German Chocolate Cupcakes

This is Augie.

Please disregard the case of Miller Lite in the background. It was left over from a family visit and we've just now taken back the empties. I didn't want to lose the opportunity for this picture by removing it beforehand. It's very hard to get a puppy to hold a pose. So, like I said, this is Augie. He's the newest member of our family. He's a 9-week-old black lab (he was just about 8 weeks old when this picture was taken) and he's been with us just about 2 weeks. Needless to say we've been pretty busy trying to teach this little guy the ropes and make sure Rollins (our almost 3-year-old yellow lab) still knows we love him. Thankfully the boys actually get along really well, which was my biggest worry. Now if I could only get Augie housebroken... all in good time.

So anyway, that handsome little face is the reason it took me so long to make these German Chocolate Cupcakes.

It's difficult to bake while a puppy is running around under your feet. It's even harder to keep track of him to make sure he's not running around in another room doing something he shouldn't be. For those reasons I waited to bake until my hubby and I would both be home so he could keep an eye on the boys while I worked.

This recipe didn't involve much prep beforehand. I left both the butter and the eggs out overnight to get to room temperature. I had also chopped all the chocolate the day before and just put it in a tupperware until I needed it. I was making chocolate frozen yogurt that also required chopped semisweet chocolate so I figured doing all the chopping at once would save me some time in the long run. I love being efficient. On to the cupcakes... I started with melting the chocolate and after the chocolate was melted I let it cool while I buttered and floured the cupcake pans. One of my least favorite things as I've mentioned many times before.

Making the batter wasn't difficult and it didn't take very long to do. The only hiccup I came across when making the cupcakes was what they looked like when they were done, and getting them out of the cupcake pans. I filled the cupcake pans three-quarters full (or what I think is three-quarters full) and baked them for 20 total minutes with a turn halfway through the baking time. When the cupcakes were done they were very flat and wide. They didn't bake up, they baked across, and in my opinion were quite ugly. But then again, I'm a sucker for a nice round cupcake. I can only conclude that I filled the cupcake pans too full, and since I only got 21 cupcakes instead of the 24 I was supposed to get that's probably the case. So, if I were to make them again I wouldn't fill them quite as full.

The other problem I came across was getting the cupcakes out of the pan. For whatever reason, buttering and flouring the cupcake pans didn't work like it normally does. Out of 21 cupcakes, I think only 2 or 3 of them came out cleanly. For the majority of the cupcakes there was at the very least a small portion that stuck to the bottom of the pan making the cupcakes look very ugly and making me very frustrated. The only thing I can think of is that cake flour doesn't work as well as all-purpose flour, or maybe I didn't butter them enough. I used a paper towel to apply the butter instead of just buttering the pans with the stick of butter itself. The butter was too soft and would have made a mess. I always apply Crisco with a paper towel so I figured using the same technique with butter would work just as well. So it was either the butter or the cake flour, something didn't work right.

After the cupcakes had cooled I set them aside in a tupperware until I could get to making the  Coconut-Pecan Frosting. Time and energy have been lacking for me lately so it took me a day or two to get to it. This frosting was a little more involved than a typical frosting but it wasn't that difficult. First order of business was chopping the pecans so they could be roasted. While the pecans roasted and cooled I worked on putting together the rest of the frosting. The recipe said to heat the frosting over medium heat until it thickened to the consistency of sour cream, roughly 10 minutes. I stirred constantly just like it said and at roughly 10 minutes the mixture wasn't that thick, nor was it the consistency of sour cream. So, I let it go another 10 minutes hoping the consistency would change and that I wouldn't ruin the frosting in the process.

The additional 10 minutes didn't make much of a difference. I suppose it was a little thicker, but it still wasn't sour cream consistency. But, at this point the mixture was boiling and I was worried about burning it, so I stopped when I got to 20 minutes of constant stirring and no success. I was hoping that taking it off the heat would also help it to thicken up a little bit... it did. Once I was done cooking the frosting I strained it through a fine sieve into a medium-sized bowl. I have a small sieve so this took a little while since I had to strain it in batches. Eventually I will invest in a larger sieve. When I was done straining the frosting I stirred in the remaining ingredients and let everything cool before I frosted the cupcakes.

While the frosting was cooling I sliced all the cupcakes in half and entertained the pups for a little while. When the frosting had cooled completely I put one tablespoon on the bottom half of the cupcake, placed the top half of the cupcake on that, and then spread some frosting on the top of each cupcake. This was a bit of a messy process as the frosting was quite sticky, but I thought the cupcakes actually turned out looking quite nice. Especially considering what they had looked like when I took them out of the pan. Don't get me wrong, some still looked a little rough, but they were much improved.

