Cupcake Adventues - 2nd installment

I think I am still in cupcake craze mode and here is second installment of my cupcake adventures. Though not as dramatic as the first its still was an intense moment for me in trying to make the best cupcakes for people I love to enjoy. These cupcakes I made were for my my cousins 13th birthday and like the previous Cupcake Adventures it went on well into the night.

Let me set the scene for you. This week was a last minute week. It was a work week and a special occasion week. In my previous blog entries there is there entry about a week and a day. That pretty much triggered the last minute cupcake making. I was lucky cause I had all the ingredients at home and it just a matter of mixing and baking when I got home from work. What kept me going was thinking of making his birthday one he will remember and everyone else too. It was an effort not gone to waste and having my cousin enjoy his cupcake was enough to make me happy and make all the tiredness go away ..

The request was for chocolate cupcake but I made batch of vanilla cupcakes too seeing my cousin can’t take chocolate because of his condition. Chocolate cupcakes usually come out moist and soft but plan white cupcakes usually have some dryness to it. So I searched high and low for a not so dry white cupcake recipe and found this recipe. I attempted this recipe because of the reviews she received. This recipe was taken from Recipe Zaar

Almost Cake Mix Vanilla Cupcakes!

Ingredients: (makes 24 cupcakes)
¾ cup butter at room temperature
¼ cup Crisco shortening, room temperature
2 cups sugar, ground in the processor until fine(measure before processing)
4 large eggs
3 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoons almond extract or lemon extract
¼ tsp salt
2 ¾ cups cake flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 cup warm half & half cream or full fat milk (this is important,warm the milk)

Directions:
1-Set oven to 375 degrees (will reduce oven temperature just before baking cupcakes).
2-Line 24 muffin pans with paper cupcake liners.
3-In an electric mixer, cream butter and shortening until fluffy.
4-Add in the eggs(one at a time) and the extracts and beat about 3-4 minutes on high speed
(the mixture will seem to be a bit lumpy but will even out when you add in the sugar).
5-Add in the sugar; beat well (another 3 minutes) until sugar is COMPLETELY combined.
6-In a bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking powder.
7-Blend into the creamed ingredients, along with the warm milk until smooth (about 3 minutes). 8-Fill the prepared pans about two-thirds full.
9-IMMEDIATELY, reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.
10-Place the cupcakes in oven, and bake for about 20-24 minutes, or until the cupcakes test
done.

I altered the recipe a tad. Instead of grinding the sugar I used fine sugar or caster sugar as it’s know as in this part of the world. I left out the almond and lemons extract all together and just stuck with the vanilla. The cupcakes came out just great without the extract.

For the chocolate cupcakes I used a recipe I found in a magazine some years back. It’s a dark moist decadent chocolate cake called ‘ Buttermilk Chocolate Cake. I made during the Eid festival a few years back as a whole cake and everyone liked it so now I thought I would try it out as cupcakes. I followed the recipe to the tee and if you don’t have buttermilk handy the alternative can be found at buttermilk substitutes.

Buttermilk Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
2/3 cup boiling water
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup buttermilk
1 2/3 cups cake flour
1 ½ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1/3 cup butter
1 ½ cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
1- Pre heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 170 degrees Celsius. Line a muffin pan with cupcake cups.
2-Stir water into cocoa until smooth. Add buttermilk and reserve.
3-Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Reserve.
4-At high speed, beat butter and sugar until combined.
5-Reduce speed to medium, beat in eggs one at a time. Then add vanilla.
6-Alternately add the flour and cocoa mix.
7-Once its done scoop the mixture into the cupcake cups and bake for about
20 – 25mins or until toothpick inserted into the centers of the cupcakes
come out clean.
8- let to cool completely before frosting the cupcakes.

And now comes the real fun part of frosting the cupcakes. I used two simple recipes of a plain butter cream frosting and a ganache frosting. You can never go wrong with butter cream frosting though ganache makes for a little work but the results are well worth it. I chose ganache frosting because of the sheen it has, makes the cakes look really elegant. Below are two simple recipes for the frosting (yes even the ganache :D ) …

Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup butter flavor Crisco
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
5 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup milk

Directions:
In a large bowl, cream margarine and shortening until light and fluffy. Add salt, vanilla, confectioners’ sugar and milk. Beat well.

When it’s done you can use it on its own or add coloring to get creative with the cupcakes. Gel based colors are best though the paste colorings work just as well.

Ganache Frosting
Taken from Baking 911

As the article illustrates ganache can be made with just two ingredients – chocolate and whipping cream though you can add in other ingredients. For me I just added the light corn syrup and vanilla so my recipe would be look something like this ..

Ingredients:-
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 pound (16 ounces) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup light corn syrup -- for light sweetening and smoothness and shine.
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened (for flavor and richness) - Butter that is too soft or melted will result in a creamy texture. To prepare it for mixing, let butter stand at room temperature until softened but still cool. Add the butter in chunks until combined during the mixing stages.
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:
1-Place chopped chocolate in a medium-sized, heat proof bowl. Make note that the hot cream will eventually be poured over it and must cover it entirely. If whipping later, I use my stand mixer bowl, which is perfect.
2-Pour cream into a medium saucepan under medium heat and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and pour over chocolate. Shake pan and allow to stand for about 2 minutes.
3-Stir with a whisk until smooth. If making a frosting with a velvety smooth texture, optionally, whisk in the room temperature butter chunks and corn syrup until smooth. Add in the vanilla extract.

Some pointers on making ganache:-
Ganache can be used as a glaze, icing or whipped: To use immediately, stir it over a larger bowl of ice until cooled; less for pouring (should pour like corn syrup), more for spreading consistency (like buttercream) and the most for whipping (stiff, but not hard). Don't let it get too cold. To re-warm, place the heat-proof bowl over a pan of hot water while stirring -- do not reheat.

Or, ganche can be refrigerated or set aside. Before you do, cover with a piece of plastic wrap pressed on the top of the ganache so a film does not form. If refrigerated, bring back to room temperature before using by setting in a warm place in the kitchen; it takes about an hour to soften.

Whipped ganache is used for making truffles, piping, filling or making a mousse. It needs to cool to lukewarm so it stiffens and will whip faster and have a better texture. Place ganache in a mixing bowl and whip it vigorously by hand or with an electric mixer on medium-high. Do this until mixture has lightened in color and is fluffy. Do not over whip, otherwise it will become grainy. If it does, reheat in a double boiler and strain

And so after all that baking and frosting my April Cupcakes came out like this …

I made two special cupcakes for him the one with the birthday candle and another with the soccer player. He loves soccer and Manchester United is one of his favorite teams. The jersey worn by the miniature soccer player is actually the colors of the team he loves so he was extra happy with that. The fun part about making cupcakes is you can get as creative as you like, you can make happy cupcakes, crazy cupcakes, romantic cupcakes - the possibilities are endless. You have the power to create and thats the fun part though sometimes the ideas are sleeping and come up with one of the of the same ovr and over again - i am of course speaking for myself. This happens when you're pressed for time or when you're really tired, but either way you cant go wrong when it comes to making these delectable little cupcakes.. and the high point is when you see the smiles on people faces ..ahh cupcake bliss..