The Cupcake Thread!

[Dandi]

Date: 5/16/2009 9:16:47 PM
Author: FrekeChild
FYI, whipped cream will hold up, but you have to be very careful about the stage to which you whip it to.

Also, please don''t use maraschino cherries for Black Forest Cake. The cherries are the most important part along with chocolate shavings and Kirschwasser, and the only reason they are really used is because they look pretty. The cherries are supposed to be tart, and maraschinos are anything but.

Thanks Freke! I wasn''t planning to use Maraschinos for the BF cuppies, I know they need to be tart vs. sweet, but furthermore I HATE maraschinos!!!

They ick me no end. Thankyou for the tip re. the whipped cream, I''m a bit nervous about that but am having a practice run on Thursday and will see how they turn out. Kind of nervewracking!!

It''s great to know I''ve got a wealth of knowledge here on PS to help me along!

 

[Jas12]

Neat--that sounds like a good idea. Probably easier to find a rubber stamp over a stencil. I was going to use the spray food coloring if i found a stencil, but i think i''ll try the stamp too. Wonder what type of coloring i would use . Maybe a bit of gel coloring thinned with water?

I did find one stencil here --some really nice stuff

Msb--i will check out that site--thanks !

 

[InLuv101]

What awesome looking cupcakes msb!! I''m so glad you''ve found something you really enjoy and that you can make a some cash doing!

They look great!

 

[Mara]

the cuppies look tasty, msb!! love the choco toppings.
dandi i love the red velvet pictures, the swirls are just perfect. we can''t really use the metal dragees here even though i have some leftover, so i just use them when i eat stuff...hahaa. they are fun for decor.

here''s my rainbow cupcakes and my s''mores (was really chocolate marshmallow...still working on perfecting the s''mores part) from last week.

 

[Mara]

chocolate marshmallow... filled with marshmallow cream and sooo chocolatey. now just have to figure out the graham part...and be unique about it!!

 

[Mara]

oh and jas....just do a chocolate transfer for the damask pattern. just search chocolate transfer damask and you will find a ton of them online. you just pour the chocolate over the transfer sheet, let it harden/cool/dry...then cut out circles and they will have the pattern on them. you can prob search on flickr for pictures as well, i have seen a bunch of them. they look lovely, i bought transfer sheets but have not done anything with them yet. they are not cheap btw depending on the pattern.

i was trying to post a link to a flickr image but it won't work so just search for 'chocolate transfer disk' and it's the first one that comes up as a good example!

 

[Jas12]

THANKS MARA!

THose ranibow cuppies are the cutest ever--very unique!
and the smores--well, i think i held myself back from licking the screen

--beautiful as ususal

 

[icekid]

Mara- Loving your cuppie photos every time. You''ve gotten so good!!

I did the chocolate cuppies for my friend''s birthday. Still working on my piping skills! But they look pretty nice. I did chocolate cuppies with choco frosting and choco cuppies with raspberry/choco frosting (which my hubs LOVED!). So hopefully they will be a success with the boys tomorrow.

Photos soon..

 

[msb700]

Mara: Thanks! as usual, ur cuppies look amazing!

i have a question...how in the world can i make s''mores filling or frosting??

icekid: great news about the cupcakes! can''t wait to see some pics

 

[Dandi]

Thanks heaps Mara, I really enjoy decorating now! And your rainbow cuppies are TOO adorable!!

 

[InLuv101]

Mara, those cuppies are so awesome! Love love those rainbow cuppies!

Can''t wait for pics icekid!

I''m attaching a pic of the Ateco #829 side by side with the Wilton 1M. Big difference. I haven''t used the Ateco tip yet but wanted to show the difference if anyone was interested.

 

[InLuv101]

And here are pics of the Snickerdoodle cuppies with cinnamon cream cheese frosting I made over the weekend. DH took them to work and said everyone really enjoyed them.

 

[InLuv101]

(2) -- Thanks for looking!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Mara-re: the graham cracker for your s''mores cuppies. I wonder if you could let the graham crackers get soft/slightly stale and then cut out rounds to place in the bottom of your cupcake wrappers. Then you could top it with batter. If you''re concerned about them being soggy, you could try crisping them back up in the oven. They may soften due to the batter anyway though. Just a thought...

 

[akw94]

Steph, you''re welcome about the fondant. Have you been able to try some yet?

Jas, thanks! Your cupcakes look great! I like the liners too, very cute! Sorry, no ideas for your upcoming cupcake project but I can''t wait to see them.