As for the taste of the cupcakes once they were frosted, I didn't love them, but I didn't hate them. I'm not a big fan of coconut or pecans, I know I've mentioned that before, so I didn't expect to like the frosting very much. The frosting itself wasn't terrible, and eating it with the cupcakes definitely helped. The cupcakes themselves, without the frosting were very good and I did actually eat more than one with no frosting at all... less calories! But, when completely finished and frosted I didn't get through half a cupcake. They weren't bad, they just didn't suit my fancy.

Coconut Rum-Raisin Cupcakes

If the sight of coconut rum-raisin cupcakes doesn't get your blood flowing and your juices pumping then frankly, I don't know what will. But please, try to hold yourself together. In Martha's cookbook each cupcake comes with a description. Perhaps to prepare you for what's coming or to tell you what the cupcakes are supposed to taste like in case you can't figure it out by the name of the recipe or the ingredients in it. Either way, the lovely description that comes with these cupcakes is as follows, "Drizzled with liquor-spiked caramel glaze and filled with rum-soaked raisins, these cupcakes are reminiscent of a popular ice cream flavor." Your mouth is now watering isn't it? Mine too.

I will be honest, the only thing I've ever heard involving rum raisin anything has to do with ice cream. I know 2 things about this particular flavor of ice cream. One involves a rather entertaining story about my dad that I don't quite remember all the details to, my mom could tell you. The other involves Bobby accidentally trying the ice cream on our vacation to the Dominican Republic last year when he thought what he was eating was vanilla ice cream. Honest mistake. It should be taken into consideration that the ice cream at our resort certainly couldn't hold a candle to my beloved Perry's Ice Cream (it's made outside my hometown and I miss it so much) but even so, it was not very tasty. Combine that knowledge with my dislike of coconut and I was not feeling particularly good about how these cupcakes would taste.

As you all are aware from reading about these stout cupcakes and these sticky toffee pudding cupcakes, I'm not very familiar with alcohol. And, if you haven't already figured it out from the name of these cupcakes, they required rum. Dark rum if we're being specific. Is Captain Morgan considered dark rum? I don't know, but today it was. We have nearly half a handle of Captain Morgan on top of our fridge that my dad left at our house that we never drink. Instead of buying more rum that we wouldn't drink I used the rum we already had on hand that we don't drink. Now that there's less in the bottle it at least looks like we're trying.

Nothing about this recipe was difficult, and in fact the batter pre rum, raisins and coconut was really good. Like, really, really good. As soon as I tasted it I suddenly had high hopes for the cupcakes. I thought even rum, raisins and coconut couldn't destroy this tasty concoction that I had created. I was right. Even once I had mixed in the above-mentioned ingredients the batter was still quite delicious. Things were looking good.

I filled my buttered and floured pans (someday cupcake liners will come back into my life) three-quarters full and baked the first batch for 30 total minutes with a turn halfway through the baking time. After the first batch I decided I could knock down the baking time a little bit. The cupcakes didn't turn out burnt or anything, but they were a little more golden than I thought they should be. For the remaining 2 batches I baked them for 26 total minutes with a turn halfway through the baking time, they were perfect. I tried a cupcake without the glaze and it was good. The only thing I didn't love were the raisins. I like raisins and they were fine in the cupcake, but the cake itself was so good it was almost like the raisins got in the way. In a surprising turn of events I didn't mind the coconut at all.

The rum-caramel glaze was nerve racking to make and I'm still not quite sure if it turned out exactly how it was supposed to, but it tasted good. And really, that's all the matters. I've made a glaze that required a similar process before, though I can't remember which cupcake it was for, and I always hate having to wait for the sugar-water mixture to turn color. I feel like I never know when it's reached the right hue and I should remove it from the burner. I waited until the mixture turned to what I thought was medium amber and then removed the pan from the stove. I added the rum and heavy cream. Martha was right when she warned me that this would cause the glaze to splatter. It sure did! It was like watching an experiment or something, it was actually pretty cool. But, I think I waited too long to start stirring since I ended up having some chunks of hardened glaze. However, I wasn't too worried because there was plenty of liquid glaze to use and it tasted just fine. The alcohol wasn't even noticeable in the glaze, or in the cupcakes for that matter. If I didn't now it was there, I wouldn't have known it was there.

