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.

Lemon-Yogurt Cupcakes with Raspberry Jam

Originally I had intended to make these cupcakes for Easter Sunday and give them to my neighbors for an Easter treat. I had already made Easter cookies for my immediate family (they’re the same cookies I made for Valentine’s Day only a different shape, different color frosting and Easter-appropriate sprinkles) so I was off the hook there. But, I didn’t have enough cookies for the neighbors and I always think it’s a nice gesture for a holiday. I didn’t end up making these cupcakes for Easter either, sorry neighbors. It’s the same story as always, I was tired after work, and the recipe looked like it required more work and focus than I was willing to give. So, I held off for another week and took a nap.

I woke up “early” (8 am) Thursday morning and while my hubby was still fast asleep I was a busy little worker bee around the house. Since I figured he wouldn’t be up for a little while (he works later than I do, so he sleeps later too) I thought I would do a little baking to keep myself entertained before we ran around and took care of some errands.

As previously mentioned I had been putting this recipe off because it was going to involve a little work, starting with buttering and flouring the cupcake pans. It’s one of my least favorite things when it comes to baking. I don’t have any real reason other than using cupcake liners is so much easier and doesn’t require washing the cupcake pans after the baking is complete. Since this recipe said I would yield 24 cupcakes, I had to butter and flour (and wash) 2 cupcakes pans, not 1. No thanks.

My second reason for putting this off was I noticed I was going to have to use multiple bowls which again means multiple steps and more dishes to wash afterward. Something I wasn’t in the mood for on Easter Sunday. So, now that I had finally mustered up the energy to tackle these cupcakes I started by whisking together the dry ingredients and setting them aside.

Next up, whisking the egg whites into soft peaks. When I have to whisk egg whites, 99% of the time I use my stand mixer. It’s just so much easier. I can turn it on and let it do its thing while I work on something else. This case was no different, except that the recipe said to whisk the egg whites at medium speed. Of all the times that I can remember I’ve always whisked them at a higher speed, so I was a little concerned that medium speed wouldn’t get the job done. While the egg whites were whisking in a different bowl I worked on beating the butter with my hand mixer. I checked on the egg whites every minute or so to see if they were making any progress, and they weren’t. After letting them whisk about another minute on medium without any progress I decided it was time to increase the speed. My stand mixer goes from 0-12. I had started with 6, what I would consider medium, and ultimately increased the speed to 9, what I would consider medium-high. After a couple minutes I started to see some progress and was well on my way to properly whisked egg whites. Once the egg whites were at the right consistency I added in the sugar and continued whisking them on medium-high until stiff peaks formed. The recipe said to put the egg whites into another bowl, but rather than dirty another bowl, I just left them in the stand mixer until I was ready to use them.

I was hoping that after I was done with the egg whites the worst would be over, that was not the case. The most work came when it was time to combine the egg whites with the rest of the batter. The rest of the batter was pretty thick and stiff, and the recipe said to whisk in the egg whites by hand. This didn’t seem like the right approach based on the consistency of the batter, but in Martha I trust, so I went for it. It was tough and it took a while. When it was finally time to fold in the rest of the egg whites instead of whisk them, things were much easier and went much faster, but it still took a little work.

Now that the batter was done I filled each cupcake cup three-quarters full, or my best estimation of three-quarters full. They were probably a little fuller than they needed to be, but I always prefer a rounded cupcake to a flatter one. I just think they look nicer. I ended up with enough batter for 20 cupcakes, so I was 4 short of what the recipe said I would get, which meant I would have 4 cupcake cups lined with butter and flour that was now going to be baked into the pan and harder to clean. Hooray.

I baked each batch of cupcakes for 20 total minutes with a turn halfway through the baking time. They came out perfectly. They were more rounded than the cupcakes in the picture in Martha’s cookbook, but my guess is that’s because I used more batter. As soon as the cupcakes came out of the oven I ran a butter knife along the edges of each cupcake so they would be easier to remove once they were cooled. Then, I let them cool completely in the pan.

I decided to wait until the following day to put the cupcakes together. So on Friday while my hubby was playing FIFA I sliced and layered the cupcakes with raspberry jam. I used a teaspoon of jam per layer and ended up not having enough jam for all of the cupcakes (I bought a 12 oz. jar of Smuckers seedless raspberry jam). I think I had 2 cupcakes that went without jam, but honestly the cupcakes were really good on their own so I wasn’t upset about it. They were very light and fluffy, the flavor was vanilla with a hint of lemon. Yum! After the cupcakes were layered with jam I garnished the one I liked the best with confectioner’s sugar so I could photograph it. The rest I waited to garnish until later that night so they would be ready to take to work in the morning. Sometimes if you dust cupcakes with confectioner’s sugar ahead of time the sugar soaks into the cupcake and is no longer visible when it’s time to serve them. Now that I know that I try to wait to garnish with confectioner’s sugar until the last minute.

Finally, taste test time! I did actually try a cupcake right after it came out of the oven before it was raspberry jammed (technical term). I was curious as to what the cupcakes would taste like before the jam and they were delicious. I would have happily eaten all of them without the jam, but that’s not the point. They were even better with the jam and so much prettier. I love how they turned out, especially when you can see the inside and the layers of jam. I think they’d be even prettier with a whipped cream garnish instead of just confectioner’s sugar, or maybe a little drizzle of glaze. I might try that next time if I decide to make them again. I also made my hubby try them because I like to get his opinion and I figured he wouldn’t be scared to try these (some flavors he just doesn’t dig) and he really liked them. One of his favorite treats is Entenmann’s Raspberry Danish Twist and he said these cupcakes tasted like that. Needless to say he’s eaten more than the one I made him try. So far I’ve managed to restrain myself and have only eaten 1, however there’s a good chance that stat doesn’t make it through the day. I can’t let them go to waste, can I?

Mint-Filled Brownie Cupcakes

I've been meaning to make these mint-filled brownie cupcakes (no link on Martha's site) for awhile now. I was originally going to make them a couple weeks ago but came down with a sudden flu bug or something. In short, it was a day of unpleasantness spent in the bathroom, followed by a day in bed which all equated to a 5-pound weight loss. So really, all in all I'd call that a win. I actually ended up making these for St. Patrick's Day, for some reason mint makes me think St. Patrick's Day, but I haven't gotten around to posting them until now. Sometimes my life is just madness, I can hardly keep up.

Anyway, I love mint-flavored things... cookies, ice cream, gum, so I was excited to make these cupcakes. I was also excited that these cupcakes were easy to make and I wouldn't end up with a ton of them. I'm in training you know, and ever since Bobby brought home Girl Scout cookies last week I fell off the good-eating wagon for a little while and I'm trying my best to get back on board.

The step that required the most work was chopping the chocolate and butter, other than that it was just melting and stirring. I didn't even need to use a hand mixer! When the batter was done I started layering together the cupcakes. I ended up doing one cupcake at a time because I didn't want to put a tablespoon of batter into each of the cupcake liners to start, and then not have enough batter to finish all the cupcakes. So, I spooned one tablespoon of batter into the cupcake liner, pressed a peppermint patty on top and then spooned two more tablespoons of batter on top of the peppermint patty. I repeated that step until I ran out of batter and managed to get myself 11 cupcakes, just one short of what Martha said I would get.