Mara, those croissants look heavenly.. and filled with chocolate.. YUM! I can almost taste them!
That Choc. Marshmallow cupcake looks sooo good! I''ve been thinking of doing a marshmallow filled one too. I tasted one somewhere, and it was great. Did you fill it after it was cooked?

Speaking of mixers, I just got the Artisan for a gift and I LOVE IT! I have been using it like crazy, and it is fantastic. Thanks to all those who have written about mixers in the past b/c I definitely came here to search before choosing one!

DandiAndi, sorry, never made Black Forest cupcakes. Good luck with yours! Your Red Velvets turned out great!

InLuv, great cupcakes! I like the flowers, and the Snickerdoodle ones are cute. I like the Ateco tips. They do seem to be much bigger and produce great swirls!

DoctorBear, I wish I had your problem! I don''t mind eating the cupcakes at all.

MsB, your cupcakes look fantastic! Those Banana sound scrumptious!

Off to do some baking. I''m going to try Rocky Road cupcakes.

 

[Mara]

inluv, yep, I have one of those monstrous Ateco tips...there are other ones in that size but diff hole shapes too...aka more jagged small holes, less larger holes etc. I can only use them for regular cupcakes because they are so big. 1M and the similarly sized round open one are prob the ones I use the most on mini''s. I also have some huge tips from a company called Korea (or maybe that''s where it''s made but that is all it says on it!)...diff stores have totally diff merchandise!

re: the chocolate marshmallow, I had one at a cupake shop, and thought it was really good. They filled it and ganached it also. Their filling was different, I just melted marshmallows with heavy cream and milk and then let it cool then spooned it into baked and cooled cupcakes. Theirs was more like a hostess cream inside...very sweet and fluffy. Most likely a homemade marshmalllow fluff (which you can google on how to make, there is a ton of marshmallow recipes on google).

For the graham crackers...all the bloggers bake the crust into the bottom of the cupcake ala a pie or a tart. I don''t want to go that route...I sprinkled them into the batter this time but I am thinking of maybe crushing them into large pieces then mixing them into the batter at the end. They WILL most likely get soggy vs crisp..but I wonder if it will give me that taste. I have also seen choco graham cuppie recipes (the cake part) that I might try too...you use fine powder crumbs and mix it in in place of like 1/2 the flour.

But as choco marshmallow goes, these were really amazing. The funny thing was that it was about 95 here this wkd and I took one to my friend''s pool for us to share and it sat in the heat for about 30 minutes in shade before we ate it and holy moly...it got all soft and warm and gooey and was the most amazing thing. I was laughing saying that I should get a sticker that says ''for maximum eating pleasure, let sit in 90 degrees for 30 minutes, then consume''...HA!

congrats on the new mixer dixie...i am into making croissants and danishes now since they are so challenging...my dough never quite comes out the same and i am still working on making it better!

 

[Dandi]

Well I gave the Black Forest cuppies a go. The recipe only calls for pureed cherries and cherry brandy in the mix, but it didn''t seem ''Black Forest-y'' enough, so when they came out of the oven and were still hot and soft I jammed a few cherry halves into each one, just to get that chunk of cherry when you bite into it.

I wasn''t sure how the cherries would survive if I actually baked them into the cuppies, any thoughts ladies??

Anyhoo, not the prettiest ones I''ve done so far, I would have rather used those cherries (maraschino?) with the long stem to top them, and probably won''t top then with shaved choc for the party, but MAN, they were SO yummy. I took them to work and the crew thought they were my best EVER. I used cream cheese frosting with extra vanilla extract, so it tasted alot like rich cream, YUUUM. SO rich and heavy, one is more than enough!!

 

[Dandi]

Slightly closer pic, the cherries bled a bit but the swirls were sort of effective, albeit a bit messy! My kitchen was covered in shaved choc

I can't tell you how delish these were! Rich, heavy, and dense like mudcake, I'm definitely making these babies again!!

 

[Jas12]

Dandi--i love the way they turned out! More authentic and homemade looking. I see tons of ''backforesty'' looking desserts at big-box food stores and the icing is always blinding white, the cheeries unnaturally red looking, and the chocoloate is waxy and perfectly curled. NOT authentic haha. Yours look sinful

what recipe did u end up using?!

I was using some big drop-star tip by wilton for my big cuppies and wondering why my swirls looked ''colapsed'' so i switched to the wilton 1m and it seems much better--but like mara said, probably better for a mini. What is everyone using for the regular cuppies?

