a little zaftig » Cupcakes

Violet Tea Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting & Candied Wild Violets

Laura — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 16:08:13 +0000

I’ve been holding back this post. The moment for wild violets has passed, at least in the woods and marsh banks near our home where I gather them. Perhaps there are still a few beneath the greenery that has grown up seemingly overnight, tempestuous, lush, aggressive. I spied two violets waving together amongst the wood chips near our garage yesterday, which makes me think it might be so. But I am not much in the mood to forage for them in recent days to recreate this recipe, even though wild violets have such an irresistible sweetness about them. Perhaps all things fleeting seem so. Though rhubarb pushes up and leafs out with such dramatic splendor, so I suppose this is not really true. As pretty as these cupcakes are, they were a flop. The ground violet tea was a nice idea, and the frosting and sugared violets were perfect, but we are new to gluten free baking, and the cupcakes were gummy and off-putting, doubly disappointing with new restrictions which raise fear about the future of our baking and eating pleasure. I should develop another recipe and practice with patience, but the moment has passed for me. I am onto pea tendrils and apricots and herbs nearly ready. So if they strike your fancy, take your favorite cupcake recipe, gluten free or otherwise, and adapt it perhaps with these ideas, the violet tea ground in a mortar and pestle and stirred into the batter, and the pretty candied violets to perch on top. Next spring I’ll work on a better version, when I can barely wait to see the first violets again, when spring is yet a whisper.

Violet Tea Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting & Candied Wild Violets

1 recipe for plain or vanilla cupcakes
1 T. violet tea, ground to fine powder in a mortar and pestle and stirred into the batter before baking
1 batch cream cheese frosting to decorate the cupcakes (recipe below)
½ c. fine sugar and 1 or 2 drops lavender food coloring placed in a plastic bag and rubbed together for sprinkling on top if you wish
candied wild violets to perch on top (recipe here)

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
½ c. unsalted butter, softened
sifted confectioners’ sugar, about 1 1/3 c.
1 t. vanilla extract

Method:

In a medium bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese and butter.

Add the confectioners’ sugar gradually until the frosting tastes good to you and has a smooth, creamy consistency.

Add the vanilla extract and beat until well combined.

Heart-shaped Red Velvet Baby Cakes with Pink Cream Cheese Frosting

Laura — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 19:13:06 +0000

My Sweet Boy’s sweet girlfriend Taylor is over tonight again to bake. We picked out a recipe for red velvet cake and decided to bake it into little baby cakes decorated with cream cheese frosting tinted pink. Our first batch erupted like so many little red cocoa volcanoes, and it looks like an ode to all sentiments anti-Valentine’s Day sitting on the stove right now, pockmarked and sunken and Vesuvial. We had a good laugh when we pulled them from the oven. When you’re improvising an adaptation, these things happen sometimes. Our second batch came out perfectly. (Now, that’s more like it!) We couldn’t bring ourselves to put a third of a cup of red dye into the batter, so our red velvet is decidedly more cocoa in hue, but if the color is paramount to you, go all in. It’s Valentine’s Day after all!

Heart-shaped Red Velvet Baby Cakes with Pink Cream Cheese Frosting
Yield: about 3 dozen baby cakes

Ingredients:
1 batch red velvet cake batter (recipe below)
1 batch pink cream cheese frosting (recipe below)
edible pearls

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Divide the red velvet batter into about 36 mini heart-shaped pans. Do not fill them more than half full.

Bake the cakes for about 20 minutes, rotating them 180 degrees halfway through, until they spring back when pressed lightly in the center.

Allow them to cool completely.

Fill a pastry bag fitted with a star tip with the frosting. Twist the bag at the top and apply gentle pressure at the twist to frost the cakes.

Decorate with edible pearls. A tweezer is helpful here.

Red Velvet Cake Batter
From Confetti Cakes by Elisa Strauss
Yield: enough for about 3 dozen baby cakes

Ingredients:
3 ½ c. cake flour
½ c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ t. salt
2 c. canola oil
2 ¼ c. sugar
3 large eggs
1/3 c. red food coloring (We used only 1 T.)
1 ½ t. vanilla extract
1 ¼ c. buttermilk
2 t. baking soda
2 ½ t. white vinegar

Method:

In a large bowl whisk together the cake flour, cocoa powder, and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the oil and the sugar. Beat on medium speed until they are incorporated.

Add the eggs one at a time at low speed, mixing well between each addition.

Add the red food coloring and vanilla in a slow stream and mix to combine.

Scrape down the bottom of the bowl.

Alternately add the flour mixture and the buttermilk in two batches, starting with the flour. Beat until well combined.

In a small bowl, whisk together the baking soda and vinegar. With the mixer on medium speed, add the mixture and beat for 10 seconds.

