The Cupcake Thread!

[Porridge]

Closer up

 

[Porridge]

On a little plate

 

[Porridge]

Side view! Last pic, promise

sorry they're such bad quality, I only had my phone to take pics with!

 

[marcy]

Thanks Porridge. Your mini cakes look marvelous.

 

[Camille]

OMG, Porridge....I adore petit fours type of Cake

yours look yummmmmmyyyyy!

 

[Camille]

style="WIDTH: 96.8%; HEIGHT: 71px">Date: 7/11/2009 1:31:18 AM
Author: marcyc

Camille, thanks for the review of MM fondant.I might try it once just to see how “tasty” it is.

You're welcome marcyc, people might still 'peel' it off their slice w/o giving it a try

I love using mmf leftovers as candy centers/melting....don't have access to my pic on this computer, but I'll check when I get back home.
Made some Meyer cupcakes with SBC for visiting nephews, def not my thing [butter]in Summer but they liked them:

 

[Camille]

An attempt to make MM frosting w/o cream of tartar, used real lemon juice instead of vinegar substitute, no MM avail just fluff at the 'only' store here

 

[Dandi]

Oooooohh Porridge I seriously want one!!!!!

They look fantastic!!

And Camille, could your rosettes get any more perfect?! Awesome!!!

 

[Jas12]

Camille--YUMMY, Yum Yum!!! I agree, nice swirls!


Porridge--those look soooooo scrumptious. I feel a chocolate craving coming on


Well, i tried two different red velvet recipes this weekend. One was my own recipe (modified from Paula Deen --i gifured she''d know a thing or two about RV) i substituted butter for oil and it was okay. The second was from some food blog and it was just okay as well. Both used buttermilk and some cocoa. DH thought they tasted terrific and maybe it''s psychological but i can''t get past the copius amounts of food coloring. I keep thinking i can really taste it. Why do ppl love RV so much? I think it must be the cream cheese frosting.
Anyway, i am not reallly wanting to make these for a wedding. I am going to try MRsS''s recipe and one other i tweaked a bit and see if i can get something i am happy with.
Does anyone know, is RV supposed to be dense and moist or light ?

 

[steph72276]

Jas, I will have to look it up, but I thought the one Mrs. S posted was Paula Deen''s recipe. I could be wrong though.

 

[Jas12]

Steph--Paula Deen''s calls for 1.5 cups of oil. I think the one MrsS. posted is butter based. A combo of oil and butter is good but 1.5 cups seems like a crazy amount to me.

 

[Porridge]

Thanks Marcyc, Camille, DandiAndi and Jas!

Has anyone tried using beetroot juice instead of red food dye for the red velvets? Or any other kind of natural food dye? I''d be willing to experiment if anyone has any suggestions. I made MrsSalvo''s recipe a while back for the secretaries in the office - most went WILD for it, but I think it was the icing that was so yummy.

Jas, in my limited experience I found it to be both moist and light, if that makes any sense.

 

[Mara]

jas...no i used a combo of two blog recipes for the graham cupcakes. i typically do not take a recipe and make it the way it is written, i have my own substitutes i like to make for most everything. i used 2c of graham crumbs but next time i would use even more! recipe has not much flour in it.

as for supplies...i love global sugar craft, i think that is the name, and it's where i have gotten most of my harder to find supplies. not sure about the no-edge swirl tip?...what does that look like? also for flowers, you can buy veining kits and stuff like that to make the detail but a lot of time you can make that same detail with other things like toothpicks or similar and go freestyle, or use stamps after you cut out the flower.

someone was asking about red velvet, it is my LEAST favorite cake. not only is all the red food coloring gross (and red 40 is one of the worst for our bodies) but it doesn't taste like anything at all. the red food coloring adds a ton of bitterness which means you need to counteract it with lots of sugar. the best tasting rv's i have had are butter cakes, oil just makes it even more flavorless, BUT oil works best for the recipes whereas all butter makes them heavy and oily. so i do a combo. and i use regular milk with lemon juice in it since i don't bother to keep buttermilk in the fridge. i experimented with rv for months before i thought it tasted 'ok'...hahaa. but people seem to LOVE it. i think it's the color that is novel. and beet juice does not make the cakes red, it makes them brown and also puts an odd taste in.

speaking of the oddity of RV...once for a customer who loved rv and ordered all the time, i was running out of red 40 so i put a little less so they were still red but not that godawful bleeding red and she was like...these were just as good tasting but not as red, did yo do something diff? i loveeee all red. i was like ok...jeez! sure i'll put more artificial coloring in next time.

