The Cupcake Thread!

[belle]

ohmygarsh....the hummingbird cupcakes look sooooo yummy! i had never hear of those. definitely not what i was thinking of for hummingbird cakes!

mara...(love you too) i never use the bottom rack....well...except for a turkey! i always put stuff right smack in the middle. even if you use convection, it seems like the middle would distribute heat more evenly around. that''s my thinking anyway.

i would love to find a red velvet recipe that is perfection. a moist cake is a must but for me, the absolute key is the frosting. most cakes just don''t hit it. cake fetish sure didn''t. i don''t know what that stuff was on top!

freke.....OMG!! i can''t believe you were pondering the creme brulee idea! that is what i made last night. i was totally wanting to make cupcakes but i was CRAVING creme brulee and i seriously went to bed thinking of ways to get a creme brulee cupcake! i came up with some interesting ideas. i''ll have to check out mara''s link to see if i am even close.

cute cakes jas! well done!

 

[ellaila]

I just went back and looked at all the photos in this thread ... ohhhhhhhh! Mara and Jas, you guys are wasting your talents at your 9-5 jobs, ladies! Those goodies look amazing!

Question on the red velvet cake: debating about whether to make cupcakes or a layer cake. MrsS, your recipe is for a layer cake, right? Would the baking time be any different for cupcakes, anyone (ahem, FrekeChild) know? On the one hand, I''m sort of dreading the thought of icing all those cupcakes, but on the other I''m kinda tempted to dust off my old piping bag and see if I can make them look pretty a la Mara and Jas!

 

[Mara]

ela here is a thought on piping...i am still learning mine and sometimes it's good and sometimes it's not. aka all my cupcakes together don't look as uniform as jas's pretty pinkie cupcakes (those are so super cute, i love the idea), i am taking a cake decorating class starting next week so i am excited as that is mostly what we learn how to do, all the fun specialty piping stuff.

anyway, i saw recently on one of the blogs that if you are unsure re: skills for the piping, you could do a really big dollop (but you need a super big tip, i forget what it was but its massive and just drops a dollop) and then sprinkles...OR and i love this idea since it'll cover up any mistakes you make with icing, is frost the cupcake kind of tightly, thin later with a spatula. then run it around in a bowl of coconut, or chocolate sprinkles or any other small 'can cover the whole thing' kind of garnish. the coconut is my fave though, and it would be SO good with red velvet cuppies as i actually find them somewhat bland cake wise, so the frosting on the RV for me is the key. it can't just be buttercream. but yeah doing the frosting thin then covering in coconut makes them look so super cute (i think one of them in jaders box on page 1 or 2 had something like that) and it gives the top volume from the coconut and its EASY. so just figured i'd toss that out there for those who are not sure if the piping for them is the way to go on something easy.

i would be interested in anyone's moist fluffy red velvet recipe. lorelei/mrs salvo, is that recipe a more dense one or light n'fluffy? most of the bakery ones i have seen are really dense. and i would probably prefer one that's more light n' fluffy.

ela...re: the cake vs cupcakes, i think martha has a page on her site that modifies baking times for cakes vs cupcakes kind of thing but 99% of the cupcake recipes i see are like 350 degree oven and 18-22 minutes for large cuppies, depending on your oven. that means i start checking them at 16 minutes because sometimes the recipe times are too long for our oven. it gets a little crazy as evidenced by the black cuppies bottoms. though next time i will try middle rack instead. right now we only have two racks in (from thanksgiving, we are so lazy!) so i'll have to dig out the third and put it in to get a middle.

there is actually a gal who i know on yelp (who coincidentally has westies too!) who has a regular 9-5 but also bakes, and she is just starting to sell her cuppies to friends and family and stuff like that. it's kind of a fun idea...but who knows. i really just want to perfect this so that i ican make my own stuff just as nicely as the bakeries do and save $3-5 a cupcake! i love buying them from time to time but when you want a yummy one it's nice to know you can make it yourself. and lets face it, cupcake pictures are CUTE. wonder how my diamond would look in one hehee.

oh also re: hummingbird cuppies, martha has a recipe too i think, i have seen a few out there. it's totally on my list.

freke...yeah the creme brulee recipe HTEAC posted is not quite a CB like dessert but apparently she said they were fab...tempting!! your idea sounds very cute, maybe you can make them for an event where they don't have to 'keep'....?? guinea pig them out on people the first few times hehee.

lol lorelei re: hubby eating those 5 cuppies. did he go back out to the gym and work it off?!!?! hehee. i am trying to make smaller batches of stuff, aka that batch i made yest was only 16 minis. i ate one immediately (tester!) took 6 to work and we ate 5 last nite with our neighbors, so we have 3 left. it's perfect...because i wanted to make them again tomorrow for work again on monday (and make a bigger batch so that more people can have them, we have about 20 people on our extended team), so it will be perfect that we won't get sick of them like the chocolate ones that i just tossed today.

