Chocolate-Spice Cupcakes

Hoppy Easter! Get it? Hoppy... like a bunny? My brother texted me that this morning and I thought it was clever. In honor of the holiday I suppose I should have made something better suited for the occasion, but I didn't. Well, that's not entirely true. I made "bunny bait" for my future in-laws a couple days ago (my parents get flowers, Dad really loves them) and shipped it to them so they'd have it in time for the holiday, but I didn't document it. Forgive me. Hope you enjoy the holiday in whatever way you choose to celebrate it, along with these chocolate-spice cupcakes (no link on Martha's site... I'm sensing a theme).

I was looking forward to these cupcakes because I haven't made anything chocolate in awhile and people like chocolate. So, when I took these to work I knew people would eat them. People are skeptical when you say you have chai-tea mini cupcakes. People are less skeptical when you say you have chocolate cupcakes. Human nature I suppose. But, the more cupcakes I can get rid of, the less I eat. Everyone wins. The only thing I wasn't really excited about when it came to these cupcakes was having to butter and flour the pan. Only this time instead of using flour I had to use cocoa powder. Wanna know what really makes a mess? Lining a cupcake pan with butter and then dusting it with cocoa powder.

Making the batter was easy, however messy, or perhaps splattery would be a better term. I didn't enjoy that part very much. Because I have a high-powered hand mixer (even when it's on the lowest setting) I know that certain things are going to make a mess. For instance, for the last couple recipes I've made, small pieces of butter and brown sugar have flown about when I mix them. But, they're for the most part solid substances so it's not so much of a mess. However, once I had mixed the butter, brown sugar and egg I added the molasses and water combined with baking soda to the bowl and as soon as I realized the consistency of what I had, I knew I was in trouble and there wasn't any way to avoid it. So, I did my best to put my arm around the bowl to try to hold in as much liquid as possible. Thankfully my t-shirt took the brunt of the mess and the walls, countertop and items sitting on the counter were left fairly unscathed. I don't enjoy cleaning up messes so I try to keep them as contained as possible.

Since the recipe told me I would only get 12 cupcakes from the batch I only buttered and cocoa powdered one cupcake pan. If I had a significant amount of batter left over I was just going to use liners for the rest. I really don't like making cupcakes without liners, it makes such a mess. The recipe said to fill the pans halfway. Confession. I filled them more than halfway. Again, since I was only supposed to get 12 cupcakes I figured using all of the batter on one batch would be okay. It was okay, but most of the cupcakes ended up being bigger than I wanted them to be, and some were a pain to get out of the pan after they were baked. Next time around I would probably not force all the batter into one batch. Had I not this time, I probably would have gotten around 14 cupcakes. The cupcakes were baked for 20 total minutes with a turn halfway through the baking time. I let them cool for 15 minutes in the pans and then removed them and let them cool on the wire racks while I made the ganache.

I have made this chocolate ganache glaze many times, but this time I was extra careful to very finely chop the semisweet chocolate because I didn't want any lumps in my glaze. Last time I made it I had some small lumps. While it was fine, I didn't like the look of the lumps. I wanted it to be silky smooth this time, and it was. Success! I spooned the glaze over the top of each cupcake and let it set.

The only thing left to do was add the candied ginger garnish. Does anyone need any candied ginger? If you do, I'm your girl. I have a ton of it. I knew candied ginger would be the hardest thing to find at the grocery store, but I was able to find it. Of course it was in a decent sized tupperware (like the size of a tub of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter), cost $4.79 and was labeled as crystalized ginger so I may have bought the wrong thing. I don't really know. But it looked right. The worst part is I only used the garnish for one cupcake, the one in the photo above. I didn't want to garnish all the cupcakes because I didn't want anyone at work to be scared away by the ginger garnish. My mission is to always get rid of the treats so I don't eat them. And in my rule book, as long as I make at least 1 cupcake from the batch exactly how the recipe says I have successfully completed said cupcake. I did that in this instance therefore, in my eyes, I successfully conquered these cupcakes.

I was also told by a coworker or 2 that these were the best cupcakes they've ever had. Now, that is a very lovely compliment, but I'm not quite sure if I believe that it's true. As a lover of cupcakes, this was not the best cupcake I've ever had. Even though I made it I can still be objective. Though I suppose everyone has different preferences when it comes to cupcakes. It was quite yummy, but not the best. I'd say that maybe the cupcake I'll be making next week has the potential to be the best. But, between you and me, I looked ahead to see what it is, and there's pretty much no way that's going to happen. And just to keep you in suspense and to keep you coming back for more... I'm not going to tell you what it is!

