The Cupcake Thread!

[pennquaker09]

Red Velvet works better with shortening. Trust me!

 

[Jessie702]

Personally i like shortening in the RV cake too.

 

[Porridge]

Thanks Skippy, Dandi and Mara!

Jessie those look yummy!!

 

[bee*]

Thanks a million for your help Mara! I should hopefully be making it next week so I'll definitely try the chocolate drops in it.

 

[Mara]

I made eggnog cupcakes last nite and they were really good. I used a bourbon caramel which I put into the frosting AND put eggnog in the frosting too. I got the recipe from cupcakebakeshop but I adapted it slightly and will do so again next time... they turned out a little dry (to me even though people love them) since the alcohol in the cupcake bakes out. Next time I'll use more butter or perhaps 1/3c oil. But the bourbon caramel is TO DIE FOR and I am already planning how to use it for other things!!!!

 

[purselover]

I made eggnog cupcakes last nite and they were really good. I used a bourbon caramel which I put into the frosting AND put eggnog in the frosting too. I got the recipe from cupcakebakeshop but I adapted it slightly and will do so again next time... they turned out a little dry (to me even though people love them) since the alcohol in the cupcake bakes out. Next time I'll use more butter or perhaps 1/3c oil. But the bourbon caramel is TO DIE FOR and I am already planning how to use it for other things!!!!

I made those cupcakes for our holiday cocktail party and loved them. I agree though that they did turn out a little dry, but I like the idea of adding more butter. I also used Silk's soy nog and they still were delicious! Did you make the filling for them as well? I thought that was the best part and next time I plan on doubling it so I can better fill the cupcakes.

 

[Mara]

PL... i am too lazy to make filling hehe.. also filling them is so time consuming..! but it does taste really yummy when they are filled. next time i think if i can make the cupcake itself more moist, they would be perfect! that bourbon caramel, simply amazing!! i drizzled mine all out of control.

 

[charbie]

Im bored and pregnant, so making cupcakes while DH was having a guys night playing poker sounded great
I decided to go ahead and start simple, so the Billys Vanilla cupcakes were on the agenda. Since half my stuff is in boxes due to us moving in a few months and not unpacking while in our temporary house, I ventured to WalMart and got a few items I needed. since I knew I didn't have mini pans at home, so I got two pans and liners, as well as some icing tips and bags, came home and went to work!

These are awesome! I was a little nervous after reading some of the reviews, but it tipped me off to put in 1.5T baking powder instead of of 1T. Im really craving some citrus, so im making some lemon buttercreme icing and will ice them tomorrow. But since 1 batch makes for 84 minis, im also going to make some chocolate raspberry frosting as well. Ill post the pictures tomorrow, but def recommmend the Billys vanilla for an easy moist cuppie!

 

[Mara]

wanted to post J's giant cupcake that i made for his cake smash photo session. it's been a long time since i've made this but i love how it came out, except it turned out more girly than i meant, oh well! he's only one so still could be considered a pastel baby. hehe.

 

[Loves Vintage]

Mara!! You've outdone yourself! I'd love to see photos of the cake smash itself, if you're so inclined . . .

 

[AussieNic]

Mara, Would that be the giant Wilton cupcake? Either way it looks deliciously gorgeous

 

[Dandi]

Oooh charbie they sound fabulous, I need pics!!

Mara, that is incredible!!!

 

[Mara]

thanks ladies..!!

that is actually the giant cupcake pan from Williams Sonoma which i think is NordicWare. but yes Wilton has one too i think, the shape is just slightly different somehow, maybe the top a bit more 'rounded'?

LV... we just did the smash this wkd so no photos yet but i'll try to remember to pop in and post one!

 

[Skippy123]

Mara, wow, that is so cool!!!! beautiful!

 

[Dandi]

I'm hoping to have some worth posting in a couple of days... tomorrow is my friend's birthday, and another friend and myself have taken it upon ourselves to make her some whote chocolate cupcakes decorated like turtles, she is obsessed with the litte blighters! I have NO idea how we're going to pull it off, but between the two of us and a bottle of white wine, it should be a hoot

 

[Dandi]

Well here they are, they vaguely resemble turtles... well they did after a few glasses of red wine!

