The Cupcake Thread!

[FrekeChild]

That sounds pretty awesome. Yum...BF and I are going to go get a video game, maybe we can go get cupcakes on the way back...

ETA: I just checked the websites for both stores and they both close at 6. And it's 6:15.

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 3/20/2008 6:25:10 PM
Author:
As for mixing methods, I think with the folding method it''s mostly for cakes that are purely leavened by mechanical means (egg white''s air bubbles) so as to not knock much air out. Because your recipe has baking soda and powder it might be overkill to try to do the folding.

I don''t know if I could ever not fold flour into a cake! I was taught that over the years as an unbreakable law! I understand with the extra raising agents where it might not be necessary, but I would really feel I was doing...something...naughty...

 

[Mara]

lol lorelei, be a cake rebel!!! beat that flour!!

i didn''t get to make stuff last nite so i am working from home this morning while waiting for the satellite guy to come upgrade our dish for HD. i''ll just whip up a little batch of cuppies and let them bake while i work and wait.

i ordered a bunch of stuff online last week from bakerskitchen.com and it all arrived last nite, so excited! they have a huge selection of sparkling sugars and edible glitter and the like...as well as these fun nut and party cups that some of the cupcake bloggers use for their cupcake papers, they are like more square rounded than a regular cupcake paper. so i want to try them. thinking of doing the minis. whee!!

freke...just think, those cupcake places being closed saved an extra lb on your hips. i am more picky now when i buy cuppies that they be extraordinarily good...otherwise i''m like...i could have made them better!

 

[Mara]

cuppies made and decorated. i had two firsts this time. making a filled cupcake, and making cream cheese frosting. things turned out FAB....but one thing to perfect next time. actually 2. i did the folding of the batter so they puffed up and got a little crazy in the mini nut cups (filled them too much) so we had some oozage on a few. and also i think i need the silpat liner on my baking pan with these nut things. you don't need to use the mini muffin pan for these since they have slightly hard sides so they stand up on their own. but the silpat would conduct heat more evenly and not as intensely through i think, the bottom of some of the nut cups got burnt. the cake itself isn't BURNT, it's just a dark golden brown, but they don't look as pretty with dark brown bottoms. but they taste fab.

i got some pictures but my cam is charging so i'll post them later. but YUM. definitely a winner for the recipe.

Filled Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes
1c cake flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 stick softened butter
3/4c baking sugar
1 egg and 1 egg white
1/4c milk
1 tblsp vanilla
1 tblsp lemon juice
1 tblsp lemon zest
raspberry jam

Sift cake flour, powder, soda, salt in a bowl, set aside. Cream butter and sugar til fluffy. Add egg and egg white, whip til incorporated well. Add lemon zest, vanilla, lemon juice, milk, whip well. At this point the batter is not smooth looking but slightly curdled (lemon I guess?). Fold in flour bowl, don't overmix.

Preheat oven to 350. Line up mini muffin party cups or use small mini baking pan with liners. Using a canteloupe baller, fill each cup just partway with batter. Add put small dollop of raspberry jam in center, don't let touch sides of liners. Put more batter into cup, fill 2/3 only.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, using toothpick to check. If using regular flat pan with nut/party cups, put silpat liner down to help prevent blackening. (Next time I might lower temp just slightly as well to see). Let cool on oven rack for another minute with oven open before removing to cool. This recipe makes 14 mini cupcakes. I would imagine it'd make about 5 large ones.

Frosting was just cream cheese, confectioners sugar, lemon juice all whipped into a frenzy til I liked the consistency. If you want, add some raspberry jam, just a tiny bit, gives it a pale pink color. Frost with spatula or pipe. Garnish with one raspberry on each cuppie (I used frozen). Note on raspberries, they sweat and esp the frozen ones, so let them sweat onto a paper towel first before putting them on as garnish. I put them on then they started sweating so I took them off and let them dry out first on a paper towel but a few of the cuppies looked like they were bled on! Thanks raspberries.

You could omit raspberry jam in the center if you don't want a filled cuppie. Then I'd really use the raspberry in frosting. But even with the cuppies filled and used in frosting, it wasn't too much raspberry, I just used a tiny bit. And I love lemon!!!

