The Cupcake Thread!

[Skippy123]

Date: 5/5/2008 3:34:01 PM
Author: FireGoddess
Those look delicious Skippy!

I took pics of both the coconut lime cupcakes and the tres leches ones I made last night. I will post those tomorrow! Both were scrumptious. Interestingly I didn't have a problem with the tres leches cupcakes coming away from the liners, but I don't know if that's a function of the recipe or that I was paranoid and mixed by hand instead of with the mixer (was afraid I overmixed the coconut ones because the batter was so airy).

I am tempted to get a cupcake cookbook...what would be your top choice if you had to choose? I'm not going to amass a library of cupcake books...already practically have a library of cookbooks!

FireGoddess, wow, 2 types of cupcakes; I was pooped after one type.

You should have seen how many dishes I got dirty

I can't wait to see your pics.

FC, I am not picky except I am not a white cake fan. hehe

ETA: everyone Loved the cupcakes so that is a thumbs up recipe Mara and other cupcake makers

 

[FireGoddess]

As promised, here are the pics!

These are the coconut lime cupcakes after they shrunk from the liners. I ended up taking all the liners off.

 

[FireGoddess]

Coconut Lime cupcakes. They were YUM.

 

[FireGoddess]

Tres Leches cupcakes after soaking, but before icing. The brown stuff is cinnamon that was mixed with the 3 milks for soaking the cupcakes.

 

[FireGoddess]

Finished Tres Leches cupcake.

 

[Skippy123]

FG, beautiful cupcakes. Maybe there wasn't enough baking soda, baking powder re:shrinking?? Hey if they taste good that is all that matters! hehe
What does tres leches taste like? When I was getting married and picking out my cakes the lady that made them was known for being the lady to go to for tres leches. You have me intrigued with what the flavor may be similar too? They look wonderful, bringing over my fork to try!!!

 

[FireGoddess]

Date: 5/6/2008 2:59:37 PM
Author: Skippy123
FG, beautiful cupcakes. Maybe there wasn''t enough baking soda, baking powder re:shrinking?? Hey if they taste good that is all that matters! hehe
What does tres leches taste like? When I was getting married and picking out my cakes the lady that made them was known for being the lady to go to for tres leches. You have me intrigued with what the flavor may be similar too? They look wonderful, bringing over my fork to try!!!

Dunno about the shrinking...I think there was powder AND soda in the cupcakes. It''s a mystery. They were delish, though it''d have been nice if they were still in wrappers as opposed to naked. They got eaten quickly but I imagine otherwise they would have dried out more quickly without wrappers. Oh well.

It''s hard to describe what tres leches tastes like....it isn''t my favorite cake because it is fairly wet, but I made it anyway for Cinco de Mayo. The final product is sweet, cinnamony, and wet. The cake itself didn''t have a lot of taste, but after it was soaked in the 3 milks + cinnamon it was fantastic! Very sweet, wet, and cinnamony. Then to top it off with frosting...delish!

 

[Skippy123]

Date: 5/6/2008 4:01:52 PM
Author: FireGoddess

Date: 5/6/2008 2:59:37 PM
Author: Skippy123
FG, beautiful cupcakes. Maybe there wasn''t enough baking soda, baking powder re:shrinking?? Hey if they taste good that is all that matters! hehe
What does tres leches taste like? When I was getting married and picking out my cakes the lady that made them was known for being the lady to go to for tres leches. You have me intrigued with what the flavor may be similar too? They look wonderful, bringing over my fork to try!!!

Dunno about the shrinking...I think there was powder AND soda in the cupcakes. It''s a mystery. They were delish, though it''d have been nice if they were still in wrappers as opposed to naked. They got eaten quickly but I imagine otherwise they would have dried out more quickly without wrappers. Oh well.

