Baby Shower Cupcakes- Lemon/Lemon and Chocolate

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:

I'm still tinkering with my NEW CAMERA! My early birthday present was a fancy shmancy Nikon d3100- I've been wanting a DSLR for a long time and I'm having so much fun learning about it and using it.
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 will give you an idea as to how much zest I used- about half of a large lemon.

The batter :)

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:

They got a little messed up in the process of transporting them and trying to get them out of the pans and onto the table. Oh well...
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):

It's hard to tell, but I dusted the edges of the flowers with pink pearl dust. I used my trusty "fondant brush" to dust on the powder. I really like how these turned out and was very proud to bring them to the party.

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:

And how, you may ask, did I get such perfect looking scripting on them? Magic, of course! Ok, not really... but some creativity and patience goes a long way. This is a versatile method that can be used for lots of decorations:

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:

And some more of the finished product:

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Seedless Raspberry Frosting

I'll preface this by admitting that the idea for the decoration was, sadly, not mine. I wish I was smart enough to think of this... maybe next time. The credit, though, goes to What's New, Cupcake? a book given to me for Christmas by a dear friend. The decoration was super easy and fun, but time consuming.
The cupcakes are vanilla bean cake (OMG) with a seedless raspberry frosting. They were made to bring to my parents' house for Easter and were perfect for the day.

This was my first try at making vanilla bean cupcakes and they were phenomenal. I tweaked the recipe for my Key Lime Cupcakes since it would make the perfect amount for this occasion. That recipe is nice and basic and allows for some wiggle room with ingredients. However, I only frosted half of these with the seedless raspberry frosting. The other half I frosted with some basic chocolate cream cheese frosting and rolled the edges in toasted coconut to make them look like nests. I then placed some chocolate easter eggs in the middle :)

Ingredients: (makes about 16 cupcakes)
1 3/4 cup 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
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean pod

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. Cut the vanilla bean pod in half to make it easier to scrape. Cut each half lengthwise and scrape the inside of each piece with a butter knife. Mix scraped vanilla seeds into buttermilk and discard empty bean pods. 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 vanilla extract and beat until combined. 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 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean.
Here's a picture of this amazing batter:

Sorry for the low quality picture... I now have a DSLR so my pictures will finally look decent! This picture makes me want to eat straight vanilla bean batter... mmmmmmm.

I REALLY wanted to try making a frosting using coulis so I figured this would be a good chance since I didn't need to pipe them. I didn't realize how great of an idea that was since this frosting is NOT pipeable. Yet. I'm still working on a recipe for pipeable seedless raspberry frosting. I made the coulis the night before, but this isn't necessary- just make sure you allow yourself to have enough time to let the coulis cool completely prior to making the frosting. I imagine hot coulis would probably make this frosting really runny.

For the coulis:
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tbsp lemon juice

Place the raspberries and sugar into small saucepan and cook over medium heat until berries are completely deconstructed and a thick liquid forms, about 15 minutes. Check and stir frequently to avoid burning and sticking. In small batches, strain liquified raspberries in a mesh strainer, using a rubber spatula to push through strainer. Make sure to scrape bottom of strainer in between batches since the mixture will be thick and will stick to the strainer. Once all of the seeds are strained out, stir in lemon juice and refrigerate.

*I had some leftover coulis that I used on top of some cheesecake and almost died because it was so good.

For the frosting:
One pound confectioner's sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tbsp milk*
Raspberry coulis

Beat butter until smooth, add milk and combine. Slowly add confectioner's sugar and scrape down bowl occasionally. Once all confectioner's sugar is added, slowly add coulis and beat on low until combined. *I think I ended up using the whole batch of coulis in this because I wanted a good raspberry flavor to it. However, the milk probably shouldn't have been added. I didn't realize how thin this frosting would become... had I known, I would not have added the milk. I'll post another recipe soon for another batch I made without the milk, but it still turned out quite thin. I'll have to keep working on this recipe. Since I was decorating these the way I did, it was perfectly acceptable for me to dip the cupcakes in the frosting, which worked out just fine. AND, it was the first time I dipped cupcakes, so it gave me some good experience and inspired me to make some chocolate ganache again :)