The recipe said to bake the cupcakes for 35 total minutes with a turn halfway through the baking time. I upped the time by a couple minutes because the cupcakes weren't quite ready (at least I didn't think they were) after 35 minutes. In hindsight it may have been a little too much baking time, but I was afraid they would be too soft and mushy in the middle if I didn't add a little time. If I were to make them again I would probably stick with the 35 minutes and let them set in the pan after they were finished baking.

Overall I was happy with how the cupcakes turned out, but again, I wouldn't bake them as long the next time around. I think they should have been a little softer. But overall they tasted good and I managed to control myself and only eat just one. Small victories people, small victories.

Martha's Meyer Lemon Cupcakes

Curd is the word, lemon curd that is. Lemon curd is the lovely filling and topping for Martha's Meyer Lemon Cupcakes (no recipe on Martha's site). First things first, I don't know what Meyer lemons are nor do I know where to find them. Martha's cookbook says they can be found at specialty stores in winter and early spring. While it is currently winter/early spring in Connecticut (definitely more winter, will the snow never stop?) I didn't go searching for Meyer lemons at a specialty store. I went to Stop and Shop and bought lemons in the produce section. I just didn't think Meyer lemons could really be that important for the recipe. Who knows, maybe I bought Meyer lemons and didn't even know it.

Second things second, my initial thought was to cut this recipe in half because it's supposed to yield 42 cupcakes. My husband and I don't need 42 cupcakes for ourselves. But, after I saw I needed 7 large eggs for the whole recipe I knew I wouldn't be able to cut the recipe in half. I have no idea how to cut an egg, at least a raw one, in half. So, a full recipe it would be.

Beforehand I left out all the necessary ingredients to get to room temperature. Once I started working I realized I was going to have a lot of batter and that I was going to get a lot of cupcakes. Martha did not lie. I was worried that I should have used my stand mixer instead of a large bowl and hand mixer, but in the end it worked out fine. I had just enough room. Because the batter ended up being thick I spooned rather than poured it into the cupcakes liners. I filled each roughly three-quarters full. In the end I must have filled them a little too full (but they were a good size once they were done) because I only ended up yielding 36 cupcakes. I baked each batch for 28 total minutes with a turn halfway through the total baking time.

After the cupcakes were cooled, and a little baking break, I started working on the lemon curd. I've never made lemon curd or any other kind of curd for that matter, so I wasn't really sure what I was getting myself into. But, I was hoping that it wouldn't be too much work. I was tired. Turns out it wasn't too much work, it just took a little time and patience. For awhile I wasn't sure if the mixture was ever going to thicken. I felt like I was whisking, and would be whisking forever. But, once the mixture started to warm up and thicken just a little bit it took almost no time for it to get to the appropriate consistency.

Once the lemon curd was the appropriate thickness I strained it through a fine sieve into a small bowl. I covered it with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for 2 hours. When the curd was chilled I put it into a disposable piping bag (I buy them by the boxful so I almost always have them on hand) and fitted it with a tip that was closest to the size I thought it should be. I didn't have a round #8 tip, maybe I should buy one, but the one I had worked just as well.

Before I filled and topped all the cupcakes with lemon curd I dusted each of them with confectioner's sugar. Next, I inserted the tip of the piping bag into the top of each cupcake and filled the inside. Then, I lifted the top out and made a pool of lemon curd on the top of each cupcake. When I was done with all the cupcakes I had quite a bit of lemon curd left over. Even if I had made 42 cupcakes I still would have had extra.

Other than wishing I had the appropriate tip to pipe the cupcakes with (it would have made the pool on the top look smoother) I was really happy with how they looked and more importantly how they tasted. I would definitely make them again, and now I kind of want to try to make different kinds of curd to see what I can come up with. But instead I'll just make the next cupcake in Martha's book.

Peanut Butter-Filled Chocolate Cupcakes

It's official, I'm on a cupcake-making roll. That's what happens when your husband goes out of town for a week for work. Gotta do something to keep myself entertained, and cleaning is only fun for so long. Plus, I feel like I should make up for all the weeks I didn't bake any cupcakes. I'm certainly a little behind schedule so consider it trying to make up for lost time. These peanut butter-filled chocolate cupcakes (not on Martha's website) have been the easiest of the bunch so far, but I don't expect to get off the hook that easily with the cupcakes in the rest of this section.

First order of business was chopping all the chocolate and cutting the butter into small pieces to start those ingredients melting over a simmering pot of water. While the chocolate and butter was melting I whisked together the dry ingredients and also made the peanut butter filling. I liked that this recipe didn't require the use of a hand mixer to put everything together. I also enjoyed that I could use paper liners (I took them off for the picture) instead of having to butter and flour the pans. It was a nice break since I had to butter and flour the cupcake pans for the two previous recipes.

Putting these cupcakes together was done similarly to these strawberry-jam tea cakes only the amount of batter and filling was different. I layered, in this order, 2 tablespoons of chocolate batter, 1 tablespoon of peanut butter filling, 1 tablespoon of batter and 1 teaspoon of filling, swirling the teaspoon of filling with a toothpick to get a swirl pattern on top. While these cupcakes also turned out to be larger than they were probably supposed to be I was much closer in getting the number of cupcakes the recipe said I would yield. The recipe said I would get 12 and I got 11. I was pretty happy with that. But knowing how the tea cakes had turned out I tried to use smaller tablespoons to make sure the batter would last, and to ensure the cupcakes wouldn't be enormous.

The cupcakes were baked for 40 total minutes with a turn halfway through the baking time. If memory serves me correctly I ended up adding about 2 extra minutes to the baking time because I didn't think they were quite done when I tested them with a toothpick. Since they were a little larger than they probably should have been, a little extra time made sense. Eventually I will get this tablespoon layering thing down. There are still quite a few cupcakes left in this section to give me some more practice.

I did also appreciate that these cupcakes didn't require any glazing, layering or frosting after they were done baking. A little reprieve from all the work I have done on the two previous cupcakes in this section. I took these cupcakes into work and everyone enjoyed them. I also sampled one myself and thought they were quite tasty and would go great with a glass of milk, or some vanilla ice cream. The only thing I was a little disappointed with was that I wanted the peanut butter filling in the middle to be a little farther down in the cupcake so when you cut the cupcake in half it would look like the filling was floating in the middle. But, it also could have just been the cupcake I had, I'm not sure what everyone else's looked like in the middle.

In other baking news, non-cupcake related, I'm going to try to post a Valentine's Day treat later this week. Maybe even in time for the actual holiday and before I'm invaded by my husband's family (who I love... seriously!) this coming weekend. Oh, and if you're wondering, yes, it did snow (a lot) in Connecticut this weekend. Turns out we didn't have to find Nemo, Nemo found us. Here are just a few pictures I took yesterday after shoveling off our deck so we could get out of the house.

Told you it was a lot of snow.

Strawberry-Jam Tea Cakes

Here's what I've learned about the filled and layered section of Martha's cookbook. The cupcakes in it take some work. Granted, I'm only on the second cupcake of the section, but these first two have not been walks in the park. That said, I find them to be more fun because they are a bit of a challenge. I like these strawberry-jam tea cakes in particular because of the little surprise they have inside.