Pink Cream Cheese Frosting
Yield: enough to modestly frost about 3 dozen baby cakes

Ingredients:
16 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
¾ pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 t. vanilla extract
4 drops pink food coloring
1 ½ pounds confectioners’ sugar

Method:

Beat together the cream cheese and the butter until they are smooth.

Add the vanilla and the food coloring and mix to incorporate.

Add the confectioners’ sugar and mix on low speed until the frosting is smooth and creamy.

Bubble Gum Ball Surprise Cupcakes with Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream & Pink Rock Candy Crystals

Laura — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 17:40:25 +0000

I dreamed up these playful cupcakes for my niece Elisabeth. Elisabeth is ten, and she loves funny stories. Whenever we are together she always mines me for more—details about her mom and I dancing around in front of the sliding glass doors where our mother would scold that our neighbors might see us, about our misadventures at summer camp, silly things we did or said as we were growing up together. This is for you, Bunny. Happy Valentine’s Day! I love you!

In 1977 when I was ten:

I was longing for a powder blue satin disco jacket and my own skates with matching yarn pompoms to bring to the roller rink.

Shawn Cassidy was doing a lot of wiggling that year, and your mom and I made up dances in the basement to this song; if I recall correctly, she advocated for a lot of hair flipping, which I didn’t think was a real dance move.

This was my favorite song. I sang it at the top of my lungs all the time.

Your mom and I got the giggles whenever we saw performances like this and this. We were quite silly.

Almost every Saturday night I watched The Love Boat.

Grandma permed my hair that year. I looked more like Richard Simmons than Julie McCoy.

Earth shoes were my school shoes that year, and I had a selection of knit pants and crocheted vests, which I wore over sensible blouses. Your mom was always the stylish one.

These vanilla chiffon cupcakes have a sweet little surprise. I scooped out a little cake and tucked in a big pink bubble gum ball before I piped on a lofty twist of strawberry Swiss meringue buttercream and sprinkled them with pink rock candy crystals. I hope you like them.

xo, Auntie

P.S. When are you going to come over to bake together?
P.P.S. You could make these all by yourself. Just use a boxed cake mix and a can of strawberry frosting.

Bubble Gum Ball Surprise Cupcakes with Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream & Pink Rock Candy Crystals
Yield: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:
24 vanilla chiffon cupcakes (recipe below)
24 pink gum balls (available here)
1 batch strawberry Swiss meringue buttercream (recipe below)
pink rock candy crystals (available here)

Method:

Bake the cupcakes and allow the to cool completely.

Using a melon baller, scoop out a little cake from the center of each cupcake.

Place a bubble gum ball into each cupcake.

Fill a piping bag or a kitchen storage bag with the frosting. Use any decorative tip you like with the piping bag, or cut off the tip of the storage bag. Twish the top of the bag, and using gentle pressure at the twist, pipe frosting onto each of the cupcakes.

Sprinkle the frosting with the rock candy crystals.

Cake Tips
Cream of tartar helps to stabilize egg whites as they are beaten. It may be found in the spice aisle.

When you are beating egg whites, the term soft peaks refers to a stage in the beating process. Look for ripples that remain as you move the beaters and a glossy appearance.

When you are beating egg whites, the term firm peaks refers to a stage in the beating process. Look for a peak of glossy egg white that remains upright when you pull the beater out of the egg whites vertically. Here is an excellent video on beating egg whites.

Folding is the process of gently incorporating ingredients into a fragile batter or mixture. Folding is the gentlest mixing technique, and protects air bubbles. To fold, place a spatula in the center of your bowl. Slice down through your batter or mixture to the bottom of the bowl. Pull through the bottom of the bowl, scooping as you come around and up. Turn the bowl a quarter turn and repeat. Continue this process, until your ingredients are uniformly folded into the batter or mixture.

Vanilla Chiffon Cupcakes
Adapted from The Joy Of Cooking
Yield: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:
2 ¼ c. sifted cake flour
1 ¼ c. sugar
1 T. baking powder
1 t. salt
5 large egg yolks at room temperature
¾ c. water
½ c. vegetable oil
2 t. vanilla extract
8 large egg whites at room temperature
½ t. cream of tartar
¼ c. sugar

Method:

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

Place the cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk the ingredients together until they are well combined.

In the bowl of an electric mixer or in a large bowl using a handheld electric mixer, beat together the egg yolks, water, vegetable oil, and vanilla until they are smooth.

Stir this mixture into the flour mixture until it is well combined and smooth.

In another large bowl, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar on medium speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add the ¼ c. sugar and beat until glossy, firm peaks form. Do not beat until the peaks are dry.

Using a rubber spatula, fold ¼ of the egg whites into the cake batter. Then gently fold in the remaining egg whites.