Triple-Citrus Cupcakes

The cupcakes are back! Hip, hip, hooray! Since it's been awhile since I've touched my cupcake cookbook or even cupcakes for that matter, I thought maybe I had been brilliant and was starting off the new year with the first cupcake in the next section of the cookbook. Turns out I am not so brilliant (shocker), and my memory is also not so good. However, it does seem appropriate that the third cupcake in the section is triple-citrus cupcakes. Triple, third, get it? Good.

The hardest (most annoying) part of this recipe was grating all the fruit to make the amount of zest needed for the recipe. Just to put it in perspective this meant grating 1 orange, 2 lemons and 2 limes. I had no idea how long this would take. I didn't calculate the amount of time it took to grate the orange. But, after grating the orange for what seemed like forever I was curious as to how long it had taken me. So, I busted out my stopwatch (not true, I just looked at the clock when I started and stopped) and kept track of the time. 12 minutes. It took me 12 minutes to grate 2 lemons and then it took me 12 minutes to grate 2 lemons. I can only assume it took me roughly 12 minutes to also grate the orange. By my math (and using a calculator) that is 36 minutes of grating. It didn't even take 36 minutes to bake these cupcakes. On the bright side, the grating did provide with a lovely citrus aroma for 36 minutes as well as an arm workout. Once the grating was over, it was all downhill from there, although adding the eggs took awhile. There were 9 of them after all. But even adding 9 eggs to the batter didn't require 36 minutes.

I filled the liners three-quarters full and tapped the pan on the counter as Martha instructed me to do. The cupcakes were baked for 20 total minutes with a turn halfway through the baking time. The cupcakes didn't really rise much while they were baking, but I didn't expect that they would. I'm 3 cupcakes into the glazed and dipped portion of the cookbook, and I have the feeling that the majority of these cupcakes will be flat. 2 out of the 3 cupcakes so far have had a pound-cake-like consistency which results in a flatter, dense cupcake as opposed to a lighter, rounded cupcake. I do prefer the look of a rounded cupcake, but what's most important is the taste of the cupcakes.

The citrus glaze was extremely easy, but it did require more grating (sigh). However, the grating was only necessary to garnish the cupcakes and it took a couple seconds for each cupcake. That's the kind of grating I can handle. I glazed and garnished each cupcake, and I didn't love how they looked. It was the lime-zest garnish. It just wasn't as flattering on my cupcakes as it was in Martha's picture. That's why she's the pro and why I only have a blog.

Taste test time! For being pound-cake like, the cupcakes were surprisingly light, and I liked the flavors of both the cupcake and the glaze. However, I did not like the consistency of having the zest in the cupcakes. I should have known. I'm a pulp-free orange juice kind of a gal for a reason. I don't like pulp. Maybe I thought this would be different because a cupcake is a solid food and not a liquid but that wasn't the case. Maybe the cupcake on deck will help me overcome my disappointment with this recipe. We'll just have to wait and see.

Streusel Cupcakes

Who loves coffee cake but not coffee? Me. While I was very excited to make streusel cupcakes (this recipe has a different name, but I'm almost 100% certain it's the same one) I was also a little scared because there were a lot of steps for these cupcakes and a lot of steps makes me a little nervous that I'm going to mess something up. I had to make the cupcakes, the streusel topping and the glaze. That's 3 whole steps. Yikes.

First, I prepared the cupcake batter which was easy. Nothing had to be prepped other than leaving out the butter and eggs to get to room temperature. Second, I made the streusel topping. Now, had I read ahead like I'm supposed to I would have seen that the streusel topping was supposed to be refrigerated for 30 minutes before it gets put on top of the cupcake batter. But, I didn't read ahead because I can't even follow my own rules. Shame. Once I completed the streusel topping I put it in the fridge for 30 minutes and cursed myself. On the bright side while waiting the allotted 30 minutes I played outside with Rollins, so really, everyone wins. Except maybe the cupcake batter that sat out for 30 minutes. Ugh, drives me crazy when I do that.