 

[FrekeChild]

Belle-I don't know what that stuff on the cupcakes at Cake Fetish is either!!I keep thinking Rich's Bettercream (

ugh

) but even THAT stuff is better than whats on the cuppies at Cake Fetish. Yuck.

ellaila-when you're using a cake recipe for cupcakes you have to assume that it'll take MUCH less for bake time. Anywhere from 8 minutes to 20 minutes depending on how big the cupcakes are. Once you've done it though, you have a pretty good estimate for the next time you make cupcakes in that size. Also, and this is just a baking hint in general, it's always best to turn your pans around halfway through the bake time, because ovens have spots in them that are hotter than others.

Mara- I was thinking about the whole brown bottom thing...I'd move the racks to as close to the middle as you can, and then switch them around halfway through the bake. Also, I'd put then on a cookie sheet-so that the metal can help protect the cuppies from browning on the bottom so fast.

I had the Oreo cupcake for breakfast this morning-hee hee hee, I'm bad-see what you started Mara! And it was ok...It also had a half an oreo in the middle, but the cake was still moist. My problem was that the cake wasn't rich or chocolate-y enough. The frosting still rocked the house-but only because it's Italian Buttercream. It didn't have much flavor at all-and I was expecting it to because it had crumbled oreos throughout. And I think there was a little bit too much frosting.

BF had the Vanilla one for breakfast and he thought it was, "Ok." Whatever. I need to train him properly because he doesn't know how to talk about this food stuff.. He's too dang picky but he thought that the buttercream was better than the American stuff. I'll have to make some sometime. Spring break would have been fantastic time to do it, but I spent most of it playing video games and shopping on the internet. Heh. Not to mention PS.

I have some piping tips if you want me to take a pic of them Mara-I think I have some huge ones that I've used for piping eclairs and cream puffs that are probably close to the size you're wanting...And I bet the CB cupcake is really good-it sounds super yummy...just not enough creme brulee stuff. Oooo...what about a caramel cake with vanilla buttercream (vanilla bean vanilla buttercream-the real deal) and then caramel on top? That could be yummy-and keep better!

Ok. I took a pic of the cuppies from Cupcakeology and I thought I'd post it...So clockwise from top left we have: Swiss Orange Chip, Oreo, Bon Bon, Vanilla, Red Velvet, and Grandma Betty.

So I want my own cupcake shop now....

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 3/22/2008 1:17:00 PM
Author: Mara

lol lorelei re: hubby eating those 5 cuppies. did he go back out to the gym and work it off?!!?! hehee.

No he didn't

and he has just polished off some of my carrot cuppies I made this afternoon!!

Those were also rather deelish! Great recipe, but they need more cinammon in, so next time I will sling it in like I do with punkin pie!

PS - Freke what is a Grandma Betty please?

 

[FrekeChild]

Grandma Betty- Brown sugar cake with Caramel buttercream with toffee bits and chocolate chips sprinkled on top. I''m wondering if it''s a personal thing or a real dessert...

 

[Mara]

oh cinnamon is amazing in baked goods lorelei. just like vanilla. i always use like 3x whatever the recipe calls for!! it cracks me up when i see vanilla cupcakes that have like 1 tsp vanilla. i am like seriously? how about 1 tblsp. or TWO! to me vanilla is so mild that you can use more of it, like cinnamon...it seems to evaporate slightly when baked. mmm carrot cake cuppies. i have had an amazing spice one with cream cheese at this local place that was so soft and fluffy with heavy cream cheese, divine. it's kind of like cc but without the carrot...still tasty.

the pictures are so cute freke. and YES i would love some piping tips!!!

see those big swirled ones on the left in your photo? that looks like it was made with a Wilton 1M which is what everyone says is the largest star you can buy...i really want to make swirls like that. and i like the puffed round tip swirl one too, i think i need a larger one than my large round one i used yesterday....i have gone to a few stores locally but they don't have those. so i may have to get the super big tips online. i just hate waiting!!! but bakerskitchen shipped really fast, i got the order within 5 working days with regular shipping.

oh and freke i did put the little nut and party cups on the cookie sheet to bake yesterday. but i think that it just got too hot. so i will try putting a silpat on top of the cookie sheet to also help disperse the heat more evenly, and put them in the middle of the oven this time. i love experimentation. and YES re: getting guys to be more expressive re food. when greg was sampling my 3 types of choco last week i was like what do you think? mmmm good. oh this one is good!! wow this one is good! i am like ...any other adjective you wanna use ? which is more moist? oh they are all moist!

men.