Divide the batter into cupcake pans lined with paper liners. Fill each cup about ½ full.

Bake the cupcakes for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Adapted from The Joy of Cooking
Yield: enough to modestly frost about 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:
8 large egg whites at room temperature
1 ½ c. sugar
¼ c. water
½ t. cream of tartar
1 ½ pounds (6 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
6 ounces strawberry jam, strained

Method:

In a large stainless steel bowl, whisk together the egg whites, sugar, water, and cream of tartar.

Set the bowl over a wide, deep skillet filled with about 1 inch of simmering water. Make sure the water level is at least as high as the depth of the egg whites in the bowl.

Beat the egg whites on low speed with an electric mixer until the mixture reaches 140 degrees on an instant read thermometer. Do not stop beating while the bowl is in the skillet, or the egg whites will overcook.

Beat on high speed just until the mixture reaches 160 degrees, two to four minutes.

Remove the bowl from the skillet and beat on high speed for three to five more minutes. The mixture should hold glossy, marshmallowy peaks.

In another large bowl, beat the butter until it is creamy, about 30 seconds.

Beat a large dollop of the meringue into the butter until well combined. Continue to beat in about half of the meringue in large dollops. Scrape the remaining meringue into the mixture and beat until smooth and fluffy.

Very gently fold in the strained strawberry jam.

This frosting keeps in the refrigerator for up to six days. Soften it before using.

White Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcakes with Dark Rum and Vanilla

Laura — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 14:55:12 +0000

My mom took a lot of classes when we were growing up in the 70s. Our house was full of macramé plant hangers and wall hangings and Christmas decorations. We had Santa and all of his eight reindeer and Rudoph. There was cast pottery painted by numbers—smaller pieces plus a huge barn scene that hung in our family room above the mantel. And there was a parade of decorated cakes. My mom bought shortening by the five-gallon bucket and would practice making roses in the kitchen on a little metal flower nails. They were beautiful but, blech, watching shortening, sugar, and dye being mixed ended my frosting eating days. I still remember her asking me what I thought I had been eating whenever we ordered a bakery cake. It was a seminal moment; frosting faded from magical to an adumbration, and all the rainbow-colored foods of childhood suddenly seemed too good to be true. The rising popularity of true buttercream 20 years later didn’t help much. I couldn’t wrap my head around eating that much whipped butter and sugar either.

This is a frosting that has even me feeling lickerish. It brings me back to the 80s, when white chocolate was having its moment, before we sorted out that white chocolate, well, wasn’t really chocolate. Real white chocolate is made with cocoa butter, a product of the chocolate making process, but it does not contain chocolate liquor, or ground roasted cocoa beans, which characterize chocolate. Since my Honey Girl isn’t a conventional chocolate lover, I usually try to make something fruity or white for her on Valentine’s Day. She would love these cupcakes. The frosting is a creamy whipped ganache which substitutes sour cream for heavy cream. Flecked with vanilla bean and laced with a little rum, it might even restore my faith in frosting. I wish I could mail off these cupcakes to her at college in a pink care package.

White Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcakes
I don’t know whom to credit for this recipe. It’s online on three sites identically without any attribution. Thank you to whoever developed the recipe.
Yield: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:
2 c. all purpose flour (I prefer King Arthur.)
1 2/3 c. sugar
¼ t. salt
4 oz. high quality white chocolate beads or bar, cut into shards (I used E. Guittard.)
½ c. water
½ c. unsalted butter
1 c. sour cream, at room temperature
1 t. vanilla extract
1 ½ t. baking soda
2 eggs

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Line 2 cupcake pans with paper liners.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the flour, sugar, and salt.

In a double boiler over simmering water, melt the chocolate with the butter and water. Allow it to cool slightly.

Add the melted chocolate to the flour and mix until combined.

Add the sour cream, vanilla, baking soda, and eggs and beat for 2 minutes.

Divide the batter evenly into your cupcake pans and bake for 20 – 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.

White Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting with Rum and Vanilla
Adapted from E. Guittard
Yield: enough to modestly frost a dozen cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 pound high quality white chocolate beads or bar, cut into shards (I used E. Guittard.)
½ c. sour cream
1 t. dark rum
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

Method:

Place all of the ingredients into a double boiler over low heat and stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth.

Remove the vanilla bean, and refrigerate until it is firm, about two hours.

Whip the frosting with an electric beater on high speed until it is fluffy and creamy.

To frost the cupcakes, fill a pastry bag or kitchen storage bag with the frosting. Use any decorative tip you prefer on the pastry bag; snip off the tip of the kitchen storage bag. Pipe a modest amount of frosting onto each cupcake in a swirling pattern, beginning at the center of the cupcake and working your way in concentric circles toward the outside.