The actual cake part of these cupcakes was very similar to the cake in the boston cream pie cupcakes that I made last week. It may have been identical, but I didn't compare the recipes word for word, so I'm not sure. But, the batter was just as thick and difficult to work with as the last time, and folding in the egg whites made it much easier to work with. Again, just like last time. The only difference was this time, I layered the cupcake batter and filling before the cupcakes went into the oven instead of putting everything together afterward.

When the cupcake batter was done, I put 2 tablespoons of batter into each cupcake pan, then layered 1 tablespoon of strawberry preserves on top of that. The recipe said I could use jam or preserves, I chose preserves just as a personal preference. On top of the layer of preserves, I put 2 more tablespoons of batter. After all the layering was done my only concern was that the cupcakes were too full. They were filled right to the top. I followed the directions as they were written, but I think I could have used a little less batter. Or maybe, my tablespoons were just a little too big. The cupcakes turned out fine in the end, they were just a little larger than they probably should have been, and I only got 14 cupcakes instead of 16.

The other issue I came across was being able to create an indent in the first 2 tablespoons of batter to create a little spot for the preserves to go. The batter was so sticky that I had trouble getting the indentation to stay once I lifted the spoon out of it. The batter just stuck to the spoon. So, when I put the preserves into the layers of batter I pushed it down with the spoon to make the indentation as best as I could.

I baked the cupcakes for 30 total minutes, turning them halfway through the baking time. 30 minutes was enough, but some of the preserves oozed out of the cupcakes and was visible through the sides of some of the cupcakes when I removed them from the pan. The cupcakes came out easily (I had floured and buttered the pans beforehand). I removed them as soon as they came out of the oven and let them cool completely on a wire rack. When the cupcakes were completely cooled I stored them overnight in a plastic container and made the citrus glaze the following day.

The citrus glaze is very easy to make. I've done it before, but last time I made it I used lime, this time the recipe called for oranges. I didn't have to add any extra confectioner's sugar or orange juice for consistency purposes. The amount the recipe called for was perfect. I spooned about a tablespoon of glaze over each of the cupcakes and then let the glaze set for 30 minutes.

I enjoyed the cupcakes, though they were a little thick, as in, it was a lot of cupcake. I think that's partly because I made them too big. Next time I would use less batter, maybe 1 1/2 tablespoons for each layer of batter instead of 2. I also think these cupcakes would be quite good warmed up in the microwave for a couple seconds. I may just have to try that for a not-so-healthy breakfast one day this week.

Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

When I think of Boston I think of the Red Sox, the Patriots & Tom Brady (gross), the cold, the city's ridiculously confusing layout (what's wrong with a simple grid?), Kenny Chesney's song "Please Come to Boston" or "Boston" if that's more your style. Any Kenny Chesney suits my fancy just fine. Yum. I also think of Boston Cream Pie, which isn't technically pie. It's more like a cake. Either way, I've never had it. It's always looked quite appealing and delicious, but for whatever reason, I've never actually tried it. Until now, and these boston cream pie cupcakes.

I've been working up the post-holiday energy to make these because they looked like, and turned out to be a lot of work. There were a lot of steps that involved dirtying and then washing a lot of dishes. I hate washing dishes. If I had someone to clean up the mess I make while baking I would bake all the time. But I don't, and therefore I don't always have the energy or desire to clean up my mess.

To make these cupcakes I had roughly a whole day to dedicate to the process and the energy to do it. I worked early in the morning and set to baking just about as soon as I got home. Actually, I started during the 1st intermission of the Flyers-Sabres game, go Sabres! First step was to make the cupcakes, which wasn't difficult, it just involved a lot of steps, and as previously mentioned, a lot of dishes. Luckily it wasn't too much grunt work, I let my stand mixer take care of that for me. Love that thing.

When the batter was done I filled the cupcake tins about halfway and baked them for 15 total minutes with a turn halfway through the baking time. In this case the first half of the baking time was 8 minutes, the second was 7. After the cupcakes were done baking I set them on a wire rack to cool and proceeded to watch the rest of the 2nd period of the Sabres game. Hockey is back people.

In the 2nd intermission I started working on the pastry cream (or vanilla cream as Martha calls it, this is a little different than the recipe in her cookbook). This wasn't really difficult either, but again, more dishes. I've never made pastry cream before, but it was quite easy, you just have to babysit it. A lot of stirring, watching, waiting and wondering if you're messing it up. When I thought I had achieved the thickness I was supposed to I strained the cream through a sieve and covered the it with plastic wrap and popped it in the fridge for 2 hours to set. While it set, I watched the Sabres win, watched the beginning of the 49ers-Falcons game and fell asleep for a little while. It happens when you've been up since 3am and worked an 8-hour day. I can't help it.

When I woke up from my little afternoon siesta my husband came home and naturally asked what was for dinner. I told him I would start making dinner after I finished the cupcakes. Domestic goddess, that's me! The last step to the cupcakes was to make the chocolate-ganache glaze, something I have done several times before with other cupcakes in this book. It's not difficult to make, it's just more dishes to dirty and then wash. Before I started chopping the chocolate for the ganache I cut each cupcake in half so it would be ready to be filled and ganached (technical term) once all the components were done.

While I waited for the heavy cream and corn syrup to come to a simmer I started spreading the pastry cream onto the halved cupcakes. I put roughly a tablespoon of cream on each one (I had 16 total cupcakes) and had way more pastry cream than I needed. The recipe said I would get 20 cupcakes, but I think I still would have had extra pastry cream even if I had gotten that many cupcakes. When the ganache was done I spooned about a tablespoon on top of each cupcake and tried to spread it so it would drip down the sides. I also had way more ganache than I needed as well. I suppose I could have added more to the top of each cupcake, but I didn't want the ganache to overpower the rest of the cupcake so I cautioned toward the lighter side.

In hindsight I probably could have added both a little more pastry cream and ganache to each of the cupcakes, but part of me likes to believe that less is more. I didn't want them to be little messes of cupcake, pastry cream and ganache. I thought they turned out to be quite tasty and other than all the work and dishes, I enjoyed my first boston cream pie experience. That said, if I ever want it again, there's a good chance I'll forgo the work and let someone else make it for me.

Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! That's right, ice cream! Doesn't it make for a lovely garnish? I think so too. I like to copy the garnishes that Martha uses in the pictures in the cookbook and for these flourless chocolate cupcakes, ice cream was that garnish. I can get on board with that.

I won't say there were a lot of different steps to these cupcakes, there were only about 3, but each one was a different process that required dirtying another dish, which made for a lot of cleanup that I didn't so much enjoy. But, some good things require more work. While there were several steps, none of them were difficult. Melting the butter and chocolate was easy. That's never where I worry or get hung up that I might be messing something up. It's whipping the egg whites that concerns me and this time around was no different.

I used my stand mixer to handle the egg whites because it's much more efficient and I can do other things while they're whipping, like tend to the melting butter and chocolate for instance. I let the egg whites whip until I thought they were the right consistency, truthfully, I never know. I just do what I think is right and hope for the best. This time around I don't think I did it right because of how the cupcakes turned out. I'm not sure if I over-whipped the egg whites, or didn't whip them enough, but when the cupcakes were done the centers never really collapsed like they looked in Martha's pictures, they just kind of caved in. I suppose it could have also been the baking time (25 total minutes with a turn halfway through), maybe they needed to bake longer, or maybe I didn't bake them long enough. I don't plan on making them again anytime soon (it's almost time to start Christmas baking), but if I do I'll try to do some investigative work and see if they turn out any differently the second time around.