It''s hard to describe what tres leches tastes like....it isn''t my favorite cake because it is fairly wet, but I made it anyway for Cinco de Mayo. The final product is sweet, cinnamony, and wet. The cake itself didn''t have a lot of taste, but after it was soaked in the 3 milks + cinnamon it was fantastic! Very sweet, wet, and cinnamony. Then to top it off with frosting...delish!

Oh my gosh, what a sweet coworker you are to bring them in for Cinco de Mayo,

I bet everyone LOVED you (even though I am sure they do already). hehe Gosh, tres leches sounds like a bread pudding kind of. I will have to try and make that sometime for fun. thanks for the info!

 

[FrekeChild]

Date: 5/5/2008 11:01:21 PM
Author: Skippy123
FC, I am not picky except I am not a white cake fan. hehe

Me either. Yay!

ETA: I love tres leches. I've been wanting to make some...

 

[Mara]

awww FG they look awesome. did you taste the coconut lime? it seems like such an awesome combo.

also, that shrinkage was crazy looking! it never happened like that to me actually...even when i had that one shrinkage it was just a little. how interesting.

in terms of cookbooks, honestly, the internet is the best cookbook. i find 99% of my cupcake recipes on there...and i modify them to use what i want (typically buttermilk is always in my stuff). now that i have made a bunch of recipes i also can eyeball something and know what it will turn out like. if you really want to get something though...a lot of people like 500 cupcakes...it also comes in desk calendar form. it has a lot of unusual ideas. and i have ''crazy for cupcakes'' or something like that, it also has a ton of ideas in it, you can mix and match and combos a lot of regular flavors, and shows how to make things more unique and decorate. but i tend to just think up something like ''boy i really want a chocolate kahlua cream cheese cupcake'' and then surf around to find something online. you''d be amazed at what people have already made!

i made lemon cupcakes last nite with blueberry cream cheese frosting...i am excited to try the cake as it''s very heavy which bodes well since i wanted them to be dense yet cakey...i''m trying to replicate Kara''s lemon in SF...it''s my favorite lemon thus far.

i made an amazing PB torte on Monday for this tuesdays with dorie thing...(google it for more info) and it was ridiculously rich and amazing. it had heavy cream, peanut butter, confectioners sugar, cream cheese, chocolate, and peanuts in the mousse, and oreo cookie crust and straight ganache on the top. WOW.

i only had a tiny tiny sliver...i made individuals. here''s a photo. it was SO raved about. you can find recipe online too.

 

[Skippy123]

OMG, that looks like my kind of dessert, yummmmmmmmmmm

I would love a sliver

FC, you should make the Tres Leches. I never had it before!

 

[Lorelei]

oh my GOODNESS Mara, you are getting so good at this, that cake looks wonderful!!!!!!!!!! Ow!!!!

 

[FireGoddess]

That torte looks delicious!!!

I think I may stick with the internet for recipes then after all...I don't have any decorating stuff so it's mainly for the recipes and it's worked for me thus far. Mara, what kind of subs do you do to make the cupcakes better or healthier? I'm totally interested in that.

The coconut lime were fantastic...I'm making them again tomorrow night to take to a friend's house on Saturday. I think my problem was that I overmixed them? The batter was so airy it almost felt like merengue when I was done. I always thought overmixing made them tough though. Weird. Anyway, I mixed the tres leches ones by hand. I'll mix the coco lime ones by hand tomorrow and see what happens. I was guilty of opening the oven door to peek at the lime cuppies. I'll try not to this time. But yes, the combo is DIVINE!!!

 

[Lorelei]

I bought a book recently on cupcake recipes, but some of the ideas were a bit wacky for me, so I will stick to the internet and especially this thread too for inspiration and recipes.

 

[dragonfly411]

Hey all
I'm relatively new to cooking, but have helped g-ma with baking my entire life. I think I'm going to experiment with baking this weekend. Anyone have any recipes that are a must do?


Also Mara - How do you take your pictures???