 

[mrssalvo]

jas, all your goodies look divine

mara- i don''t know exactly how to describe the cake. it''s not super dense like many cakes i''ve had, but it''s not light and fluffy the way box cupcake mixes are. so, somewhere in between maybe? I''ve never had nor made a red velvet cupcake and I like the density it has for the layer cake, but not sure what it does in cupcake form.

lorelei, how would you describe the density for the cupcakes?

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 3/22/2008 4:15:47 PM
Author: mrssalvo
jas, all your goodies look divine

mara- i don't know exactly how to describe the cake. it's not super dense like many cakes i've had, but it's not light and fluffy the way box cupcake mixes are. so, somewhere in between maybe? I've never had nor made a red velvet cupcake and I like the density it has for the layer cake, but not sure what it does in cupcake form.

lorelei, how would you describe the density for the cupcakes?

I thought the density of the RVC's was perfect. I would say moist and slightly fluffy, yet not sticky, or "tooth achingly" rich or sweet. It is in no way dry and crumbly like some cakes are. That recipe really melts in the mouth and the cooked sponge is very light, spot on cake texture I would say, I really recommend this recipe, and so does Hubby who sends his thanks to you MrsS!

Thanks Freke!

 

[FrekeChild]

I think the silpat is probably a good idea. Definitely worth a try.

Here is a pic of the tips I have. Being that all of our stuff at school was washed together, I somehow ended up with 2 of the same giant star tips and only one has my engraving on it. Those are the two big fat ones on the top left. They're awesome for pretty much anything and would probably work well for cupcakes. If you want me to look up any of these numbers on my tips-just let me know. The smaller ones didn't come out well in the pic...

Anyway, the big stars are the Ateco 828 and the biggest round one (second from the right in the top row) is the Ateco 806. I think they just came with my kit from school so I'm not sure where to get them-but I bet it'd be easy to find online.

 

[FrekeChild]

Here is another pic-I couldn''t decide which was better so I just decided to post both. And it''s from a different angle. Haha-I just realized that you can see some of the stuff in my kit in the background...a large offset, wooden dowels, a knife, some Wilton stuff, and a candy thermometer.

You''re welcome Lorelei.

Mara Boys are dumb. Ok, sometimes they''re not, but they really need to get better at describing food. BF can''t eat it fast enough and won''t even try to analyze it. He looks at me like I''m speaking Russian or something when I start asking probing questions about what he''s shoveling into his mouth.

If you really want to practice piping before you do it on a cake I would mix up a batch of American Buttercream (shortening, sugar, etc) until its about the texture you want, and then pipe it onto a sheet of parchment or wax paper-something you can scrape it off of so you can reuse it to practice more. This was homework every night in all of our classes at school-and let me tell you-it helped a lot. Except we were having to do all kinds of crazy stuff, like fleur de lis and stuff I can remember how to do, but can''t remember the names of...

Does anyone have any of Colette Peterson''s books? For decorating techniques, I look to her stuff. She always has pics of equipment in the back as well as outlines for making designs. She''s a master of decorating.

My favorite baking books are: Grand Finales (plated desserts), Baking and Pastry from the Culinary Institute of America (all the essential recipes-but in commercial measurements-weight, not volume) and The Professional Pastry Chef by Bo Friberg (essential recipes in weight measurements as well, covers all of the basics). When I''m looking for a specific recipe I go to TPPC and BP by the CIA first before turning to the internet or other books. I also use my crazy school recipes too, but it''s easier to look it up in the books. For random anything recipes I go to the Joy of Cooking-but I always end up altering those to my own specs.