Although they didn't look like Martha's pictures, they did taste delicious! Especially with the ice cream. She knows a good garnish. The texture was very light and smooth. It kind of reminded me of a mousse. The texture was less cakey than a souffle and the center was set so it wasn't like a lava cake. In short they were tasty, and I ate more of them than I originally intended. It's a good thing I ran out of ice cream (my hubby helped with that) or I would have eaten even more. When I'm not pressuring myself by shedding for a wedding I let myself get away with a lot more bad eating. It's time to right this ship, though I'm not sure doing it before the holidays is a good idea.

Pistachio-Raspberry Tea Cakes

We are rapidly approaching the end of the simple and sweet section of the cookbook. I couldn't believe it myself until I looked ahead a few pages and saw that I only have 2 to go after these pistachio-raspberry tea cakes. It's exciting to finish a section, I feel like I'm really making progress and accomplishing something. No, it's certainly nothing as noble as curing a disease or saving the environment, but a goal is a goal... at least I have one.

I will confess that I wasn't excited about making these cupcakes. As mentioned several times before I'm not a big fan of pistachios and I don't hate raspberries, but I don't love them either. I prefer them in a pureed or syrup form. Like a garnish on a dessert, or perhaps in yogurt. I also figured that not many people would be interested in eating them, including myself, so they would be hard to get rid of.

The first thing I did to start making these cupcakes was to shell (I couldn't find pistachios that had already been shelled) and chop the pistachios. I had bought a small container of pistachios that I thought would be enough for the recipe, which was a little over a cup. I got about 3/4 cup of shelled pistachios. Not enough. I thought I might have an already opened bag of pistachios in the cupboard from a recent attempt at healthy snacking (I just can't do pistachios, I really tried, I swear) but I searched through the cupboard and couldn't find it. However a day later when I was back in that same cupboard looking for something else I found them... on the bottom shelf, right in front of my face. Clearly a future as a detective is not in the cards for me. Since I couldn't find anymore pistachios in the cupboard when I looked for them the first time I decided that I would just cut the recipe in half. Something I've thought of doing before when I had a recipe I wasn't excited about, but this was the first time I actually did it. I had enough pistachios to give me a 1/2 cup for the recipe and enough left over to use for the garnish. It would also be less work and I would have less to eat/get rid of. Everybody wins.

Happy with my decision to cut the recipe in half I proceeded. This recipe was the first I've used that calls for everything to be put together in a food processor. I almost didn't use it since I was afraid that it wouldn't work and blend everything well enough. But, part of this process is trying something new so I forged ahead. I ground the pistachios with the sugar and salt. I did a couple doses since after the first one there were still a couple of larger pieces of pistachio left. I wanted everything to be as fine as possible. I followed the same process for the remaining ingredients and turned out getting a normal looking batter. Though once everything was combined I did use a spoon to make sure everything was really combined since some of the liquid was at the bottom of the food processor and not completely mixed. Truthfully I think cutting the recipe in half was a stroke of luck (and maybe brilliance) since I'm not sure making a full batch would have fit in my food processor.

I filled the liners (which had to be sprayed with cooking spray first, something I've never had to do before) 3/4 full. This gave me 6 cupcakes... perfect! I was so excited to only have 6 cupcakes. I baked the cupcakes for 28 total minutes with a turn halfway through the baking time. They may have turned out a little browner than I normally like. But they were by no means too done or burnt. They also looked quite beautiful. The colors were really nice. I can't say the same for the taste.

The batter was pretty good, but I really didn't enjoy the end product. I'm not sure if it was the combination of the pistachios and the raspberries, perhaps it was the consistency. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but something wasn't quite right. I only ended up eating the portion of the cupcake that I took apart to take the photos. I even tried to go back a few days later when I was craving something sweet to give them another try and I only took a bite. They just weren't for me. I ended up throwing them away. I knew there was no way Bobby was going to eat them, fruit and nuts together, the cupcakes didn't stand a chance with him. I didn't think anyone at work would be interested in them either, especially since they were a couple days old at that point. I only like to provide baked goods when they're as fresh as possible. If I don't want to eat them, I can't expect other people to be interested.

Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes

Cheesecake is back! Did you miss it? I like when a cheesecake recipe comes up because it's usually pretty easy, it tastes good and the cheesecakes usually make for pretty pictures. Which, I would have to say is the case with these cookies and cream cheesecakes (no recipe on Martha's site, sorry). Aren't they pretty?

I usually bake at least once a week for two reasons. One, to make sure I stay on track with this blog (except when I'm getting married and honeymooning of course), and two, because I like to bring in baked treats to work on Sunday morning, whether it's what I'm making from Martha's cookbook or something else just for fun. It's like therapy for me and I honestly look forward to it. Unless I'm tired and don't feel like dealing with the mess. Some day I will have a person to wash all my dirty dishes.

This week, I was excited to make these cheesecakes because I knew they would be pretty when they were done, and I also knew that people at work would like them (who doesn't like Oreos and cheesecake?) so I wouldn't have a bunch left over. I don't like to let things go to waste when I've paid for the ingredients, but I also don't want to eat 10 cheesecakes by myself. Just because I already fit in my wedding dress doesn't mean I can just let it all go.

Let's get down to business. This recipe was very straight forward. I didn't even need to mixing bowls! I had to buy a few things that I didn't have on hand. Oreo cookies being one of them. But, in a nice turn of events they were on sale and I also had a coupon. I'm also aspiring to be a couponer. I've got a long way to go. The morning of the day I was planning to bake I set the cream cheese and eggs out before I headed to work so they would be room temperature and ready when I got home. The only real "prep" work I had left was chopping up the Oreo cookies that were going into the batter, and that didn't take long. Neither did making the batter.

The recipe said to fill the liners almost to the top and that I would get 30 cheesecakes when all was said and done. I only have 2 cupcake pans and normally I would stop after filling up 2 pans because usually there isn't much batter left. After I had filled 24 liners I still had quite a bit of batter left, too much that I wasn't willing to throw it away. The only problem was after the cheesecakes were baked (22 total minutes with a turn halfway through) they were supposed to cool completely and then remain in the cupcake pans and cool in the fridge at least 4 hours. With only 2 cupcake pans that meant that a batch was going to be without a pan to cool in (I ended up with 36 total cheesecakes). Thinking on my feet I grabbed the top rack of my cupcake carrier and put the first batch of cheesecakes in that and put them in the fridge. Not as good as a cupcake pan, but better than nothing. When all of the cheesecakes were done they went in the fridge overnight, and I took them to work the next morning.

I didn't try a cheesecake until after I had taken them to work and gotten home that afternoon. Cheesecake for breakfast is a little much, even for me. I thought they were delicious. So smooth, light and creamy. Since they were so easy to make and delicious, I would definitely make them again. But, I have a lot of cupcakes left to make before I repeat any recipes. It could take years... seriously.

Blackberry-Cornmeal Cupcakes

Your computer isn't playing tricks on you... I'm back! October is knocking on the door and I couldn't let the entire month of September go by without posting something. I could endlessly apologize for my not-so-brief absence, but truthfully, I'm not sorry (but I do feel a little guilty). After all, I was getting married and honeymooning in Maui. There wasn't a lot of time for baking. But, we've been back for almost 2 weeks now and I can happily proclaim that baking has resumed. I picked up right where I left off in the cookbook. Blackberry-cornmeal cupcakes... you're up.