Decoration:
One bag of mini marshmallows (you won't use the whole thing)
Different colored decorative sugar

Place each color of sugar into a separate ramekin or souffle dish. Use as many colors as you want based on how many different colors of flowers you'd like to make. I used blue, pink, and purple. Next, cut mini marshmallows in half diagonally, pushing the sticky side of each piece into the colored sugar. Set aside. Decorate cupcakes by placing sugared marshmallow halves around the outside edge of the cupcake first, then working inwards in circles until you reach the center. I just cut a bunch of marshmallows and dipped in alternating colors of sugar, then started decorating until they were all used up, then cut more marshmallows one by one until I had enough to cover all of the cupcakes. I also put little balls of yellow fondant in the center to look like stamens.

Champagne Pear Cupcakes

Okay, so the decorating was a little underwhelming this time, but these were my girly-spring cupcakes. They were made for a coworker who is pregnant, and inspired by one of my favorite flavor combinations: pear and vanilla bean.
Let us start by having a little moment of silence for those cupcakes whose lives were cut short by a tragic baking accident..........

I attempted to make some double chocolate cupcakes a little while ago but they ended up being double busted cupcakes :( I bought these new Hershey's drops and figured they would be great as a cupcake filling. I was probably right, but I wouldn't know. About halfway through baking, I realized that I forgot to put them inside the cupcakes! A foolish choice was to pop out the cupcakes, put in the chocolates, then finish baking. I don't know if that was why they didn't turn out, or if I possibly forgot to add the salt. Regardless, they were my first cupcake catastrophe and they've been haunting me ever since.
I've made my Lemon Cupcakes, the Remix and these champagne pear cupcakes since that time, and was VERY nervous both times. But with good reason: I made two substitutions in ingredients and had a measuring mishap while making the lemon cupcakes, and my champagne pear cupcakes were a bit of a crazy experiment in recipe making. Here's the (hopefully) abridged story:
I didn't plan out my grocery shopping well, so I assumed I'd need one pear for the recipe and bought an extra to eat by itself. WRONG. The ONLY recipe I could find online for champagne pear cupcakes called for 2 3/4 cup of flour (which would make about 30-36 cupcakes) and three pears. UGH. After some thoughtful debate, I decided to do what I've been wanting to do for a while: research baking science. It was super enlightening and now I have much more appreciation for the ingredients that go into a cake. Armed with my new-found knowledge, I decided to tweak my Pomegranate Green Tea cupcakes recipe because it seemed to have a good ratio of ingredients and mirrored the liquid content I'd need to use to get the champagne flavor to shine in these cakes. I figured the pear component was an extra and wouldn't affect the chemistry, and I was right. So here's MY recipe:

Champagne-Pear Cupcakes:
2 cups All Purpose Flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter (3/4 cup)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 cup milk*
1 cup champagne*
Two pears, grated*
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grate the pears and set aside.
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt in one bowl, set aside.
Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition. Add vanilla extract and milk, plus half the flour mixture. Mix together until combined. Add the champagne and other half of the flour mixture, mix together until combined. Fill cupcake liners about 3/4 full. Bake 16-22 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of cupcake comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting.
*The milk is probably not necessary, because the batter was a little thinner than I'm used to. They still turned out fine, but next time I'll omit the extra liquid. I used some cheap champagne- I think it was like $9 per bottle and was of the "brut" variety. It was quite interesting to have an ingredient fizz as I added it into the batter, but the best part was finishing the champagne afterwards (which was surprisingly pretty good!). As far as the pears go, it wasn't that bad to grate them. One of them was a little under-ripe and quite firm, and the other was much more ripe and soft. However, grating them with a cheese grater (using the side with the largest holes) wasn't a big deal. A little messy, but not difficult. Oh, and I also added some pink food coloring to make them a little extra cute :)

It's hard to tell what color they are, but they're a light pink-ish color. So needless to say, having made my own recipe for these, I was apprehensive about how they'd turn out. But I think the flavor of the champagne was there, but not overwhelming. The pear flavor was almost non-existent, but I think it balanced everything out and made for the most moist cupcakes I've ever had. Possibly my new secret weapon for moist cakes :) Overall I was relieved that they turned out ok and somewhat proud that I tweaked an already-tweaked recipe to make something new.