 

[Mara]

thanks freke. i have all the smaller tips from a 10 tip kit i bought with a gun, ateco brand. i tend to only mostly use the star and rounds so far.

i just looked up online to see what we had near us and there is a cake decorating store that''s been in biz for 36+ years like less than 10 min from me. so i went over a little while ago. this lady''s shop is tiny and packed to the gills! she''s also a huge gabber so i was trying to escape with my stuff and keep my visit relatively short hehee. we have an event to go to in like 20 min.

anyway, i got the wilton 4B, 1M (which is the big open star tip, probably similar to your ateco), marpol 1B (never heard of this brand but it''s a huge closed star) and the ateco 809 which hopefully is good for dollops. she said it was the biggest round she''s seen but it still looks kinda small to me. she said that you could get a big dollop with pressure. no other local stores really carry these big tips one-off like this so i am so happy i found her.

she also sells a ton of decorating sugars and the like in small baggies for like $1.00 as opposed to having to buy a big container for $4.00. alsso carries all the cute small striped dot and stripes wilton liners, so i got some of those too, and i meant to buy a fuscia icing color and forgot. i def have to go back as she sells cake boxes as well.

anyhow, fun afternoon...now gotta go get ready...thanks for posting your tips freke!! i figure during this decorating class i will also learn a lot about icing and tips. but your suggestion re: mixing up some super thick batch to just practice on is great!!

lorelei, good to know the consistency of the RV cuppies was good, i def want to try the recipe now.

 

[marcy]

Here''s my addition to the wonderful cupcake thread.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

1 3/4 c flour
1 c milk
3/4 c sugar
1/2 c peanut butter (creamy or chunky as desired)
1 T baking powder
4 T butter softenend
3/4 t vanilla
1/2 t salt
2 eggs
1 cup chocolate chips (semi sweet or milk as desired)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 regular muffins cups with papers and spray with non stick spray.

In large mixing bowl add all ingredients except chocolate chips. Use mixer to mix well. At low speed mix in chocolate chips. Divide in to 24 muffin cups (I use a large cookie dough scoop and it works great).

Bake for about 18 to 20 minutes until lightly browned.

Each cupcake works out to be 125 calories if you use skim milk and is plenty sweet so you don''t really need frosting.

Note: This recipe works at high altitude so you might have to adjust it for low altitude.

 

[Skippy123]

Here is my low cal, low fat cupcake muffins. hehe

Banana Cupcakes w/Tart Lemon Icing

Makes 18 servings approx 150 calories each or 3 WW points

1/2 cup sugar
5 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg(s)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup fat-free skim milk
4 large banana(s), ripe, mashed


Icing
1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest, strips, or more to taste
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350ºF . Line 18 muffin holes with paper liners. Baking time 30 mins

Place sugar and butter in a large bowl; cream with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; beat until thoroughly mixed.

In another large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add half of flour mixture to butter mixture; beat well with mixer. Add milk and remaining flour mixture; beat until batter is combined and then fold in mashed bananas.

Spoon batter into muffin liners about 3/4 full. Bake until muffins start to brown and a tester inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean, about 25 to 30 minutes. Allow muffins to cool in pan for about 2 minutes; remove to a wire rack and cool completely before icing.

Meanwhile, combine icing ingredients in a medium bowl; beat with an electric mixer until creamy, about 1 to 2 minutes. Ice cooled muffins; cover and refrigerate any uneaten muffins. Yields 1 muffin per serving.

Note: If the mouth-puckering lemon icing isn't enough flavor for you, try adding 1/2 teaspoon each of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger to the flour mixture.

 

[FrekeChild]

Note to self and ABQ PSers...The Bon Bon cupcake from Cupcakeology-not so good. Way too sugary sweet and way too much frosting.

Why don't these people know how to do cupcakes right?! The other ones were pretty good...And the Swiss Orange--not so good either.

 

[Lorelei]

Thanks for the new receeps ladies! The CC cuppies are vanishing rapidly and I had better slow down with the baking as I am enjoying eating the results too much.

 

[Lorelei]

Also I discovered a handy tip last night. I did a buttercream frosting for the carrot cuppies, I added a little lemon essence to the frosting on a whim, and it was perfect with the cake

 

[Mara]

Lorelei everything is better with a little lemon!!

So I made another batch of cuppies today...I ended up halving the batter (well more like 2/3 and 1/3) and doing 1/3 with no lemon and filling them with olallieberry jam and the other 2/3 are lemon raspberry again. I also used the silpat and middle rack and only got the absolutely smallest amount of pale browning on the bottom so that definitely helped immensely.

I frosted 1/2 of them with the leftover raspberry lemon cream cheese frosting from Thurs, and then sprinkled coconut all over them and put some easter pareils ball decorations. And then the other 1/2 was a fresh cream cheese batch that I added a tiny bit of blue food coloring too and got it pale blue, frosted lightly and then put a cadbury mini egg in each of them.