Since I'm just getting my baking groove back I was happy that this recipe was easy and straightforward.   Not including baking time, I think all the work was done in less than 20 minutes. There was also very little mess to clean up which is always nice, and just 2 ingredients I had to buy that I didn't already have on hand. I normally bake the cupcakes on the weekends after I've worked in the morning. When the recipes and ingredients needed for them are low maintenance it helps motivate me to want to make them. Although this week I did watch the early football games (go Bills) and take a little nap before I started baking. Getting up at 3am and working a full day is tiring.

The first thing I did to prepare the ingredients was rinse the blackberries. They tell me all fresh fruit should be washed before used/eaten. I also cut some in half to make them smaller since some of them were quite large. The recipe also says you need 12 oz. of blackberries, but I probably could have gotten away with just 6. I had about half leftover. But, I suppose that could have been because some of the blackberries were extra large.

Once I was done prepping the blackberries I started to combine the dry ingredients before I realized that I should have started to melt the butter so it could cool. I stopped with the dry ingredients and melted the butter. While the butter was melting and then cooling I combined the rest of the ingredients. I completed a couple of kitchen tasks, like washing my dishes from lunch, while I waited for the melted butter to cool. When I started to become impatient, and couldn't wait any longer, I whisked together the wet ingredients, and then combined both the wet and dry ingredients together.

I used my quarter-cup measuring cup to pour the batter into the cupcake liners because that's what Martha told me to do. The liners ended up being filled about three-quarters full. I filled 12 cupcake liners and had a very small amount of batter left over. Such a small amount that I didn't deem it enough to save and make a second batch. I baked the cupcakes for 25 total minutes with a turn halfway through the baking time. In my opinion they turned out perfectly, just the right size and they tasted good as well. I loved how the berries looked in the cupcakes. The pop of color was really pretty. All in all, the first recipe back was a complete success. I was even able to take them to work and get rid of them so I wouldn't eat them. I'm not shedding for the wedding anymore, but that doesn't mean I should be packing on the pounds to get ready for winter either.

Now that I'm back from my honeymoon and just another married lady with no more weddings to plan, I promise to do my best to keep up with my pre-wedding normal weekly posting pace. I may even throw one or two real-life posts in the mix. Don't you want to know how the wedding went, and whether or not my dog still stinks after getting sprayed by a skunk this weekend? I thought so.

Blondie Cupcakes

As I was preparing to write this entry about blondie cupcakes (this recipe is a little different than the one in the book), I was flipping through the pages of my cookbook and one of them fell out. In any other circumstance, and if this book was any kind other than a cookbook, I would be extremely annoyed. I like all my things to be in as pristine condition as possible. However, in this case, I smiled. I liked that it's kind of like a battle scar, a sign of use and accomplishment. I'm using this book so much that the binding is starting to go and things are coming undone. After all, when this project is all said and done I won't have any actual cupcakes to show for it, but I will have the pictures I've taken, the batter splotches and loose pages of the the cookbook. I hope I won't have any added inches to my waistline.

This recipe was very straightforward and if you take out the hour of baking time (about 30 minutes per batch) I would have been done in less than 20 minutes. The most work involved chopping the cashews for the batter. I think this is the first recipe I've ever used cashews in. My mom is a big fan of them. Cashews were just one of the three little bits of extras in these blondies. I have made blondies before, though not in the style of a cupcake, but they've only even included chocolate and/or white chocolate chips. These particular blondies included butterscotch chips and toffee bits in addition to the above-mentioned cashews.

I was surprised by the small amount of batter I got for these cupcakes. I feel like this recipe could have easily been doubled and still given me a normal amount of cupcakes. The recipe said I would yield 12 cupcakes. Which is fine by me, less that I have to eat. But, I'm used to getting at least 24 from a batch. All that said I ended up getting 14 cupcakes. I filled the liners about three-quarters full. The batter was pretty thick so it was hard to judge just how full the liners were. I baked each batch for 28 minutes with a turn halfway through the baking time. In the end the cupcakes were done perfectly at 28 minutes. I probably could have even cut off a minute or two from the baking time. But as far as size goes, they were perfect by my standards.

I of course tasted the batter throughout the baking process and it was good. The finished cupcakes were also quite delicious. I always find blondies to be delicious. I think the butter and brown sugar are strong contributing factors. Toffee bits and butterscotch chips don't hurt either. If I made them again I might leave out the cashews just because I don't personally enjoy them that much. I like them perfectly fine when they're not chopped up in my cupcakes, but in my cupcake is an entirely different story. Bottom line, blondie cupcakes get two thumbs up and I've now successfully made it through two weeks without messing anything up. Keep the streak alive!

Oatmeal-Raisin Cupcakes

I messed up. I knew it was going to happen, but frankly I thought it would happen with a seemingly more difficult cupcake. Apparently I've met my match with oatmeal raisin. I don't think my final product was that far off. As you can see they do still look like cupcakes.

Basically what happened was I skipped over a line in the recipe. Before you ask, yes, I did read it through once beforehand. But, once I got into the recipe I became sidetracked and missed a step. I do have an excuse, it's not great, but it's an excuse nonetheless. Long story short, in the middle of my baking a thunderstorm rolled in and I kept getting distracted having to run around the house closing windows and making sure we weren't taking on water. Oh, and the power went out once. I know it's not the best excuse but in the words of my dad... excuses are like a certain part of the body, (I'll let you guess which one) everyone has one. So what I missed is crystal clear, please note the highlighted portion from the recipe below.

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and both sugars until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture, and beat until just combined. Beat in sour cream. Stir in raisins by hand. Transfer 2 3/4 cups batter to another bowl, and stir in remaining 1 3/4 cups oats and the coconut; reserve for topping.


In other words I went right from beating in the vanilla to beating in the sour cream. Then I stirred in the raisins, transferred the batter and stirred in the remaining oats and coconut. While clearly I can't read it was almost like I was trying to tell myself something when it came time to transfer the batter. I was looking at the counter and contemplating what bowl to put the batter in. The Pyrex bowls I hadn't used yet weren't going to be big enough to hold the batter with the oats and coconut. I even remember thinking to myself, "Man, if only I was done with the flour mixture I could use that bowl." Hello! See, I knew something was off, my brain just didn't get me there in time.

When I got to the part of the recipe where I was supposed to fill the cupcake liners, but still had my flour mixture to put into the batter my brain finally caught up. I realized that somewhere along the line I had missed a step. I backtracked and realized what I had done. After cursing myself (I have seriously never done this before) I started thinking if there was any way to fix the problem without completely trashing the batter and starting from scratch. There wasn't. I didn't have enough ingredients on hand to make a whole new batch, and I wasn't interested in taking another trip to the store (it was still storming outside). So I carried on. I had the "topping" done minus the portion of the flour mixture that was supposed to be in it. And, I had the regular batter without any flour mixture at all. I left the topping as it was and combined the flour mixture with the rest of the regular batter knowing that it would probably be really stiff, and end up being more dry than it was supposed to be. But at this point everything had become an experiment to see if I could come up with an edible finished product.