On to the frosting of my dreams...
Vanilla Bean Buttercream Frosting:
1/2 of one vanilla bean, seeds scraped and pod discarded*
One poud of confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbps+ of milk
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

Beat butter until smooth. Add vanilla bean seeds and extract, then slowly begin adding about half of the powdered sugar. Add the milk, then the rest of the powdered sugar. Add more milk if needed to desired consistency, and beat until smooth. Do not overbeat. Makes enough frosting for about 24 cupcakes.
*This was my first vanilla bean experience. I bought some McCormick gourmet vanilla beans, found on the spice rack at my local grocery store. They actually sell them in a little glass jar just like they use to sell other spices (like rosemary). I cut the seed in half width-wise with a paring knife. I put one half back in the jar, and then cut the other half length-wise. You'll see the darker seeds in the middle of the pod. Use the rounded side of a butter knife and hold the knife perpedicular to the bean on the side that has access to the seeds. Apply some pressure to the pod and scrape down it to extract the seeds. The seeds should come right out and stick on the butter knife.

I piped on a swirl of frosting and spinkled on some yellow sprinkles. Mmmmm... sophistication.

Lemon Cupcakes II: The Remix.

I made a deal with a good friend a while ago: I would give her cupcakes in exchange for some authentic Asian food. And we both held up our end of the bargain, just a year after the fact. My friend requested some lemon cupcakes, but prefers her cupcakes to be moist and fluffy rather than dense. So I ditched the Opposite of Low-Fat Lemon Cupcakes recipe I used before because those were some pretty dense cupcakes. I pondered what to do, then decided to tweak my Key Lime Cupcakes recipe because those turned out having my target texture for this batch. 

*I'm SO excited about my next batch of cupcakes that I'll be making soon: pear champagne with vanilla bean frosting. So stay tuned, because I'm hopeful that those will be my best yet :)

Lower-fat 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.

*Once again, I used my "fake cake flour" since I still don't have actual cake flour. Our brand new Publix just opened about a mile from my neighborhood, so I'm hoping they carry cake flour. Regardless, this works just fine: put 2 tbsp corn starch in the bottom of a one cup measuring cup, then fill the rest of the measuring cup with flour. Then, put one tbsp of corn starch in the bottom of a 1/2 cup measuring cup, and fill the rest with flour. Another 1/2 tbsp of corn starch in a 1/4 cup measuring cup and fill the rest with flour. And voila! Fake cake flour.

*I never measure zest. It doesn't change the chemistry of the batter so it will only affect flavor... I just zested about half of a medium sized lemon and the flavor turned out pretty well.

*Holy crap! I didn't have any buttermilk this time, but LOVED how it worked in my key lime cupcakes. Never thought I'd say this, but buttermilk may soon surpass sour cream as my favorite ingredient in a basic cupcake recipe. Sour cream makes the cupcakes very dense, which isn't a bad thing to me, but not everyone likes a dense cupcake. Buttermilk, on the other hand, makes a nice, thick batter that is a little fluffier after baked. I didn't know this before, but buttermilk is actually low fat (less guilt!!). Anyways... I decided to use the typical buttermilk substitute of putting one tablespoon of white vinegar into a one-cup measuring cup, and fill with milk to the one cup line. Let sit for five minutes. Since the recipe only calls for 3/4 of a cup, you can either put 3/4 tablespoon of vinegar into a 3/4 cup measuring cup or use one cup and only use 3/4 of it. Yes, I am a math genius.