My best friend and I decorated them together and were in tears of laughter making them. They're white choc mud with vanilla CC icing coloured green, and mint leaves jammed in the top for their heads and little flippers and tails, then black writing icing for their shells and eyes. Some of their eyes fused together and looked like they had sunglasses on, or a monobrow, it was HYSTERICAL. I ran out of minis so had to just write B'DAY instead of BIRTHDAY, ah well. It was so cute watching the kids at the party, they were hovering around the food table waiting for us to sing happy birthday to the birthday girl, so they could finally lay into the cupcakes! There was green icing everywhere, I'm sure their mothers were thrilled

 

[Skippy123]

DandiAndi, those cupcakes are so ADORABLE!!! aw cute little turtles; I love them and they look delicious!!! Glad you and your friend had a wonderful time making those masterpieces!!!

 

[Dandi]

Aww, thanks ladies, you're very kind!

 

[Mara]

Turtles. So. Awesome. !!

Great job Dandi...I love them! I could see how you'd be laughing making them. Fabulous job!!

I made some gluten free banana cupcakes for a coworker this wkd and they came out CRAZY GOOD. Who knew that gluten free stuff was getting so good... honestly. It used to all be cardboard but I find that more things I just randomly pick up at WF and end up liking are also gluten free. I used the Bob's Red Mill baking mix (since buying all the gluten free flours separately was $40 and the mix for one batch was $4) and then adapted my favorite banana recipe. It was questionable how they might come out since the batter was way thinner than I am used to but they baked up perfectly and super moist. I might even say I like them better than regular ole gluten-filled banana cupcakes!

I topped them with the world's most wonderful frosting, a bourbon caramel cream cheese. SUPER easy to make and it literally has like 500 layers of flavor. LOVE IT. Basically you take 2tbls brown sugar, 2 tbls heavy cream, 1 tbl butter and 1tbls bourbon (I used whiskey since it's what we had) and boil it all together til it bubbles, carmelizes a bit (I take the easy way out and microwave it) and then let it cool. It will thicken and then you can just make a basic cream cheese (butter, cream cheese, conf sugar) and add the cooled caramel then whip it til fluffy and pipe. LOVE LOVE LOVE IT. And we had leftover caramel which I drizzled on some of them and we ate them in bowls. The ones I took to work were a huge hit and my coworker was ECSTATIC to finally be able to nosh on a sweet that someone brought-- people always bring stuff and he can never have any of it! I made him a box of 4 to take home and share with his wife.

I took some pics so if I get them offloaded and uploaded this week I'll try to come back and post but they look like my regular ole cupcakes.

 

[Dandi]

Oooh Mara they sounds amazing! I would love to see them, my brother's new girlfriend is gluten intolerant, so this gives me some great ideas for baking for family get-togethers! Oh and the bourbon caramel CC sounds to die for, I can't wait to try it!!

 

[Cehrabehra]

Okay 84 pages - I can't wade through all of that tonight! I am hoping I won't be kicked off this thread because I'm making cakes and not cupcakes!

Started a month ago with a birthday request for a vanilla cake with lemon gel filling and lemon frosting - it was really really good and I got several requests for repeats. Five lemon cakes later I was DONE with lemon - please, no more lemon!! (the frosting was so, so good).

So then last week another friend had a birthday and I made her an amazing cake - like a two bite cake, too rich to eat a whole slice at once! It was a chocolate kahlua cake with coffee buttercream filling and whipped baileys cream chocolate ganache frosting and drizzled with chocolate ganache. Really good. Really.Good.

So at that party another friend asks if I will make her one for the following week (it's tomorrow) and she said but not chocolate! She said she likes: raspberry, white chocolate, creme brulee, and vanilla. I was planning on a vanilla bean and white chocolate cake with rum custard filling and a raspberry buttercream frosting with white chocolate ganache poured over it.

Now we get to my questions:

Can I use my chocolate cake recipe and just substitute baker's white chocolate? I really don't like any of my white cake recipes and my chocolate cakes always turn out to moist and tender.

There are no fresh raspberries around and being in China things are pretty limited but I did get some high quality raspberry jam - but it has seeds... I'm hoping I can heat it up and/or mix it with some cream and strain it. Anyone know of a reason this won't work?

I have never made custard before and I'm not going to make creme brulee, but I was thinking of making a custard filling. I was thinking of making it a rum custard - but do you think the rum custard will conflict with white chocolate and raspberry? Should I make a brown sugar or browned butter buttercream and put a thin layer of that then the custard?

Any flags? I've long been a foe of box mixes and have loved to do them from scratch, but only a couple times a year and I've already made 6 in 4 weeks with another one tonight... and am doing things I've never done before... I'm nervous about the white chocolate ganache and the custard.