 

[Porridge]

Shame about the beet juice, I can''t think of anything else...there is something about that rich redness that is so appealing.


Question for you experts! I made cupcakes yesterday. One was basic chocolate with chocolate cream cheese frosting. The others were coconut with lime icing. I made too much batter and icing for both, ended up being in a rush and only baking half the amounts. So the excess is wrapped up in the fridge, both the batter and the icing. Will they last a few days? Could I bake cuppies from it later in the week? I used self raising flour.

 

[Camille]

Date: 7/13/2009 3:52:04 PM
Author: Porridge
Shame about the beet juice, I can't think of anything else...there is something about that rich redness that is so appealing.


Question for you experts! I made cupcakes yesterday. One was basic chocolate with chocolate cream cheese frosting. The others were coconut with lime icing. I made too much batter and icing for both, ended up being in a rush and only baking half the amounts. So the excess is wrapped up in the fridge, both the batter and the icing. Will they last a few days? Could I bake cuppies from it later in the week? I used self raising flour.

Thanks for your kinds comments Dandi/Jas

Porridge there are lots of people online sharing their wonderful recipes, I wouldn't give up. 1oz of red dye is just crazy and #1 reason I don't bake much RV. After tasting Mrs Rapaport [great lady] with 3/4 C beet purre,plain yogurt,balsamic....I have to say that it's a doable cake.
Once a kid I used to 'work' pitting canned cherries for a friend's bakery their RV had *GRANADINE* and pureed cherries [not pie filling] as their coloring but no butter because they said was too expensive

As for refrigeration 3 days for the icing and not much longer. As for the batter it can turn acidic & baking 'flat' after few hours, RV I've used doesn't have BPowder I bet it wouldn't puff a bit.

 

[Porridge]

Date: 7/13/2009 4:38:19 PM
Author: Camille

Date: 7/13/2009 3:52:04 PM

Author: Porridge

Shame about the beet juice, I can''t think of anything else...there is something about that rich redness that is so appealing.



Question for you experts! I made cupcakes yesterday. One was basic chocolate with chocolate cream cheese frosting. The others were coconut with lime icing. I made too much batter and icing for both, ended up being in a rush and only baking half the amounts. So the excess is wrapped up in the fridge, both the batter and the icing. Will they last a few days? Could I bake cuppies from it later in the week? I used self raising flour.

Thanks for your kinds comments Dandi/Jas

Porridge there are lots of people online sharing their wonderful recipes, I wouldn''t give up. 1oz of red dye is just crazy and #1 reason I don''t bake much RV. After tasting Mrs Rapaport [great lady] with 3/4 C beet purre,plain yogurt,balsamic....I have to say that it''s a doable cake.

Once a kid I used to ''work'' pitting canned cherries for a friend''s bakery their RV had *GRANADINE* and pureed cherries [not pie filling] as their coloring but no butter because they said was too expensive

As for refrigeration 3 days for the icing and not much longer. As for the batter it can turn acidic & baking ''flat'' after few hours, RV I''ve used doesn''t have BPowder I bet it wouldn''t puff a bit.

Yeah good point Camille - surely the red food dye, vinegar and sugar combo can switched and substituted. Cherries and grenadine sounds great. Any kind of berry could do the job really. I might try out a few things over the summer. Thanks

Shame about my wasted batter but I had kind of suspected. There is a distinct lack of advice regarding the preparation of cupcake/cake mixtures days in advance

I just need some cupcakes for a get together this Thursday and I was trying to be lazy!

 

[Camille]

Oh gosh we a have family reunion [17 kids] this Friday, had plans to bake ahead but with this weather, I'll melt.... so doubt it.
Btw, my opinon on refrigeration was personal, not an expert at all. If our fave cousin stays longer maybe we'll take an easy on dye RV challenge, Mrsalvo recipe looks great!

 

[Dandi]

Porridge, cream cheese icing lasts about 3 months in an airtight container in the freezer, I''ve frozen, thawed, rewhipped and used leftover CC icing and it was yummo!