So, these cupcakes were actually pretty scary for me, especially since the batch I made prior to these (that were supposed to go to the same friend) were BUSTED. I'll post on those later. So with that horrifying memory in the back of my mind, I worried that I suddenly lost my cupcake baking finesse. Added to that was the fact that I used TWO ingredient substitutes (cake flour and buttermilk). Then, after adding my first addition of buttermilk, I realized that I must have filled the measuring cup pretty far past the one cup line, because after adding what I thought to be about a third of a cup, there was still about one cup left in the measuring cup. DOH! So I guesstimated how much to add after that, and ended up adding a splash more at the end because the batter seemed a bit too thick. Once I popped them in the oven, I said a little prayer to the God of cupcakes, and started washing dishes so I wouldn't keep peeking at them.

So obviously they turned out just fine! Some were a little well-done, but not bad at all. Notice the time on the clock in the second picture? That's AM. I made the fondant decorations first, then decided that I would go ahead and make the cakes that night as well, since the next day was going to be quite busy. Of course I had to try one, and they turned out just how I wanted them to be. Not too lemony, but fluffy and moist.

I busted out the Wilton fondant again and spent a long time trying to figure out how to decorate them. I didn't want to make lemon wedges because I did that with the key lime cupcakes and I wanted to try something new. I started searching high and low in my house for inspiration, and stumbled upon this:

It's a necklace I bought a little while ago, and it was perfect inspiration for some spring cupcakes.

Method for making fondant flower decorations:
Knead fondant of chosen color (I decided light blue would be a nice contrast to the yellow cupcake and frosting) until soft and workable, and roll out until about 1/8" to 1/4" thick. Using a small circle (about 1/2" around... I used the small end of a piping tip coupler for this) cut out five circles per flower. Pinch one side of each circle until shaped like a tear drop, then pinch to flatten a little on that side (so it is thinner than the other end of the circle). Arrange each petal to form a flower, pressing each petal together to ensure they stick:

Then, with another color (yellow would be the obvious choice), roll out more fondant and break off into small pieces. Roll into tiny balls (about half the size of a pea) and flatten into a circle. Using a wet brush, wet the center of the flower and the back of the yellow circle and press together to bond. Set aside and let dry. Store in an airtight container if not using immediately.

I ended up scoring the petals the next day to add more detail, and used a paring knife for it. Which was really dangerous, so I suggest using a toothpick to prevent cutting your fingers off :)

On to the frosting.

OMG. This frosting is heavenly. It made more than I needed (probably the perfect amount if you want to pipe something pretty on them) and for once, I couldn't throw away the leftovers. I saved it in a Tupperware container in the fridge, and have been enjoying it smeared onto a graham cracker as a dessert. I think the graham cracker was just an attempt to not feel like a total fatty from eating the frosting by itself. It's just that good.

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
Yellow 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.
*Still didn't measure the zest. I probably used about 1/4 of the same lemon I used for the cakes.

I piped a small swirl onto the top of each cupcake, then topped with one of the flowers:

LOVE.

Key Lime Cupcakes

I'm like a boutique cupcakery without the boutique :) These were made specially for my sister-in-law's birthday and I took them to her at work as a surprise. I was really happy to have given my best cupcakes ever as a gift to someone special. So... I'm usually pretty humble about my cupcaking, but not about these because not only did they taste amazing, but they were really darned cute too. I came up with the decorating idea all on my own and they turned out even cuter than I thought they would which is unheard of for me. I'm not an artsy kind either, so trying to work with fondant for the first time was a little frightening to say the least (if you aren't making the fondant limes, the cupcakes still look super cute without them. Just skip to the bottom for the recipe and how to decorate). Which is why I bought pre-made fondant. I wanted to make sure I could make something that looked alright and if it was worth it to pursue... and yes, it was. So once I use up all of my premade fondant, I'm going to start making some marshmallow fondant. But for these, I used the Wilton pre-colored fondant (I made the fondant decorations the night before I made the cupcakes):

Aaaaaannnnnnndddddd nut cups!! I've been wanting to make cupcakes in nut cups for so long and I finally did it!! More about that later... here are some pics of my fondant work:

This was the fondant I used. Notice how dark it is before kneading...