 

[mrssalvo]

mara, those raspberry filled lemon cupcakes sound so yummy. i will have to try them out one day next week. i can''t wait to see the picture...

 

[Mara]

yeah mrs salvo they came out great! also i wanted to say that i used light cream cheese and they still came out FAB, super sweet from the sugar and cream cheesy. so you can cut cals and fat that way. amazingly enough, each one is about 100 cals and then the frosting is only like 80. so not too bad.

i brought 6 to work and one of my coworkers who doesnt like sweets took a 2nd one! and my boss took 2. hahaha. so they''re gone basically!! i still have 8 at home for us to share with our neighbors tonite.

 

[mrssalvo]

mara, what are the measurments for the cream cheese frosting?

 

[FrekeChild]

I went to the nearby cupcake place today...and bought half a dozen. I''ll report back later if they are decent or not.

(And I''m all picky, so...yeah.)

 

[Mara]

freke, enjoy and let us know how they are.. (not as good as ours of course right?!?!?!)

mrs salvo, i didnt really measure unfortunately but i just used something like 4-5 oz light cream cheese, about 1.5 cups of conf sugar, and juice from 1/2 a lemon. and then added maybe a tsp of light sugar raspberry jam. and i only used 1/2 of that to frost the minis from the recipe. i saved the rest of the frosting in a container in the fridge...figure i might try the cuppies again this wkd to see if i can perfect them.

i guess that some cream cheese recipes call for butter in the frosting too but i didn't use it and it was perfect.

i beat the cream cheese first for a minute or so, then added sugar--using lemon juice as my liquid to help cream it. it worked out great. i added the raspberry at the very end. it was very thick which is what i wanted for piping but then i didn't let the cuppies cool ALL the way so the frosting softened slightly on the tops which still turned out okay but next time i'll wait til they are totally cool so i can keep better line definition in the frosting.

also the raspberries KEPT bleeding even after drying, but it was funny, my coworkers actually loved the look, they said it looked intentional and 'artsy'. i don't have pictures of that yet but i can take some of the other ones in the fridge later because they are still bleeding. hahaa.

here's the cuppies right after frosting and with a frozen raspberry on top lol. you can see the slightly browned bottoms on the white. the cake itself was not burnt but it was browned, and the bottom of the cups were browned. i will try a silpat next time under them.

 

[Mara]

demolished and dissected!!!

 

[belle]

i am sooooo making some cupcakes.
mara you enabling whor....er....lovely, lovely sweet sweetheart, thanks for the idea.

red velvet....yuuuuuum....my f a v o r i t e!!

btw my lovely, lovely sweet sweeheart mara, what is the website you ordered your new sugar and papers from? i found bakery in philly or something but it doesn't sell anything online. eta.... i think i found it i needed a 'the' in front.

freke, what cupcake shop did you go to?
i have tried cake fetish x2 and was dissapointed with how dry the cupcakes were. the first time i thought it was bad day, so i got them again about 2weeks later....same thing. dry, dry dry.

i was bummed cuz they had some really interesting flavors and i really wanted to like them!

 

[FrekeChild]

Belle- I went to Cupcakeology today, but they are still sitting in my fridge tempting me. Don''t worry, I''ll break my willpower soon and come back and report. The store is only about a 5 minute drive from where I live and we picked some up on the way home after a really awful shopping trip (today was NOT a day to go to Coronado!) as a pick me up. The store is in the strip mall at Carlisle and Indian School on the Southeast corner.

My problem with Cake Fetish was exactly the same. They were a tad bit dry and I went home thinking, "Mine are SO MUCH BETTER."

So I have high hopes for Cupcakeology, but if they fail me and Skippys suggestion the Grove fails me too, I''m just going to have to start my own cupcake store...

 

[belle]

freke, i was wanting to go pick up some stuff at bath&body works today but didn''t get a chance to. it sounds like i am glad i missed it out! sorry to hear you had such a bad day. hey, at least you got your shoes! woohooo!

i heard there was a new cupcake place and that it was goooood. i wonder if that is it? hmmmm...i will have to investigate further.

if it doesn''t pass the test, let me know....i''m *IN* for a cuppiecakey business!

 

[crown1]

i took a look at the bottom of the raspberry filled cc''s and was wondering if the browned look came from the jam filling maybe sinking down during early baking and browning due to to syrupy nature of jam. do you think that is possible?