With my 2 different types of batter I followed the recipe like I was supposed to the rest of the way. I probably used more batter than I was supposed to to fill the liners, but again, I was pretty much off the script at this point. I baked the cupcakes according to the recipe, 20 total minutes with a turn halfway through the baking time. The tops of the cupcakes were starting to get a little brown at that point, and the toothpick tester came out clean so I figured that was enough baking time. I let the cupcakes cool completely in the tins to give them as much baking time as possible.

They looked nice and full so at the very least I gave myself some style points, but the truth would be in the taste test. Truthfully, they weren't terrible and had I followed the recipe correctly they probably would have turned out pretty close to awesome. The flavor was good, the bottom portion was just a little dense and dry. Like I figured it would be since there was too much flour in that portion of the batter. The tops were pretty crumbly and probably would have held together better had they had more flour than they did. Again, something that would have happened if I knew how to read and follow directions.

I was happy that this wasn't a total loss, but to be honest when I first realized the mistake I had made I was pretty mad. Because it was such a waste of money, time and energy. Because I had done so well up to this point and because part of me thought I would get through this whole project and each cupcake would come out exactly as it was intended. Yes, I know that last part is ridiculous, but I have great expectations. I'm hoping these cupcakes will just be a minor blip on the radar and that I won't inadvertently deviate from any future recipes. At some point I may try to make them again the right way, but for now, it's full steam ahead for project cupcake.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Forgive me cupcakes for I have sinned. It's been several weeks since I last baked one of you...

Who knew getting married would monopolize so much of my time? And I fear it's only going to get worse from here since we're now 41 days away. Holy crap. I find that when you say it out loud (or read/write it) it really hits home how close it is. I'm not even panicking, at least not yet. We're pretty well organized, unless there's something major that I forgot. We'll see.

While I have been busy with wedding events and preparations and real-life things the past couple weeks this week I'm back! Did you miss me? My goal is to not take another cupcake hiatus until the wedding. I can't promise I won't, but I'm going to try not to.

When I left you last I had made a couple cakes for some birthdays, but my last cupcake adventure from Martha's book were these chocolate chunk cupcakes. The first of three in the cookie cupcake series in the third section of the book. I had high hopes for them, but they were disappointing, mostly because the chunks were so chunky they sunk and didn't make for very good looking cupcakes. I was hoping the second installment in this section, peanut butter cupcakes, would yield better results.

From the onset I wasn't very excited about these cupcakes because in my previous experience with peanut butter cupcakes I didn't enjoy them. The cupcakes were a bit too heavy, dense and peanut buttery for my taste. I feared that I would get the same result from this recipe. I didn't. Phew.

Let's break down the recipe, shall we? It was easy, plain and simple. I did get a bit thrown when it came time to fill the liners. The recipe said to fill the liners with 3 scant tablespoons of batter. I still don't know what that means, but because I was able to successfully make the cupcakes without that knowledge I didn't bother to look it up afterward. I used a tablespoon to fill the liners and filled them roughly three-quarters full. I just eyeballed it. The recipe said I should yield 20 cupcakes. I ran out of batter at 20 cupcakes so I figured my measurements were pretty close to on point.

However, when baking time came and they took longer than the recipe said they should have, I thought I might have made them a little too big. Martha said to bake the cupcakes about 13 minutes with a turn halfway through the baking time. I ended up baking them for 19 minutes. They were good size, but they certainly weren't too big. In fact they were the perfect size for my taste.

I let the cupcakes cool completely and then began work on the frosting (recipe can also be found with the link above). I let the cream cheese and butter get to room temperature while I was baking the cupcakes so it wasn't too difficult to work with. The frosting was also easy to make and didn't take long. Once I was done with that I used my new, small offset spatula that I got at my recent bridal shower (thanks Laney!) to frost the cupcakes. I had quite a bit of frosting left over. Enough that I probably could have frosted 20 more cupcakes. I threw the excess away. Wasteful yes, but also good for my waistline. We're 41 days out people, it's all about the waistline right now.

After all the cupcakes were frosted I put them in the fridge for 10 minutes to set so I could finish them off with my favorite detail of the cupcakes, the criss-cross fork pattern! I just think it looks really cool, like they're peanut butter cookies, but they're actually cupcakes... boo-yah! Even though I put confectioner's sugar on the fork it still stuck a little when I pressed it into the frosting. Most of the cupcakes came out ok, but some lost a little frosting to the fork tines. Perfection is boring. Imperfection is what builds character, and I thought the cupcakes turned out looking really nice.

They also turned out tasting really nice. Relax, stay calm, I ate less than half of a cupcake. Truthfully I almost always only eat half a cupcake when I bake and that's usually the one that I take the pictures of. I am dedicated to shedding for the wedding... most of the time. I was expecting the cupcake to be very heavy, dense and peanut buttery like the peanut butter cupcakes of the past. While these cupcakes were heavy in weight, the texture of the cake was actually quite light and fluffy. I really enjoyed them. The frosting wasn't even too much. I was so pleasantly surprised and it took some willpower to only eat half.

Round 2

If you all remember last week, (if you don't you can read about it here) I made a birthday cake and cupcakes for the son of one of my coworkers. This week it was time to make a cake and cupcakes for their daughter's birthday festivities. Instead of Legos, the request was Minnie Mouse. They sent me some ideas of what they would like, all of which included pink and polka dots. Obviously I was in.

Originally the order was for 40 cupcakes and a 6-inch cake, just like what I had made for them last week. But, if I've learned anything in my 26 years it's that sometimes things change and it's good to be flexible (I've learned other things too, but they don't all apply to baking). Instead of making a 6-inch cake, I was asked to make an 8-inch cake. And, instead of 40 cupcakes I was asked to knock the tally down to 1 dozen. Since I hadn't started baking anything at the time the favor was asked, making the adjustment wasn't a problem. I also offered to make 2 dozen cupcakes (or as close to 2 dozen cupcakes that I could get with the batter I would have) because I wanted to make sure they would have enough for all their guests. To get an 8-inch cake and 1 dozen cupcakes I was going to have to make 2 batches of batter anyway, so I might as well give them everything I got. I don't need any extra cupcakes sitting around.

As you all know, when I have an order like this, or really any cake or cupcake order I always bake and decorate on separate days. I like to spread out the work, it's a system that works for me. Of course the day I baked had to be the hottest day we've had in Connecticut all year. There were heat advisories across the state, temperature were in the 90s if not the 100s, but I think my kitchen was the hottest place of all. I tried to start baking as early in the day as possible so I wouldn't be sweating profusely into the cupcake batter. Sweat is not an ingredient for this recipe.

Just like last week I made 2 batches of batter, only this time, that was all I needed. It's amazing how much the workload is cut down when you only have to double a recipe as opposed to triple it. It was nice. I decided to make the cakes first because I had to have enough batter for those. Any extra cupcakes I got was going to be a bonus. I made 2 8-inch cakes (it was going to be a 2-layer cake). I used 4 cups of batter to fill each pan, which worked perfectly. I favor Wilton's baking pans because the cakes always come out level, and if you prepare the pans correctly (Crisco and flour), the cakes are easy to get out. I can never remember how long to bake the cakes in these pans. I threw out those instructions long ago... oops. I suppose it's something I could Google, but I never do. I started with 20 minutes just to be safe. It was not enough time. I added 10 minutes each time until the cakes were baked for a total of 40 minutes and they were done. I'll try to remember that for next time... or try to remember to Google it.