And this is the fondant after I kneaded the crap out of it. It's slightly lighter than it was straight out of the package. And I have a few sore muscles from kneading it because it was a little tough to knead at first, but it really wasn't that bad at all. I also realized that I really need to get a fondant mat because kneading this on wax paper was really not a good idea. BUT, I didn't want to dye my beige countertops green so I had to improvise and use the wax paper. Hubby and I just ordered a new kitchen island with a granite counterop so I'm going to try to knead some fondant directly on that to see if it works. With the leftover fondant, I experimented with combining colors and dying it with icing color gel so I now feel more comfortable making my own fondant and coloring it.
To make the fondant limes, I rolled out the fondant and used the measuring cup from a bottle of medicine (thoroughly washed, of course) and cut out little circles of the dark green fondant. Since there are so many things in a typical household that can cut out a circle, I don't see the point of buying circle fondant cutters. Anyways, I cut each dark green circle in half and set them off to the side. I then took the bottom of the measuring cup to cut out slightly smaller circles from the light green fondant. I then cut each of those circles into triangles of varying sizes- about four or six triangles per circle.

To assemble the fondant pieces, all you have to do is brush the pieces that you are going to bond together with a little bit of water, gently press them together, and let them dry. However, I realized that I didn't have a brush! While debating about how to go about doing this, I dug into my makeup bag and found a little brush that came in an eyeshadow compact that I never used. After confirming it was completely clean, it officially shed its title of eyeshadow brush and earned the title of "fondant brush." Here it is, in all its glory:

I then assembled the "limes"

I scored the light green wedges with the back (non-sharp) edge of a paring knife (which is what I used to cut the circles into the wedges) in the center of each triangle as an afterthought and I think they made them look a little more realistic. So that, my friends, is how you make fondant wedges Shortcakes style.

Now for the key lime cakes. I used a recipe I found on Cook Eat Share:
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 key lime juice*
1 tbsp key lime zest*
green 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 lime juice, lime zest, food coloring, and vanilla extract and beat until combined(mixture will 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. I used nut cups instead of cupcake liners, which made them look extra cute, but they were also a little difficult to open. However, these cupcakes, being a little higher in sugar content than the average cupcake, shrunk a little bit. So the nut cups were perfect because they held their own shape. So when the cupcakes shrunk, there was no issue with wrappers peeling away from the cake. So even though they're tough to open, I'll use them again in the future for cupcakes that will probably shrink.

*I didn't have cake flour on hand and was shocked to find that my local Publix doesn't carry any. BUT, I made my own by mixing all purpose flour and corn starch. Since the recipe called for 1 3/4 cup of cake flour, I did the following: put 2 tbsp corn starch in the bottom of a one cup measuring cup, then filled the rest of the measuring cup with flour. Then, I put one tbsp of corn starch in the bottom of a 1/2 cup measuring cup, and filled the rest with flour. Another 1/2 tbsp of corn starch in a 1/4 cup measuring cup and filled the rest with flour. And voila! Cake flour substitute.
*I also probably used a little more than 2 1/2 tbsp of key lime juice. I added maybe another 1-2 tsp of it but I didn't measure.
*I don't know exactly how much lime zest I used, and it wasn't key lime zest but just persian lime zest. I zested one lime and added that into the batter without measuring to see how much I actually had. When it comes to an ingredient like this that won't affect the chemistry of the cupcake and affect the texture, you don't have to be super exact with the measurements.
*We all know I'm obsessed with using sour cream in a cupcake but for once I resisted temptation. I haven't ever used buttermilk in anything before, but I will definitely use it in a cupcake again. It was almost like milk and sour cream mixed together, which is typically what I use in my cupcakes. However, my local grocery store only sells buttermilk in a quart size bottle and I can't see wasting that much buttermilk each time I bake, so it won't be a common fixture for my recipes. But, I did use some of the buttermilk tonight to make some Irish Soda Bread and it was perfect :)
* The original recipe didn't call for vanilla extract but I thought it would be a good addition to smooth out the flavor. It was probably a really good idea because they tasted wonderful.