 

[Jas12]

Mara--ya, i can''t get past the amount of food dye in a RV. I really can''t even eat them. My hubby is a bit of an obsessed organic eater, but loves to sample my baking. Not the case with the RV--he said he really liked the way they tasted but wouldn''t eat more than one b/c of the coloring.
I agree that the oil/butter combo is a good one for cuppies. Maybe i''ll try a 1/4 cup more sugar to mask the food color taste. I didn''t realize the FC could add such a bitterness.
Thanks for the website info--i am going to check out global sugar craft.-hopefully they ship to canada

 

[SapphireLover]

Here are my first cupcakes on this thread.

They are lemon meringue cupcakes (no proper recipe, made up as I went along). The cupcake is a basic cupcake mixture (6oz each of self raising flour, butter, sugar, 3 eggs, splash of milk) with zest of two lemons and a teaspoon of tangy lemon curd swirled into the batter in the pans. The frosting is seven minute frosting, using a recipe from allrecipes.com. Seven minute frosting is a totally unheard of frosting here in the UK, but it is delish (says the girl who prefers raw meringue mix to cooked ones). I left the vanilla out as I don''t like vanilla flavouring with lemon cakes.

The icing technique is pretty poor. I''d love to learn how to pipe properly.

Overall they were very moist and tasted just how I wanted them to, but the lemon curd disappeared into the sponge, leaving little craters where it had been.

 

[SapphireLover]

Here comes the close up!

 

[vip0802]

Date: 7/12/2009 5:01:20 PM
Author: Porridge
Marcyc that cake looks divine! I can''t wait to see the package cake.


I baked these yummy little mini cakes last week. I made a chocolate-mocha cake with hazelnuts, and used raspberry jam to stick the icing. Then I made the swirls with tempered milk and white chocolate, using a fork. They were scrumptious! I''ll definitely be making these again.


On the production line...

*DROOL* they look and sound soooo yummy! you have seriously managed to combine all my favorite flavors all into one! if you could send one my way, i would great appreciate it.

 

[Loves Vintage]

Date: 7/12/2009 5:01:20 PM
Author: Porridge
Marcyc that cake looks divine! I can't wait to see the package cake.


I baked these yummy little mini cakes last week. I made a chocolate-mocha cake with hazelnuts, and used raspberry jam to stick the icing. Then I made the swirls with tempered milk and white chocolate, using a fork. They were scrumptious! I'll definitely be making these again.


On the production line...

Porridge, These look and sound de-lish! Recipe, please?

And, what kind of pan do you bake the cakes in? I can't quite tell how large they are from the photos?

 

[Dandi]

SapphireLover, they look like they''d melt in your mouth!! TOO delish!!!

 

[Camille]

Ditto, I love lemon Sapphire!

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Mara I LOVE s''mores too and am drooling on my keyboard right now. Those look SOOO good!

 

[Porridge]

Thanks DandiAndi! I actually used that leftover batter today (almost 1 week on since I''d made it, just left in the fridge) and it worked perfectly. I reused the icing too, just as yummy as the day I made it! Good to know for the future.

vip there''s one in the post

Lovesvintage they''re only about 4cm diameter. I baked one large cake in a normal 20cm cake pan, then cut out little cakes from that. There was a some wastage of course but worth it! You could use any cake as a base. The one I used here was a Mich Turner recipe. It was originally pecan, so those would work too, but I only had hazelnuts to hand. Here''s the recipe:

Melt 150g dark chocolate (70%) and combine with 4tbsp strong espresso.
Cream 175g unsalted butter with 175g caster sugar.
Add in 5 eggs, slowly.
Pour in the chocolate and coffee mixture.
Add 100g crushed hazelnuts/pecans.
blend 100g self raising flour and 1tsp baking powder. Sieve this into the wet mixture.
Bake in a 20cm cake tin for about 40-45 mins.

Sapphirelover your cuppies look YUM!

 

[Camille]

Pecans?.... oh they sound even better

Made two batches of RV today, recipe very close to Mrsalvo with Bsoda & Cream of T, as far as the coloring, just discovered that No taste/odor red from Wiltons may have peanut traces

[something new to worry about] used 1 ts + more cocoa/vanilla.
First batch with Mascarpone whipping cream, def my silky fave.

 

[Camille]

Second Batch, Philadelphia Whipping Cream, piped a lot less bc they have PWcream in the center.

 

[marcy]

Camille, your cupcakes look great.

SapphireLover, your cupcakes look wonderful.I can almost taste them.

Here is a picture of the mm fondant cake I decorated this week.The colored fondant was prepackaged but the mm fondant tasted pretty good.Most people who ate the cake ate it.I didn’t leave the rolled up paper towel in the bow to leave it open