 

[Mara]

white chocolate is not really chocolate so not sure if you can just sub into your fave chocolate cake recipe as it's not 'cocoa'. try googling for it or finding a white chocolate recipe and seeing what the ingredients are and comparing it to your favorite--i always do this when i have an ingredient i am unsure about. sometimes i can create my own new recipe from an online one and my old favorite.

when i make strawberry or raspberry or any berry frosting i use fresh berries (puree) OR jam/jelly interchangeably with no issues. i prefer using jam/jelly as it's less watery and then i don't have to use as much confectioners sugar to get a thick frosting for piping.

not sure about custard questions.

can you post your favorite chocolate cake recipe? i am STILL looking for a great one, i've tried like 10 and none of them taste like any favorites i've had from best bakeries!

 

[Cehrabehra]

Hey Mara

My two favorite recipes just come out of the betty crocker cookbook. (Can I post those here?) I've been making the german chocolate cake recipe out of there (you don't have to use the coconut frosting - you could use vanilla or something else) every year for my husband for 20 years and the other one, the best chocolate cake, is just as good. That said I *HATE* their yellow cake. Okay hate is a strong word but I don't like it at all. I don't like the texture. Maybe its the ingredients I have available here, but my chocolate cakes have turned out as good as if not better than I ever made them in the states.

BTW that cake I made, I used white chocolate in the chocolate cake recipe and it was *ok* but too oily. I should have cut down on the amount of shortening. Also, it didn't really taste like white chocolate but it was definitely moister than the the yellow cake recipe. The custard was awesome, used fresh vanilla beans I got from bali - but even though it was pretty thick it practically merged with the cake after it sat for a while and I wasn't a big fan of the slightly oily cake plus custard. Others seemed to like it though.

Right now I'm looking for a good white cake recipe. I have to make FIVE cakes this week. I am making a tres leches cake today (wish me luck, I did one once about 15 years ago and it didn't work). Today I'm also making a vanilla cherry cake with cherry almond buttercream filling and whipped amaretto ganache frosting... hope it turns out. My husband's birthday is this week too so I have to make two german chocolates and then a friend wants to surprise her husband with one too. Have I mentioned how awful the china bakery cakes are? lol!

 

[Dandi]

Hi kids! I thought I'd just momentarily resurrect this thread to share some cupcakes I did for a wedding today! The ever popular half dark chocolate mudcake, half white chocolate mudcake, and the bride requested purple and pink calla lillies to match her flowers. I had a ball making 120 of the little suckers. I put a couple of dozen on a stand, and for the rest she'd bought some chinese noodle boxes with a little clear window in the front for optimal cupcake viewing, they looked very cute!

 

[Porridge]

Gorgeous Dandi!

 

[zoebartlett]

You're so talented, Andi! Those are soooooo pretty and they look delicious!

 

[SapphireLover]

I love this thread! I wondered what people's favourite piping nozzles are and what your favourite buttercream recipes are. I've tried the flour buttercream recipe that is doing the rounds at the moment. I love the flavour but always end up with the odd tiny lump of flour paste which drives me crackers. I think my flour and milk paste is too thick, however even when I reduce the amount of flour, I still get the odd lump. Mine never looks as pourable as in the pictures here. I do think it has got fabulous flavour though. http://tastykitchen.com/blog/2010/03/a-tasty-recipe-thats-the-best-frosting-ive-ever-had/

 

[Dandi]

Aww, thanks Porridge and Zoe, you're such lovely ladies!

Sapphire, I usually use the Wilton 1m star piping tip, I've tried others but I just really like the effect this one gives, it's my go-to! And I share your frustration re. buttercream, I just can't get it right, so I tend to stick to cream cheese frosting, it never fails me!

 

[Dandi]

Sooooooooo, I'm not even sure if anyone reads this thread anymore, but i thought I'd amuse myself and post some pics of cuppies I've made recently!

 

[Loves Vintage]

Amazing as always, Andi! If memory serves, you were in NYC not too long ago right? Did you visit any cupcake shops? How was it?

Maybe I can ask you a question. I tried to make a strawberry cream cheese frosting. I think it was butter and cream cheese, and then I kept adding powdered sugar and strawberry jam. Never really reached the right consistency. Is it possible to "over work" a cream cheese frosting? It was very dense, not light and airy . . . and not that good!