Sorry it's been so long without posting- these hormones have rendered me exhausted! Since my last post, I haven't tried any new flavors :( But I've had two people request cupcakes for parties- one baby shower and one first birthday party- and ironically I ended up making the same flavors for both- lemon and chocolate. I used the same recipes for both because I don't like getting experimental when my cupcakes are needed for an event. I get stressed out enough as it is trying to make sure they're as close to perfect as can be, so the last thing I need is the potential for complete disaster. Here are the first ones I made:
On to the recipes!
Lemon Cupcakes:
Ingredients: (makes about 16 cupcakes)
1 3/4 cup cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp lemon zest
yellow food coloring
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt three times and set aside. Beat butter until smooth and creamy, then add sugar and beat until fluffy. Add one egg at a time, beating in between to combine. Add lemon juice, lemon zest, food coloring, and vanilla extract and beat until combined(mixture may look curdled). Add flour mixture and buttermilk in the following order: 1/3 of the flour mixture, 1/2 of the buttermilk, 1/3 of the flour mixture, rest of the buttermilk, then the rest of the flour mixture. Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full and bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean.
This is my tried-and-true recipe for fluffy lemon cupcakes. When I want a dense cupcake, I use the Opposite of Low-Fat Lemon Cupcakes recipe.
I tried another go at making seedless rasperry frosting (refer to this blog entry for the recipe) for the baby shower, this time omitting the milk to hopefully improve the consistency. It kind of worked- it was stiff enough that I tried piping it and it mostly stayed the way I piped it, but it began running. So I think I've ruled out the ratio of confectioner's sugar as being the consistency culprit... which leaves me thinking it's something to do with the chemistry or temperature. When I realized it was starting to run a bit, I popped them in the fridge and was able to save them from being totally disastrous. I'm in love with the way a simple fondant flower looks when perched on top of a cupcake, so I made another batch of handmade flowers to stick on top. For instructions on how to make them, go here. Here's another picture of the finished cupcakes from the shower:
For the birthday party, I made lemon cream cheese frosting:
Ingredients:
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup unsalted butter
2 teaspoons lemon zest*
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract
5 cups confectioner's sugar
icing color
Directions:
Beat cream cheese, butter, lemon juice, lemon zest, and extracts together until smooth and fluffy. Add confectioner's sugar in two additions. Beat until creamy. Add more icing sugar or juice as needed for easy spreading. Add icing color in small amounts until desired color is achieved.
*Still didn't measure the zest. I probably used about 1/4 of the same lemon I used for the cakes.
The colors for the birthday party were pink and green, so I decorated accordingly. I broke down and bought flower-shaped fondant cutters because I was spending so much time making flowers from scratch. I also bought the pearl dust that I've been eyeing for a long time and I'm SO GLAD I did! Unfortunately, I didn't get any good pictures of the dusting process because it was very late and I really needed to get them done as quickly as possible. Here are the few pictures I got of the decorated cupcakes (and once again, they got all messed up in the transportation and handling):
Now onto the chocolate. After my recent disaster of an attempt at chocolate cupcakes, I became nervous about my go-to recipe for chocolate cupcakes and began searching for something else. I stumbled upon Martha Stewart's One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes and... OMG. Amazing. And remember, I don't like chocolate! The texture is moist yet light, the flavor is chocolatey, and they're incredibly easy to make.
Chocolate Cupcakes:
Ingredients:
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons safflower oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners; set aside. Sift together cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Add eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla, and mix until smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to assure batter is well mixed.
Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full. Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 20 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.
*I got very scared when the "batter" turned out REALLY runny. And not runny compared to the thickity-thick batters I frequently make, but practically liquid, and the recipe didn't mention anything about this. However, they turned out just fine so don't freak out like I did about the thin batter. IT WILL ALL BE OK. Breathe. I took a picture of the "batter"- you can see it's dripping off the beater:
I was overwhelmed with uneasiness at the thought of making cupcakes without using the traditional butter, sugar, eggs, extracts, alternate dry and wet ingredients method. So I made them using that method, and they turned out great :)
I double-dipped the chocolate cuppies in some warm, fresh chocolate ganache to give them that shiny, smooth texture for the baby shower. My plan was to script the initials of the baby on the top, but I ran out of time so they ended up being just plain.
For the birthday party, I topped them with some vanilla cream cheese frosting that I colored green. I spooned the frosting on top and smoothed it out with the back of the spoon (I really need one of those spreaders with an off-centered handle). I then topped them with the birthday girl's name:
Directions:
1. Find a script font that is easy to trace. If the font is script, then all of the letters will run together so you don't have to place individual letters. Print desired text in multiple sizes to ensure you get one big enough to cover the top of the cupcakes. When you find the right size, cut out the text from the paper and set aside.
2. Cut small squares of wax paper- big enough to cover the text, and enough squares to have more than enough decorations for the cupcakes.
3. Place a handful or two of colored candy melts (any color that you choose) into a sandwich-sized Ziploc bag. Microwave for 20 seconds. Remove bag and massage candy melts. Microwave for another 10-20 seconds at a time, massaging in between to ensure even melting.
4. When the candy melts are completely melted, snip a TINY, and I mean TINY, section of one of the bottom corners of the ziploc bag. If the opening is too big, it will be very difficult to trace over your text.
5. Place one square of wax paper over your text, and trace over the text with the melted candy melts. Carefully place on a baking sheet or in a cake pan. Repeat.
6. When the baking sheet/cake pan is full, place into the freezer until decorations are frozen solid. I left mine in the freezer overnight, so I'm not sure how long it'll take for them to freeze completely. I'd say allow at least one hour to be safe.
7. When ready to decorate, carefully peel wax paper away from decoration and place decoration on top of cupcake. They quickly warm up and become flexible, so do this quickly before they get messed up.
Since I needed to script "Abigail," I didn't see the sense in dotting the i's on the wax paper. So after I placed all of the names on the cupcakes, I melted some more candy melts and dotted the i's on the frosting. Here is a picture of my materials:
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