 

[Mara]

hmm i think anything is possible crown but the bottoms of the cakes were not colored at all from the jam and the batter was pretty thick. i really think that it had to do with the fact that i put the nut and party cups right onto the cookie sheet, maybe a silpat will help. also some of them were far more browned on the bottom than others, so that's also why i thought it might be too intense of a heat from the bottom of the oven. i will probably try these again this wkd and try the silpat and see if that might help.

has anyone tried baking cupcakes or cakes not on the lowest level of the oven? that is just where we always put things but maybe if i moved the racks all up one notch, the heat would again be less intense. just thinking.

miss belle, i used thebakerskitchen.com for the stuff i ordered recently. they have a really good selection and one of the bloggers recommended them for the nut and party cups. i also got a ton of sparkling sugars and edible glitter, they have icing tips, disposable bags etc. and i love you too...MWAH.

i love enabling!!

interestingly enough so tonite when greg was eating his cupcake i noticed that when he bit into it, the area where the jam was...was actually hollowed out slightly. he said it was from the steam of the evaporating jam water releasing itself into the cupcake. i thought maybe that was why they turned out so moist. they are amazingly moist, and i really like them that way, they are almost sticky moist, but i thought they were interestingly moist, considering i didn't feel like i did a ton different. but maybe the releasing steam helped. def food for thought.

also almost everyone who has had them LOVED the idea of putting something tasty inside. most of the recipes i have found tend to inject the goodie into the middle after baking (aka boston creme cupcake or one with marshmallow inside etc) but jam ones can go in before baking which is just so much easier. i did find one of my fave blogs has a pb&j cupcake, which would be so yummy. may try that next.

oh freke that place looks yummy. i love the lists of the places like this because you can get some fab ideas on things to try. one of the other places i think you posted recently had a fluffer nutter one or something...i was like what a fab idea!! hehe. one of my fave blogs just did a rocky road cupcake. omg it looked seriously so sinfully good.

 

[flutterby]

what a great thread! I don''t know how I haven''t seen this thread before. I need to go back and read the entire thing...but all these cupcakes look so good!

those lemon rasberry ones are so next on my list to make! Mara, you could have your own blog they look so good!

I haven''t made any cupcakes lately, but made one or two different kinds a week while i was preggers! My favorite are hummingbird cakes, they are very tropical and oh...so YUMMY. This is my favorite recipe (i cant remember but I think its Martha)...I sometimes add coconut and randomly add whatever nuts I have!

Hummingbird Cupcakes
makes 24 cupcakes

3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1-1/2 tsp vanilla
1 8oz can crushed pineapple, with liquid
2 mashed bananas
1 cup coursely chopped pecans (i usually use walnuts)

1. Mix flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, salt with
a whisk in a good sized bowl.
2. Beat eggs.
3. Add oil and vanilla to beaten eggs and mix until
somewhat combined.
4. Add egg/oil/vanilla mixture to flour/sugar/baking
soda/cinnamon/salt mixture.
5. Mix together pineapple, bananas, pecans until
combined.
6. Add to the rest of ingredients and stir to combine.

Bake at 350 degrees for ~25 minutes until golden and a cake tester comes out clean.

I top these off with the cream cheese frosting. i used an 8oz pck of cream cheese, 2 tbsp vanilla, 5oz of butter and nearly a whole box of powdered sugar...

 

[Mara]

ms flutter those look really yummy...i actually have been dying to try hummingbird cupcakes because they have ALL MY FAVE STUFF in them!!! but i just haven't done it yet. i am totally saving your recipe.

i actually do have a blog, but i hardly use it and it's not specific to anything...so i am thinking of a baking one. i have been tapping my friends for fun names, it's a hilarious process for sure!!! it seems like so many fun baking phrases could be 'double entrendre' kind of things and tonite we were having dinner with our neighbors coming up with the craziest names...and saying that people would type it in thinking it was something naughty and then be like what? a BAKING blog? about CUPCAKES? what? hah.

my friend just emailed me and told me that march 31 is cupcake week on martha...not sure if that just means her show or website or what but i'm going to check it out and tivo whatever i can if it's on tv!

 

[FrekeChild]

Ok. So I tried the cupcakes.

Yum.