When it came time to fill the cupcake liners Martha let me down. For real this time. She didn't tell me how full to fill the liners, so I did what I have done for roughly the 10 previous cupcakes and filled the liners 3/4 full, then added the streusel topping. Small mistake. The cupcake liners probably could have been filled about 1/2 full and still produced lovely large, rounded cupcakes like I like. Filling them 3/4 full gave me a pretty decent-sized cupcake and also yielded me about 5 less than I should have gotten. Oops. Bigger is better, right? And, it's not my fault, Martha didn't tell me what I was supposed to do. In the future, if I were to make them again, which I probably will because they were so delicious, I would only fill them halfway. In addition, since they turned out to be so large, I also had to add about 3 minutes of baking time. So instead of 20 minutes, each batch got 23 minutes. No one wants an undercooked cupcake.

Onto the milk glaze! Super easy. It required milk and confectioner's sugar. My only problem with the glaze was that once it was drizzled onto the cupcake it didn't really harden and stay white like the pictures led me to believe it would. In most cases it absorbed into the cupcake so you couldn't really see it. There were a few instances when you could see it on the edges of the cupcakes, but that's about it. It didn't ruin the cupcakes or anything, I just thought they looked a little prettier when you could see the glaze.

Taste test time! I really enjoyed these cupcakes. They reminded me of a coffee cake my mom used to make when I was younger. She usually made it for Christmas morning or Easter brunch and I loved it. Even while these were baking they smelled like the coffee cake she made. So these cupcakes get extra points for taking me back to the simpler times of my youth and making me think of my mom. Aw.

Brown Sugar Pound Cakes

We are now officially into the world of dipped and glazed cupcakes, the second section in Martha's cookbook. Progress people! I will say, we eased into this section because the first recipe, brown sugar pound cakes, was pretty easy. So easy that I only needed 7 ingredients (if you don't count the icing).

Even though this recipe only required 7 ingredients I still read through the whole thing beforehand so I wouldn't encounter any surprises. I hate when that happens! It's extremely frustrating to think that you're almost done and then BAM! You find out that there was something you should have had prepared and didn't. Total killjoy. So, I try to avoid that at all costs. Although, had I not read ahead in this case, I wouldn't have come across and surprises.

Once completed the batter was pretty thick so I couldn't pour-by-Pyrex (tear) but I scooped about 1 1/2 tablespoons into each cupcake liner. I think I came out with about 2 less than the recipe said I would yield so I did pretty well. The recipe said to bake the cupcakes for 25 minutes with a turn halfway through the total baking time, but as we've been over before, my timer doesn't work in 1/2-minute increments so I baked the cupcakes for 12 minutes, rotated them, and baked them for 12 minutes more. It worked just fine. The cupcakes came out pretty flat, but I imagined they would since that's what they looked like in Martha's picture. Plus, when I think of pound cake I don't really think of puffy rounded cake. I think of flat, dense and delicious cake.

Making the cupcakes was very easy, and overall the brown-butter glaze was too, I just had a couple moments of uncertainty while making it. Like the cupcakes, and really all types of icing there wasn't much needed as far as ingredients go. My biggest question right from the beginning was what were the little brown flecks in the picture of the icing? I figured they were vanilla bean, but the recipe called for vanilla extract. I was confused and thought Martha had messed up (like that could ever really happen). I should have known better.

The first step of the process gave me the most concern because I was worried I would burn the butter, or take it off the heat too soon, before it was the proper nut-brown color. I stared at the pan like a crazy person, swirled it and debated back and forth about when it was the right color. When I felt confident that the color was satisfactory I poured the melted butter into a bowl and stirred in the rest of the ingredients. Turns out those little brown dots came from the brown butter. Crazy!

The icing was delicious. Seriously delicious, but I didn't let myself eat a lot of it because all I could think about was that the main ingredient was butter, and it can't be good to consume a lot of butter. Especially when you're shedding for a wedding like me. I wasn't sure how to ice the cupcakes. I didn't want to use so much of the icing that it would run off the sides of the cupcakes too much. Luckily this icing set after it had been on the cupcakes a few minutes so I didn't really have to worry about that. I just used a spoon to spoon some of the icing onto the cupcake and then spread it a little bit with the back of the spoon. Worked like a charm.

After I had finished icing the cupcakes I performed a taste test and they were scrumptious. I've never made a pound cake of any variety before and these were very good. I ate more than I normally do when I make cupcakes. I had to give them away so I would stop. I'm serious. I took a half dozen to our neighbors. They plowed our driveway after the giant and ridiculous snowstorm that we had. It was the least I could do.