 

[Mara]

FG i don''t do adaptations to my cupcakes because even with using all real sugar, real buttermilk, real everything...and no shortcuts, the cupcakes are still not that bad. what IS bad is the frosting. for example a regular vanilla cupcake with buttermilk, sugar, flour, eggs, etc many times will only be like ~150 cals. the FROSTING is typically made of sugar and butter 99% of the time...so that is where a lot of cals come from. so lately i just eat mine sans frosting hehee. and the cake part is good. but you COULD adapt to use applesauce, egg whites, less butter. most recipes, the amount of butter is not necessary. same with sugar amounts, i don''t use anything over 2/3 of a cup for a full recipe. anything else makes them TOO sweet for me. where you''d get crazy on cals is like carrot cake or banana nut cupcakes. anything you add in...!! but vanilla or lemon or similar, totally simple and not bad for you. the lemon ones i made last nite were only 130 cals and i used all yummy regular stuff.

oh and FG i have moved to mixing all the wet stuff with a mixer but when it comes to putting dry in, i am folding 99% of the time by hand even if the recipe doesn''t call for it. beating in flour and stuff on a lot of those just felt so wrong!

thanks lorelei, that pb torte was CRAZY good and SO many cals, it was insane. i just had a tiny sliver...greg ate most of it!

 

[icekid]

FG- Mara is right on the cupcake cal count. It''s really the frosting that gets you! So I usually eat mine sans frosting, as I am not such a frosting person anyway. However, I do use half whole wheat flour in my cupcakes. I''ve done with and without and cannot tell the difference. Might as well get a little fiber in! Also, a couple days ago I did modify that carrot cake recipe in this thread. Instead of the oil, I added plain yogurt. No sugar, used a smaller amount of splenda. all whole wheat flour. They came out to 56 cals each that way. They were definitely a different consistency, but still very tasty. If you want a REALLY great cupcake, I just think you have to suck it up and use the real thing! But when you want something lower cal, I definitely think you can modify easily.

I went to Michael''s today! Got the famous nut and party cups. I am so excited to try them out.

 

[Mara]

yup icekid, you can make a ''tasty'' cupcake using other ingredients, or healthifying them up a bit. yogurt, applesauce, egg whites, white wheat flour. however, that stuff DOES change ''consistency'' of the cupcake...which i have tested..and partially why i have not done any adaptations was that i wanted to see what constituted a ''bakery'' cupcake vs a home made and all that.

now i can make a true bakery cupcake when i want one and not want to pay for it, but i can also adapt or healthify!! it''s great either way hehehe.

though i do also have to say that after baking with real sugar and seeing how it can be lessened and other ingredients like honey etc used in place, i would probably not bake with fake sugars again like i used to, it changes texture big time....i notice that with things like splenda and yogurt the texture is more ''rubbery'' slightly, whereas i learned i love CAKEY. darnit!!! but yeah i can leave the frosting too..thankfully. i had two lemon cupcakes today, just the cake. divine!

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 5/7/2008 5:10:36 PM
Author: dragonfly411
Hey all
I''m relatively new to cooking, but have helped g-ma with baking my entire life. I think I''m going to experiment with baking this weekend. Anyone have any recipes that are a must do?


Also Mara - How do you take your pictures???

dragonfly, as many PSers know, I am rather fond of carrot cake, and I have a divine carrot cake recipe I use for cupcakes if you would like me to post it for you.

 

[dragonfly411]

Lorelei. I would love to see it!! I''ve started searching blogger for some cupcake blogs. I plan to adapt a cinnamon Banana cake recipe I found this weekend to make cupcakes instead. The frosting will be a powdered sugar frosting. I just hope I get it right....

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 5/8/2008 11:25:54 AM
Author: dragonfly411
Lorelei. I would love to see it!! I''ve started searching blogger for some cupcake blogs. I plan to adapt a cinnamon Banana cake recipe I found this weekend to make cupcakes instead. The frosting will be a powdered sugar frosting. I just hope I get it right....