Italian buttercream makes the biggest difference ever. We got 6 different kinds-Vanilla, Bon-Bon, Red Velvet, Oreo, Grandma Betty, and Swiss Orange Chip.

I started out with the Grandma Betty (brown sugar cake, caramel buttercream, topped with toffee bits and chocolate chips) and it was good, but not incredible. I pulled the wrapper off and there was a chunk of brown sugar at the bottom of the cup

and the buttercream didn''t taste like caramel-but the overall cake was way more moist than Cake Fetish, and the buttercream was the perfect texture and consistency. Plus, they looked nice. My other complaint is that the toffee didn''t really taste like anything, and was on the soft side. But despite my complaints, I''m still giving it a thumbs up. However, I could still make better.

Then I tried the red velvet-which I''ve made before (from a mix!

But it was GOOD!) and the cake was ok-but not as moist as red velvet should be. For some reason-not sure why-red velvet is supposed to be softer and more moist than regular cake-but this was about the same consistency. It was nice though, and had a hint of cocoa flavor, which was slightly unexpected. It had cream cheese buttercream frosting, which was actually pretty yummy and tasted like cream cheese frosting should taste. Lol. I''m a goof. Other than that, it was pretty...decent, but I feel like I could still make better.

I''m wondering if the lady there was the owner and if she went to school. The kid who was the cashier didn''t really seem to get it and she had to help him quite a bit.

So, I''ll go back when I get a cupcake craving. It''s 5 minutes from our place and pretty tasty. However it''s pretty expensive considering I could make pretty much the same thing (at least a dozen cuppies for $6 or so) where as 6 cost me $13.89. So kind of pricey.

I need to go into the cupcake business.

And Mara the Fluffer Nutter sounds pretty awesome huh? When I was bored in class last semester I spend an hour of it coming up with cool flavors for cupcakes. One being creme brulee because it''s my favorite dessert in general. I still don''t know how I''d accomplish that and put it into a cupcake though...Something to think about next week when I''m in class and bored again (and not on PS!)

 

[Mara]

mmm Freke...I hear ya re: being not super jazzed with some store bought stuff. I have had meh and amazing. And they are expensive out here too. 24 minis from www.sibbyscupcakery.com (amazing) is like $50. I bought them for a party we went to. I am going to get some for my boss's bday next week too. We have a handful of cupcake places out here, esp in SF and some are fab. Others you are like what's all the hype about? I had a FAB chocolate and chocolate buttercream last week from Miette in SF...it was really a divine rich moist cupcake with FAB buttercream that was more butter than sugar...I loved it. Greg ate the yellow one with choco buttercream. I also got a spice cake with cream cheese which is one of my FAVES but somehow it languished in the fridge and I didn't eat it and today I tossed it, yucky about a 6 day old cupcake.

On the creme brulee idea...try this recipe to start maybe.
http://howtoeatacupcake.blogspot.com/2008/03/creme-brulee-cupcakes.html

I'm also thinking you could essentially carmelize sugar on top of the frosting...if you have the torch. Or maybe not the whole top but just the edges. That might take some experimentation but I bet you could do it!

 

[FrekeChild]

Hmmm...That recipe sounds good...but just not creme brulee-y enough...No caramel at all...I'm a pretty hardcore creme brulee fan. I mean it. I've made at least a thousand batches of it, and I actually learned how to make it from the creator of the modern version.

I'm thinking...vanilla cake...scoop full of frozen vanilla creme brulee as a center filling...with caramel Italian buttercream....And a piece of caramel on top.

That would be impossible to keep. But SO YUMMY. I'll think some more...

 

[monarch64]

So I''ve been thinking of honing my sweet tooth...I did not originally have a sweet tooth before I found this thread. DH has a bonafide sweet tooth and would be more than happy to sample any impromptu creations made by you wonderful cupcake bakers. Sooooo....I''m thinking that we could be the "cupcake sampling couple" for you fabulous bakers? Obviously we would reimburse any shipping/handling charges and sing your praises in any survey that might benefit your little bakeshops. P.S. we like chocolate cake, white cake, carrot cake, and devil''s food cake...with whatever icing is available to taste (buttercream, italian buttercream, swiss buttercream, ganache, fondant, etc.) and those little silver d-word things are so cool...we''re not picky though.