They both came out so super cute, I got pictures which I will upload later. And people loved them..! I haven''t had one yet of either type if you can believe it, because I was too busy eating the phenom fresh banana cake with banana cream that we got for Easter from this fab local bakery. But I''ll have a cuppie later. YUM!

 

[Skippy123]

hehe, I think my sister was hanging out, baking w/Mara, Mrs. S, and Lorelei. She made cupcakes for Easter; I had 2 1/2 today. . . thank goodness she took the rest home with her. The frosting was yummy and the chocolate was moist.

eta: Jas, those cupcakes are so cute!!!!

etaa: I just read your post Belle and Freke, I haven't been to cake fetish since they opened. They use to be good when they opened but not since then, that is a shame. I ate at Slate Street yesterday and noticed cupcakes were on the menu but we didn't get any. I wonder if those are good; I like the homemade ones better anyway, reminds me of being a kid again. hehe Freke, you should open your own place since you love to bake!

 

[Mara]

got some more pictures. here are the lemon raspberry ones with the bleeding raspberries hehehe. i guess it does look kinda interesting.

 

[Mara]

and here are the ones i did today... the lemon raspberry again, utilized the leftover cream cheese raspberry lemon frosting from thurs, just put a thin layer over the cuppies then rolled in coconut and dropped small easter colored pareils on. i could have actually put an egg on these too but they were pretty cute when done.

 

[Mara]

and here is the vanilla olallieberry one (so omitted the lemon and instead of raspberry jam used olallieberry) and whipped up a cream cheese frosting without lemon, did add vanilla and some milk and heavy cream for fun....and then a tiny bit of blue icing coloring to get a soft blue. the frosting was just a bit too soft to really pipe well so it settled in a bit as you can see tiny grooves from the icing tip, so then i just decided to put an egg on top of each. these came out so super cute!!

 

[Linda W]

Mara,

Those look DELICIOUS, you need to open your own bakery...

Linda

 

[FrekeChild]

Mara- what kind of camera do you have? I'm looking into getting one for my b-day (I want coconut cuppies for it I decided) and you always take such good macro shots...

Skippy! You have to try Cupcakeology it's not amazing, but was surprisingly good. At least 4 of the 6 cupcakes that we tried were pretty dang good.

And who wants to go into business with me?

 

[Skippy123]

Date: 3/23/2008 10:50:34 PM
Author: FrekeChild
Mara- what kind of camera do you have? I'm looking into getting one for my b-day (I want coconut cuppies for it I decided) and you always take such good macro shots...

Skippy! You have to try Cupcakeology it's not amazing, but was surprisingly good. At least 4 of the 6 cupcakes that we tried were pretty dang good.

And who wants to go into business with me?

FC, you need an accountant right.

Mara, those are so pretty!! You make beautiful cookies too, why not start your own biz, seriously?!?! hehe

 

[marcy]

I just looked through the entire thread and want to say you ladies have made some beautiful and delicious looking cupcakes. I''ll have to try some of your recipes.

 

[Mara]

hee hee you guys are so sweet...but trust me my skills are nowhere near the real cupcakeries out there!! hopefully after i take this decorating class, things will be easier for me hehee. but it was fun for sure.

freke, my camera is a canon 550, it''s fab for diamond photos too but the latest n greatest is the 800? 850? i can''t remember but it''s an 800 series and it''s awesome, i want to get one of those this year, or the next version if it comes out. i love the canon''s!

i actually have these little chicks that i bought that are not edible and i meant to put them on the cupcakes for photos and i forgot haha. maybe i''ll do one tomorrow on the coconut nest ones.

i love that peanut butter recipe, oh it looks so yummy!

 

[jas]

This thread has become food **** for me. Sigh. Thank you all for the recipes and for the pictures. I am inspired! (and hungry!)

 

[steph72276]

Jas, hahaha...food ****! I know, I''m trying to stay away from this thread, but it''s just too addicting. Darn Mara starting this thread! I suddenly feel the urge to go to the craft store and buy a bunch of baking supplies.

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 3/24/2008 8:50:56 AM
Author: steph72276
Jas, hahaha...food ****! I know, I''m trying to stay away from this thread, but it''s just too addicting. Darn Mara starting this thread! I suddenly feel the urge to go to the craft store and buy a bunch of baking supplies.

I already did that!