Coconut-Pecan Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache

You may or may not remember a post from the past about these coconut cupcakes. In that post I expressed my dislike of coconut and even went so far as to complain about all the ingredients I had to buy to make them. One of those ingredients being coconut extract. If I remember correctly (and I know I do because I checked my post) I even asked in regards to the coconut extract, when am I ever going to use this again? Well my friends, today is the day! To both my surprise and displeasure, coconut extract is one of the components in coconut-pecan cupcakes (no link from Martha, sorry, blame her, not me).

To date, this recipe has been the most difficult in terms of being able to find all the ingredients that I needed. Luckily, the recipe listed some options for substitutions so I didn't have to leave anything out. Things I was unable to find included creamed coconut and unsweetened coconut flakes. I was able to find sweetened flaked coconut, which I used for both the batter and the garnish because that's the best I could do. I'm not sure what the difference is between flaked and shredded coconut, but the store only had flaked so that's what I used. According to the recipe it was permissible to substitute 4 tablespoons of butter for the creamed coconut. I always have plenty of butter so this was a great option for me.

As you know I'm coming off a brief cupcake hiatus so I'm still a little rusty. I didn't read the recipe all the way through, nor did I leave out all the ingredients to get to room temperature. There were only 2 (butter and eggs) and I remembered to leave out 1 (butter). Oh well. I at least took out the eggs while I was working with the coconut and pecans so they could get as warm as possible before I put them in the batter. Better than nothing.

The most time consuming portion of making these cupcakes was using the food processor to grind the coconut, and the toasting and food processing the pecans. After this process was complete the rest of the recipe was easy. I was skeptical of what the batter would taste like since it was riddled with coconutty items. However, if there was any potential saving grace it was that both the coconut and the pecans were ground up so you mostly got flavor and not the texture of the coconut and pecans. I enjoyed the batter, which gave me hope for the finished product.

In an exciting turn of events I now own 2 cupcake pans! My wonderful former college roommate and current bridesmaid got me a cupcake carrier and it comes complete with a cupcake pan as well. I don't think it gets any better than that. So now, I can fill 2 pans at once and if I need to do more than one batch of cupcakes, which I always do, I don't have to wait for the first pan to cool before I can bake another batch. It'll save me baking time as well as energy/power used to keep the oven at the appropriate temperature while I waited to put in the second batch. Everybody wins! Now, on to filling my 2 cupcake pans.

The batter wasn't quite at a pourable consistency so I had to use a spoon to fill the liners rather than my Pyrex measuring cup that I like to use when I can. I filled each liner to about three-quarters full. They weren't perfect but they were all pretty close in fill level. I definitely got less cupcakes than the recipe said I would, 6 less as a matter of fact. I'm not sure if I made the cupcakes too big, but they all came out to be a pretty good size, so I was pleased. Each batch baked 20 total minutes with a turn halfway through the baking time. I did contemplate baking 2 batches at once since I'm now the proud new owner of 2 cupcake pans. But I was concerned the cupcakes wouldn't bake evenly and didn't want to risk it.

Per my norm, I tried a cupcake before I ganached (technical term) and garnished them because I like to sample every phase of a cupcake. They were good. I was surprised. The texture of the coconut flakes was there just a little bit, but not enough to turn me off. I even had Bobby taste one, but I didn't tell him what kind they were because I knew he wouldn't try them if I did. He's not a fan of coconut either, but he agreed the cupcakes were good.

Next step, ganache and garnish. First, I toasted the coconut. Martha says that you should toast 2 cups of unsweetened shredded coconut. Because I didn't have that, I toasted 2 cups of sweetened coconut flakes. I don't know if the difference between the two is all that much, but I had to work with what I had. I also don't know if the fact that the coconut I used was sweetened mattered either. But again, it's what I had. I don't think Martha would be too upset, do you? I toasted the coconut for 10 minutes and had I toasted it any longer I think I would have had some seriously burnt coconut. For the most part the coconut was toasted to perfection, but there was some that was a little crisp, so I tried to set that aside so it didn't get mixed with the good coconut.

While the coconut cooled I worked on the ganache. The ganache-making process is painless. A little chopping, measuring, simmering and stirring is all that's required. Once I had my ganache I dipped each cupcake in it and then garnished each cupcake with the toasted coconut. I tried out 2 different garnishing methods. For the first method I sprinkled coconut across the top of the cupcake, so the majority of the surface was covered. For the second method, I sprinkled the coconut in more of a little heap in the center of the cupcake, which looked much better.

Moment of truth... taste test. I won't say I loved them, but I will say they were quite good. Even the toasted coconut garnish didn't really bother me. Would I prefer the cupcakes didn't have it? Of course. But, is the garnish the deal breaker? No. I never thought such a thing would be possible. Martha does it again.