Made vanilla cake with a white-chocolate cream filling and raspberry (tart) icing. Forgot to take pics

They were more work, but very yummy and summery tasting.

 

[InLuv101]

Date: 5/18/2009 9:40:32 PM
Author: icekid
Mara- Loving your cuppie photos every time. You''ve gotten so good!!

I did the chocolate cuppies for my friend''s birthday. Still working on my piping skills! But they look pretty nice. I did chocolate cuppies with choco frosting and choco cuppies with raspberry/choco frosting (which my hubs LOVED!). So hopefully they will be a success with the boys tomorrow.

Photos soon..

Still waiting on your pics Icekid!!

 

[Mara]

jas, if your swirls are collapsed it's either frosting is too soft OR the tip you are using or a combo of both.

use a wider tip with more 'open' spikes (i don't know what you call those things!) so there is more of a big hole in the middle to get piping more like dandi's.

the the tighter together or more 'swirled' the tip spikes are...it will give you a diff look, i have had that collapsed look but sometimes i like it, it depends on what i am doing for decor. sometimes i think it looks like soft flower petals.

jas there is a huge metal one that is like the 1m but it's much larger, that is the one that i use for 'regular' size cuppies and i use 1m on my minis. i don't know what # it is.

dandi those look delicious, i love using shaved chocolate!

 

[InLuv101]

Jas - Up until now, I've used the Wilton 1M on my cupcakes but starting this weekend I'm going to use the Ateco #829 on regular sized cuppies. I'll post a pic on Monday. I posted further up on this page the Ateco 829 side by side with the Wilton 1M. Huge difference. We'll see how different the cupcakes look once frosted.

DiAndi -- those black forest cuppies look amazing!!

It's on my list of cupcakes to try.

 

[Jas12]

Mara--ya, it is the tip. I''ve experimented a bit with consistency--there was almost no hole in the middle of the tip i was using--it was just like a start cut-out. Even with a stiff icing there are such deep cruves in the swirls it is hard to keep it perfect looking. I need to find that tip like the large 1 m or Ateco.

i wish i could find a medium sized cupcake tin. I think the minis are just a tad too small (almost bite-sized) and the regulars are almost too big. Something in b/w would be perfect. But then i would have to find the right sized liners too

 

[Dandi]

Thanks ladies!! I just got home from work and could seriously maul a cupcake or five right now

Jas I used the recipe below. I love the Wilton 1M tip, it's the only one I ever seem to use now!!
http://www.cupcake-creations.com/black-forest-cupcake-recipe.html

Very excellent.

 

[icekid]

Date: 5/22/2009 3:26:01 PM
Author: InLuv101

Date: 5/18/2009 9:40:32 PM

Author: icekid

Photos soon..

Still waiting on your pics Icekid!!

uh oh... hehe, I have to find the camera cord. Tonight or tomorrow, promise!

Dandi- love the black forest cuppies- gorgeous!

 

[Dandi]

Date: 5/23/2009 4:56:22 PM
Author: icekid

uh oh... hehe, I have to find the camera cord. Tonight or tomorrow, promise!

Dandi- love the black forest cuppies- gorgeous!

Thankyou sweetie, I''m dying to see yours! They sound fantastic!!

 

[Jas12]

Dandi--ah yes, blogs are great for recipes (as mara can attest as well) when i saw that blog and the person writing it said it was ''the best''--i thought well, at least i know there is one enthusiastic fan who took the time to write about it. I will have to try em!

As per another blog, i am going to try the Billy''s bakery recipe for basic vanilla cake. The writer claims it is her fave. I recently tried the magnolia recipe and although it was *good* i am sure there is something better out there.

I tried a lemon cuppie recipe this weekend and it was terrible. I could tell when making the batter i wasn''t going to like it, but there was no turning back. A good lemon frosting saved the day --but i hate when i waste my time. Lemon is tricky. Too much and it''s overkill, too little and the taste is off. I also don''t like flavor oils very much so finding a good recipe with all real ingredients is hard.

 

[brightlight]

Alright ladies, I''m only on page 16 of this thread and am so impressed with your baking skills. Those mini cupcakes are just soooooooooooo darling. I''m insisting that we go to a bakery and get some cupcakes!

 

[brightlight]

Those pictures with the bite taken out of them are just cruel.

 

[lili]

InLuv
Cute cuppies.

DandiAndi
Yum

Those black forest cuppies look sinful.
I''ll have to bookmark that recipe.