After the cakes were done I baked the cupcakes. I filled each three-quarters full and baked them for a total of 20 minutes with a turn halfway through the baking time. Exactly the same way as I did it last week. I ended up getting 18 cupcakes when all was said and done. Not as many as I thought, but I was confident that would be enough cupcakes for the guests at the party.

While the cupcakes were baking, I started making the fondant (I'm a big fan of multitasking). Unlike last week I needed more than one color. I needed both pink and white. I knew it would probably take one batch of fondant to cover the entire 8-inch cake. Since it's so much easier to color fondant while you're making it as opposed to after it's already done, I decided it would be easiest to make an entire batch of pink and then a separate batch of white, knowing that I would have a ton of extra white fondant. While I was smart enough to figure that out, I wasn't smart enough to realize that when making a batch of white fondant and a batch of another color, you should make the white batch first. That way, you don't have to wash the bowl after you make the first batch (if you don't wash the bowl in between you run the risk of having your white fondant with a tint of whatever your previous color was). You can just keep on going, optimizing efficiency. Unfortunately this brilliant idea didn't hit me until I put the food coloring in for the pink fondant, and at that point, there was no turning back.

With the fondants both done, I wrapped them tightly in plastic wrap and put them in the fridge overnight so they wouldn't get too hot and sticky in the midst of our heat wave. I thought about making the frosting on the same day, but since it was so hot and I wanted the frosting to be as fresh as possible I decided to wait until decorating day for that.

Decorating day was also a regular work day for me. In other words I had to put in overtime to finish everything up. Fortunately the weather was much cooler, we had a storm roll in that sent the heat and humidity packing. I made a double batch of Martha's fluffy vanilla frosting, the same one that I used last time. I like to stick with what works. I was hoping a double batch would be enough frosting and it was. I even had a little extra that I didn't end up needing. I iced the cupcakes first because I wanted to make sure all the cupcakes got the frosting they needed. I knew I could frost the cake thinly enough to make whatever frosting I had leftover last. Turns out I was able to put three coats of frosting on the cake and still have extra. But, I thought more than three applications of frosting would be too much. The cake was heavy enough as it was.

Time to decorate! I was able to find adorable pink and white polka dot cupcake liners, so I used those for the cupcakes. In addition to those the cupcakes were decorated with small pink sprinkles that looked like mini pearls. I actually had them on hand from a previous baking project and thought they would be perfect for Minnie Mouse. I also made little Minnie Mouse toppers for each cupcake. I remembered to put one on a cupcake to take a picture of it, but forgot to put them on the cupcakes for the party. You forget things when you don't get enough sleep. So, if you want 18 little Minnie Mouse heads I have some for you! I did however remember to put the bigger one I made on top of the cake, so I have that going for me. In addition to the topper for the cake I also lined the bottom with a white fondant ribbon and added white fondant polka dots over the rest of the cake.

I knew everything tasted good because I'd made the same thing last week. But, as always I get a little nervous about how everything is going to turn out appearance wise, especially the cake. It turned out to be exactly what I wanted, and I loved it. It might be my favorite of all the cakes I've made so far. But, I do have a soft spot for pink and polka dots. Ready for the finished products?!

Here's Minnie Mouse...

And the mini Minnies.

Best Homemade Chocolate Cake

Don't let what you read deceive you... this post is about cupcakes. It's also about cake. The good news keeps on coming. I was recently asked by a coworker to make cupcakes and a cake for each of their kids upcoming birthdays. One birthday was this weekend, the next is this coming weekend, so I'll be busy baking again in the next few days. I have baked birthday goodies for this family before. In fact this is the 3rd year in a row they've requested my services. Other than my family members, they are without a doubt my best customers, and I'm always flattered when they ask me.

This weekend I was baking for a 7-year-old boy and the request was 40 chocolate cupcakes for his party with his friends, and a small cake 6-inch cake so they would have something with candles for him to blow out when they celebrated his birthday as a family. The theme... LEGOs. I was sent some examples of what they were looking for to help me along in my planning. Once I had everything worked out, I made a list of everything I needed to buy and gathered up all the necessary supplies.

By my calculations I figured out that I would need to make 3 batches of the chocolate cake recipe that I use (I will include it at the end of this post) and 3 batches of the fluffy vanilla frosting that I got from Martha Stewart courtesy of my current cupcake project. I like to separate the work when I'm asked to make a cake or cupcakes for someone, especially one of this size. In this case everything needed to be done by Saturday morning so I started baking on Thursday. On Friday I did all the decorating.

First I started with the batter. Using my large Cuisinart mixer I doubled the recipe of my chocolate cake and got to work. I briefly toyed with the idea of tripling it so I would have all the batter done at once, but I wasn't sure if my mixer could handle that much. In the end, 3 batches of the cake batter probably would have fit in my mixer, but breaking it up worked out fine as well. I did a batch of cupcakes first. I wasn't sure how long to bake them since the recipe only gave a baking time for a 9x13 cake. I made my best guess and thought 20 minutes total baking time would be about right. It was. I rotated the pan halfway through like Martha has taught me, and the cupcakes came out perfectly. 

I baked a second batch of cupcakes and while they cooled in the pan I baked the cake. I do have 2 cupcake pans, but I like one better than the other because I think the cupcakes baked in this particular pan (it's a Betty Crocker pan in case you were wondering) always look better when they're done. So since I was only using 1 pan I had to factor in some cooling time before the cupcakes could be removed. Me being me, I didn't want to waste any time. While the second batch of cupcakes cooled I figured it would be a good time to bake the cake. Since the cake would take longer to bake I could make the last batch of batter while I waited and make the most of my time.

I wasn't sure how long to bake the cake either. I don't use my cake pans too often because I don't usually bake a cake unless I'm asked, and I never remember how long a 6-inch cake is supposed to be baked. This one took around 50 minutes to an hour. Mostly because I filled it up way to full and a portion of it overflowed while baking. Thankfully I have a pizza stone in the oven and all the dripping batter fell on that and not on the bottom of the oven. It was a very easy cleanup and I made a mental note to not fill the pan so full the next time around.

I ended up finishing the batter before the cake was finished so me being the multi tasker that I am, I set on to make the fondant for the small cake. I knew I was going to make a little LEGO man head for the 6-inch cake which meant I would only need one color fondant, yellow. It's so much easier to color the fondant while you're making it as opposed to once you're done. I made and colored the fondant, wrapped it tightly in plastic wrap and threw it in the fridge.

Once the cake was finished baking I finished up the rest of the cupcakes. I ended up getting 60 cupcakes and a 6-inch cake out of 3 batches of my cake recipe. Obviously this was more than I needed, but I had some coworkers who were more than happy to help me out and ate the leftover cupcakes when I took them into work on Saturday morning. When all the cupcakes and cake were cool I put them in tupperware for safe keeping overnight. Now normally on the day I bake I also make the frosting and the fondant. Due to the time of night I finished baking and also that Bobby wanted to go out for pizza with friends, I only baked and made the fondant on Thursday, the frosting would wait until Friday.