It's best with these to not fill them too full. The ones that were filled a little more full didn't rise much and spilled over a bit.
For the key lime cream cheese frosting:
I used a recipe I found on open source cupcakes but tweaked it a tiny bit:

Ingredients:
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
8 oz cream cheese
2 tbsp key lime juice*
1 tsp lime zest*
4-5 cups confectioner's sugar (about a one pound box)
Yellow and Blue icing color gel

Beat the butter and cream cheese together until smooth (but don't overbeat!). Add the lime juice and lime zest and beat until combined. Add the confectioner's sugar about a cup at a time and beat slowly until desired consistency is reached.

*I used probably about 3 tbsp of lime juice because I felt the flavor wasn't as intense as I wanted it to be. Once again, I didn't measure the amount of lime zest but I used about 1/2 a lime's worth of zest. To color the frosting, I first colored it yellow and then added little bits of blue slowly until it was a very pale yellowish green, just like real key lime pie. Even though I wasn't piping the frosting, I still made it a little stiff so it would sit nicely on top of the cupcakes.

To decorate:
Spoon a dollop of frosting on top of each cupcake and spread evenly. Use the flat back of a butter knife to edge the frosting if the frosting extends too close to the edge of the cupcake.

Crush graham crackers in a small shallow bowl, and press edge of frosting into the crushed graham crackers to look like a pie crust.

They're already cute as is! Then put some of the leftover frosting in a piping bag with a small star tip and pipe a small star into the center of each cupcake. If you aren't using the fondant limes, they still end up looking like mini key lime pies at this point... maybe garnish with a small curl of lime skin or leave as is:

If using fondant limes, place one lime at an angle on the star of frosting and enjoy how cute they look before devouring them...

Devil's Food Cupcakes with Salted Dulce de Leche Frosting

So apparently Shortcakes has gone more international than I ever imagined, so welcome to all of my international readers :) It's cool to think that someone across the world may have made one of my recipes...
This installment: Devil's Food Cupcakes with Salted Dulce de Leche Frosting. AND they're really easy to make!! The inspiration for these actually came from a need to use up some sweetened condensed milk that I mistakenly bought for some homemade fudge when what I really needed was evaporated milk. Doh! These were my "progress cupcakes" because I have been buying some tools I didn't have in the past which made my cupcake baking so much easier (I'll post a little blurb at the end of this post with my experiences with my new stuff). I also feel like I've gotten a much better feel for the process and what goes into a good recipe. AND I made them the weekend of my first round of Clomid pills. So not only am I progressing with my cupcake making, but baby making as well ;) Things are much easier with a little help sometimes...
If you're making the dulce de leche "frosting," skip down to the recipe for that and start it before you make the cupcakes. You'll need about 4-8 hours for this part (don't be scared! it's super easy to do!) so start it well in advance of the actual cakes.
So for the cakes, I reverted back to the Devil's Food Cupcakes recipe but I decided to tweak it Shortcakes-style. So here's my version of the recipe...

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup milk
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs, room temperature

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda and set aside. Pour milk into a bowl with the sour cream and set aside. Beat butter until soft and smooth, add sugar and beat until fluffy (when using sour cream in a cupcake recipe, the more you beat the butter and sugar together, the fluffier the cupcakes will be. Conversely, the less you beat them, the more dense they will be.). Add eggs, one at a time, beating to combine in between. Add vanilla and beat until incorporated. Add the dry and wet ingredients in the following order, beating until just combined in between each addition: one third of the flour mixture, then one half of the milk/sour cream mixture, then another third of the flour mixture, the rest of the milk/sour cream, then the rest of the flour mixture. Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full and bake 15-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of cupcakes comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack before frosting.