Here you go Dragonfly! One thing I would say, is that I triple or quadruple the amount of cinnamon in the recipe, as personally I like CC to be quite spicy. But this is a very easy recipe and hasn''t failed me yet! I normally use a basic buttercream frosting with lemon flavouring which goes really well with these cakes. I use some lemon juice and a bit of lemon flavouring, but you could use whatever you like for frosting, these are even yummy without any!

Here is the recipe.

http://www.cupcakerecipes.com/carrotrecipe.htm

 

[dragonfly411]

Thanks Lorelei! I''ll have to look up the butter cream frosting recipes to see how to make them. I''ve never made home made frosting (and am totally ashamed that I can say that). I''m kindof venturing into cooking more. I''ve known the basics for forever, but I want to learn how to cook neat things, and how to make my own recipes. I love to be in the kitchen and I love food and love going to the grocery. It''s almost therapeutic, despite my lifelong attempt to lose weight as well HAHAHA this won''t help! But I''m excited!!!

 

[Mara]

dragonfly, the frosting is really the easiest part!!

for a basic easy buttercream:

room temperature unsalted butter, confectioners sugar, tsp of milk and ''flavoring'' (vanilla, lemon, almond, peppermint depending on what you want)

cream butter in mixer, add sugar, and milk til you get consistency. add flavoring and then a bit more sugar if necessary. when you think it''s thick enough, add a bit more sugar...i started with too soft frostings that are too hard to spread without dripping. slightly stiffer frosting is better for frosting. you can also add food coloring if you want a color.

to do a cream cheese frosting, just add cream cheese to the above and cut butter down to like 1/3. really mostly frosting is just ''to taste'' as there is no hard core recipe for it. some like it super sweet with more sugary taste, some like to taste the butter or cream cheese more.

they say to refridgerate stuff with cream cheese on it but i have not been doing that because it was drying out my cupcakes EVEN in a sealed container, and i have had cream cheese cupcakes out of the fridge for a few days and eaten them and been fine, so really i don''t bother anymore (unless you do a whipped heavy cream one or something with uncooked eggs, have to refridgerate, in that case i''d frost them the morning of and make cupcakes night before).

 

[dragonfly411]

Mara
Thank you ! I''ll try it with the next recipe. This one I''m doing tomorrow has a "powdered sugar Frosting" recipe with it... so I''m going to keep it all together for now to see how I like it and if need be I''ll tweak after.

I have to ask again though! How DO you do your photos?! I try for the closer with lighting but usually to no avail. I did good this morning with my breakfast (shredded wheat, yogurt, blueberries and strawberries mixed together).

 

[Mara]

i don''t do anything special on the photos, it''s the camera...its on macro and i just snap and shoot. i also hardly ever go straight on, i like funny angles. so have fun! btw the powdered sugar frosting is probably a buttercream basic, if it has butter in it.

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 5/8/2008 12:55:32 PM
Author: Mara

dragonfly, the frosting is really the easiest part!!

for a basic easy buttercream:

Thanks Mara!

 

[dragonfly411]

It is Powdered sugar butter and milk yes lol. I''m trying to decide if I should use whole milk or possibly buttermilk? Instead of 2%?

 

[Mara]

def don't use buttermilk for the frosting.

i use non-fat milk, it really doesn't matter. it's a TINY amount, like a tablespoon (or it should be anyway), the more milk you add the more runny it is...i sometimes don't even add the milk...if you add vanilla extract that wets it sufficiently enough.

 

[dragonfly411]

Gotcha. Thanks for the tip!!

 

[FireGoddess]

Made the coconut lime cupcakes again tonight. Did all the mixing by hand, did not peek in the oven to see if they were done early. They still came apart from the wrappers. Must be a function of the actual recipe. Weird. Recipe contained butter, sugar, lime juice and zest, eggs, cake flour, buttermilk, baking soda, baking powder, salt. I wonder what gives. I wish they wouldn''t do that!!! Ugh.