sprite, Sour Cream and thick Greek Yogurt. Originally, I thought the Sour Cream and Yogurt would taste roughly the same but in the end, the sour cream didn't have that fresh baked taste although the moist-ness was about the same. The Sprite, Soner's idea, didn't turn out so hot...literally...the baking time should have been a bit longer for the Sprite cupcakes, however, since the cupcakes were all in the same pan, it was hard to adjust for that. I do not believe the Sprite cupcakes would have tasted better than the Greek Yogurt ones though. Overall, the Greek Yogurt cupcakes win out in the JoyofBaking.com's Vanilla Cupcakes (which is awesome as when we move to Turkey, they will not have Sour Cream and thick yogurt is what they do best!). Today I will try a different Vanilla Cupcake recipe, testing the Greek yogurt vs. original recipe then I will taste them against Cupcake Batch 1 (I saved two from each flavor although I have to act fast so they do not lose their moisture!) Bottom line, the original recipe tasted good but when you tasted it against the Greek Yogurt or Sour Cream cupcakes, they tasted dry.
In the end, I hope to nail down the best Vanilla Cupcake recipe for me then begin to tweak the recipe bit by bit for a difference you can taste.
JoyofBaking.com Vanilla Cupcake Recipe
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup (130 grams) granulated white sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Zest of 1 large lemon (optional)
1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (60 ml) milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.
In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract and lemon zest.
In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter and bake for about 18-20 minutes or until nicely browned and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.
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