*I filled them about 3/4 full and they ended up being quite huge. They also spilled over the tops of the liners about halfway through and I thought I had a complete disaster on my hands because, at that point, they were really soupy looking. It gave me terrible flashbacks to my Easy Bake Oven disaster as a child when I (ironically) was making a chocolate cake and accidentally used the tablespoon measure for the water instead of the teaspoon measure. It ended up being a soupy sticky mess, but I learned a valuable lesson about double checking measurements and recipes. So needless to say, when they were spilling over but not firming up, I thought I had ruined a batch of cupcakes for the first time ever. Oh the horror!! But my fears were unwarranted, because they turned out just fine. Big, but fine. And big in this case was no problem because I took most of them to the fire station for hubby and the men/woman of station 22 to feast on. They were firefighter sized :) So here they are pre-"frosting:"

So you can obviously see that they are accidentally jumbo. But it worked out well for the "frosting" in this case because there was more surface area. If they were smaller, I would probably ended up putting on a thicker coating of the dulce de leche, which would have rendered them too dulce-de-leche-ey.

Now for the easiest part: the dulce de leche.

Ingredients:
One to two cans of sweetened condensed milk
Water

There are a few ways to do this. The way I did it was to take the label and the top off the can of milk and cover with tin foil. I then placed the can and tin foil into a crock pot and added water until it reached just below the top of the can. I set the crock pot on high for about four hours (low on eight works is an alternative if you have the time or want to make it overnight), checking occasionally to make sure the water level didn't drop too much. The dangerous part is getting the can out of the crock pot... I used some tongs but didn't have a very good grip, and the can fell into the water, tipped over, and about 1/4 of the dulce de leche was ruined. I thought all of it was ruined, but I was able to salvage 3/4 of it. I made another can after the first one (although you can make two at a time if your crockpot is big enough) because I realized after making the first that I was going to need another to top all of the cupcakes. The second time around, I got a little wiser and removed as much of the water as I could using a measuring glass before lifting the can out with the tongs. I then placed the cans into the refrigerator on top of a towel (because the cans were really hot) to let them cool, although it may be best to let them sit out for a few hours to come to room temperature, I just didn't have that much time.

The other way you can do this is to put the whole can, minus the label but with the lid intact, into the crockpot and fill with water so the can is submerged completely. Cook 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low and remove after the water cools to room temperature. Apparently the can will not explode as long as the water level stays above the can, the can is put into cold or room temperature (not hot) water initially, and you wait to remove the can until the water cools off, but I didn't want to risk having a dulce de leche missile in my kitchen. So I opted for the safer method. It should be noted, however, that the method I used caused the milk to overflow a bit and get into the water, which wasn't very pleasant looking but didn't affect anything.

Once the dulce de leche cooled enough, I spooned it onto the center of the cupcake and spread it. It was still a tiny bit warmer than room temperature so it ended up spreading itself a little bit, but it made for a cute cartooney kind of look. I then topped them with a swirl of chocolate and a dusting of sea salt:

See how they look kind of cartooney? I thought they were cute :) My husband was intent on eating at least two that night, but said they were a little too rich to eat more than one due to the "frosting." However, he doesn't have a big sweet tooth and I think others ate more than one. I had one as well and thought they were darned good. The sea salt was a great touch and I highly recommend it... when I brought the rest into work the next day, I put a sign on them to encourage them to be eaten and I made sure to label them "chocolate cupcakes with dulce de leche and sea salt." I wanted to make sure everyone knew the sea salt was intentional. I was only in the office for a short period of time that day and I didn't see any left the next day, so I guess that means they were all consumed. And hopefully happily at that.

As promised- my new cupcake baking tools/tricks: My stepmother-in-law spoils me, and bought me a new stand mixer for Christmas. Check this baby out:

It really is a fancy piece of machinery and I'm so in love with it. And I finally got myself a sifter. It's such a necessity and I don't know how I lived so long without it. I also invested in a cookie scoop. Or maybe it's an ice cream scoop? I've seen it described both ways... but it's basically one of those scoops that has the handle that you squeeze and this little metal bar scrapes across the scoop to ensure that everything comes out nicely. So I now use that to put the batter into the cupcake liners and it's amazing how much easier and cleaner this process is now. I also purchased another cupcake pan so I can bake more than just twelve at once which saves me a lot of time. So it was a much more pleasant experience this time all the way around...