As soon as I woke up and ate breakfast I started working on the frosting. I do have a vanilla buttercream recipe that I normally use, but as I mentioned previously I used a recipe from Martha's cookbook that I used when I made these yellow buttermilk cupcakes. I'm not sure what prompted me to deviate from my normal plan, but I knew Martha's recipe was good and I wanted to give it a try. Just like when I made the cupcake batter I made a double batch of the frosting. My mixer was able to handle that much frosting, but had I attempted to triple the batch I think it was have been too much. 

Once the frosting was done, I loaded up my frosting gun (you heard me) and got to frosting the cupcakes. First I tested out 2 different tips to see which I liked best. I ended up going with the star tip. It's my usual go-to and it didn't fail me this time either. Once the cupcakes were frosted I started decorating. The sprinkles I had wanted to use I couldn't find at the grocery store or at AC Moore, but they're reminiscent of the sprinkles used for funfetti frosting. I wanted them because they're bold primary colors and they remind me of the colors of LEGOs, but I didn't have any luck finding them. I ended up just using various sprinkles that I had on hand. I thought it would be fun to mix it up a little and I wanted to give the kids a couple options since some kids might not like chocolate sprinkles and others might not like rainbow sprinkles. I didn't know the preference of my cupcakes eaters so I figured multiple options was the best plan of action. When I was finished frosting and decorating the cupcakes I packed them, 8 at a time, into the pastry boxes that I took from the grocery store. A little tip... if you don't want to pay for boxes check with the grocery store to see if they'll give you them for free. Sometimes they do. Of course sometimes they don't, but it never hurts to ask.

With the cupcakes done I was ready to start and finish decorating the cake. First I had to make another batch of frosting, a single one this time. Then I had to "shape" the cake. It didn't involve too much work, but I had to make the little bump on the top of the LEGO man head. To do this I just cut the tops off 2 of the extra cupcakes and stuck them together with a little frosting in the middle. I placed that on top of the cake and then applied the first layer of frosting to secure everything together. The crumb layer as I like to call it. After each layer of frosting I put the cake in the fridge so it can set a little to help ensure that the following layer of frosting will go on smooth. I applied a second layer of frosting on the cake and while it set in the fridge I rolled out the fondant.

I knew I would have way more fondant than I needed and I did. I carefully rolled out the fondant and then placed it over the cake and began the smoothing out process. This is always the trickiest part for me because I want to get the fondant to lay just so without tearing it or having it stick together. The toughest part about this particular cake was working with the little bump on top, but I managed pretty well. There weren't too many finishing touches for the cake. All I had to do was pipe on the eyes and mouth of the LEGO man. I used black Wilton tube icing for this and a frosting tip that I already had.

Overall I was pretty happy with how everything turned out. The cake was a little plain for my liking but then again, it was a LEGO man head. They are plain. In an attempt to try to jazz it up a little I grabbed one of the ice cream helmet bowls we have (I like to refer to them as my portion control bowls) and placed it on top of the cake. It's been awhile since I've played with LEGOs but I remember that the LEGO man had a hat the snapped in. It was just a little something extra to add and if they didn't like it they could easily take it off.

Alright, enough of this talking... are you ready to see some pictures of the finished product? Here is the LEGO man with his hat on.

And here is the LEGO man with his hat off.

Last but not least, the cupcakes. This is just one of the decorating motifs I decided on. Who doesn't love chocolate sprinkles?

Are you wondering how everything tasted? It was delicious. Really. I don't like to pat myself on the back too much. I'm pretty humble most of the time, but this cake was very good. I was told I got rave reviews from both the adults and the kids who attended the party. Some even requested my number. Yeah me. Even if no one calls it's still nice to here. Would you like the recipe so you can make your own delicious chocolate cake? I don't remember where this recipe is from originally, all I remember is that I got it from my mom. Where she got it, I couldn't say.

Best Homemade Chocolate Cake

1 3/4 c. flour

2 c. sugar

3/4 c. cocoa powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1/2 c. oil

1 c. black coffee

1 c. buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients. Grease pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes (20 minutes for cupcakes). A little side note... don't panic, the batter will be thin.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Chunk Cupcakes

As you know I've been plugging along in the simple and sweet section of the cookbook and I've come upon a sub section if you will... cookie cupcakes. There are 3 separate recipes in this mini section and chocolate chunk cupcakes is the first.

The first thing I noticed about this recipe is that it's very similar to the recipe I use to make chocolate chip cookies. Therefore it's probably pretty similar to the recipe you use to make chocolate chip cookies since it's the same recipe that's on the back of every package of chocolate chips I've ever seen (at least the semisweet and milk chocolate variety). The second thing was that I thought it was a bit odd that Martha had 2 very similar cupcakes in her cookbook. The first cupcakes I made when I began this little experiment over a year ago were these chocolate chip cupcakes. Other than the lack of icing on the chocolate chunk cupcakes I figured they would both be pretty much the same, so I didn't see the point in putting both of them in the book. Yes, of course some of the ingredients were different, but minor differences at that. I started thinking that maybe these cupcakes would turn out to be more like a cookie than a cupcake. Let's see, shall we?

What was nice about making these cupcakes was that the only thing I had to buy was the chocolate. Martha did say that chocolate chips were an option, but since I had already made the above-mentioned cupcakes and they contained chocolate chips I wanted to make sure I used chunks. That way if they turned out to be exactly the same they would at least have chunks instead of chips. As I mentioned before, the recipe was very similar to chocolate chip cookies so making the batter was easy. Other than adding milk, it's the same thing I've done a thousand times. I stirred in the chocolate chunks and was ready to fill the cupcake tins with batter.

I filled each cupcake liner (yes, I got to use liners, not butter and flour, hooray!) with 1/4 cup of batter, using my measuring cup. Some were filled a little fuller than others, but in the end all the cupcakes turned out to be pretty close to the same size. The cupcakes were baked for 20 total minutes with a turn halfway through the baking time. They came out flat, but I expected them to. Because the pictures looked that way and because cookies are generally flat, so I figured cookie cupcakes would be flat as well. Such a smart woman.

The only thing that really bothered me about the cupcakes was that the chocolate chunks sank. As you can obviously see in the pictures above. At first I thought that maybe the chunks I had used were too big and heavy. But, in the recipe Martha said I could use chips or chocolate chopped into 1/2-inch pieces. The chunks were certainly no bigger than that so I decided that couldn't have been the problem. Then I thought maybe the batter was too thin, light and airy because it was all of those things. But, I followed Martha's instructions to a T (like always) so I didn't think that was it. Then I remembered back  again to those above-mentioned chocolate chip cupcakes and that before I put the chocolate chips in the batter I had tossed them in flour. Doing that was to help ensure that all the chips didn't sink to the bottom, and in that case they didn't. I read this recipe over to make sure I hadn't missed that important instruction. I hadn't, it wasn't there. I can only conclude that I must have messed something up in the batter, or that Martha forgot to mention tossing the chunks in flour. Which do you think is more likely?

Other than the disappointment over the sunken chunks the cupcakes were very good. Very moist and light. I liked them better than the chocolate chip cupcakes I had made before. Those were more dense. I would definitely make these cupcakes again. But, the second time around I would toss the chocolate chunks in flour to hopefully prevent them from sinking. It's no fun when all the chocolate sinks to the bottom and gets stuck to the cupcake liner. No one should miss out on chocolate chunks!