How much for a sampler box of Mara''s or Freke''s specialties...to chicago?

 

[mrssalvo]

mara, my hubby LOVES raspberry anything. i showed him pics of your cupcakes and he was like...oh wow, yes, please make those

so i''m going to give them a shot. i''ve never done a *filled* cupcake before but it will be fun to try. If i don''t go into labor, i''m still set to make the red-velvet cake tomorrow and will post pics of it too.

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 3/22/2008 8:21:44 AM
Author: mrssalvo
mara, my hubby LOVES raspberry anything. i showed him pics of your cupcakes and he was like...oh wow, yes, please make those

so i'm going to give them a shot. i've never done a *filled* cupcake before but it will be fun to try. If i don't go into labor, i'm still set to make the red-velvet cake tomorrow and will post pics of it too.

LOL!! MrsSalvo, regarding your red velvet cake recipe, Hubby has become addicted. He came in from work yesterday and went straight to the cake tin apparently, there were about 5 cakes left. Unbeknownst to me, he demolished the lot and were asking if there were any more. I was going mad trying to find the rest of the cakes which I knew we had for about 15 minutes, until with gentle questioning, it turned out those were the ones he had eaten! All gone. I didn't realize that 5 cakes could be eaten with such stealth and speed...

 

[crown1]

i would try the middle of the oven for cupcakes. that is what i always use.hth.

 

[mrssalvo]

Date: 3/22/2008 8:33:04 AM
Author: Lorelei

Date: 3/22/2008 8:21:44 AM

Author: mrssalvo

mara, my hubby LOVES raspberry anything. i showed him pics of your cupcakes and he was like...oh wow, yes, please make those

so i''m going to give them a shot. i''ve never done a *filled* cupcake before but it will be fun to try. If i don''t go into labor, i''m still set to make the red-velvet cake tomorrow and will post pics of it too.

LOL!! MrsSalvo, regarding your red velvet cake recipe, Hubby has become addicted. He came in from work yesterday and went straight to the cake tin apparently, there were about 5 cakes left. Unbeknownst to me, he demolished the lot and were asking if there were any more. I was going mad trying to find the rest of the cakes which I knew we had for about 15 minutes, until with gentle questioning, it turned out those were the ones he had eaten! All gone. I didn''t realize that 5 cakes could be eaten with such stealth and speed...

oh lorelei, that is too funny. I usually only make the cake 2-3 times a year for special occasions or b-days or something, but when I do, it''s gone almost right away. there is rarely a leftover slice, the men in my family just adore it. so do the ladies but most are watching their figures so they try to refrain. i don''t think i mentioned but i do frost in between the layers when i make the cake, but since most of you are making cupcakes it doesn''t really matter.

 

[ellaila]

Oh evil evil evil thread!

I''ve always been curious about Red Velvet Cake -- I''m from the Northeast, and it''s not too common up here. More of a Southern thing, right? -- so I think that I MUST try MrsS''s recipe! I assume the vinegar is just white vinegar, right?

And though this isn''t cupcakes, this (Coconut Bundt Cake with Powdered Sugar Glaze) is the other dessert I''m making for Easter -- doesn''t it sound yummmm?

 

[Jas12]

Can''t believe i missed this thread--DEADLY

I LUV to bake--jaders, you''ll have to tell us more about your career change (or is there a thread i missed on this topic?) I cook for a hobby, but always thought it would be a wonderful, albeit stressful, career!

Anyhoo--my DH always takes pics of my creations and I always protest--but now they serve a purpose --i''ll post a few pics that i have kickin around....and i''ll have to read this whole thread sometime this week!


First--my vanilla and raspberry *pink* cupcakes with pink ribbons--i made these for a breast cancer fundraiser--i had trouble with the ribbons, but they turned out alright....

 

[Jas12]

second--these were sooooo yummy (made them for my own wedding shower! cuz i wanted to do ''something'') --chocolate espresso mini cupcakes, with peanut butter buttercream icing (choc coated peanut on top)--killer!

 

[Jas12]

more mini-cakes (plate in the background) --these were chocolate vanilla --made for v-day, with some cookies of course!

 

[Jas12]

last one--xmas cupcakes--vanilla cake--i think i made the icing peppermint--can''t remember