cupcakes

Strawberry Cupcakes – Is It Springtime Yet?

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I have a sweet tooth, no doubt about that. But don’t worry mom, I do eat food categories other than “dessert”. When I say I love desserts, it’s not so much about eating desserts, as it is about appreciating that intersection of culinary science and art. So it’s probably no surprise that I love Extraordinary Desserts in San Diego and would go work with Karen Krasne in a heartbeat if I were to ever attend pastry school. She never fails to deliver art and beauty (and incredible flavor) in her creations.

This Toutes Fraises (translation: all strawberries) from her cookbook is a sour cream cupcake containing freshly diced strawberries in the batter. The cake is filled with a strawberry jelly, and topped with a strawberry cream cheese frosting. Extraordinary Desserts is known for decorating desserts with fresh flowers and petals. Here, I decided to work on my gum paste skills and came up with these gum paste rosebuds for decoration. Tedious, but very satisfying to make. I definitely eyed some flower bouquets at Safeway in case my efforts failed, but fortunately these were presentable enough (although a bit on the “toxic pink” side in color).

I’d venture to say that the 250 degree oven setting may have been a typo in the recipe, as 350 is typical for cakes, and 250 definitely did not get the job done. The cupcake was yummy, but perhaps next time starting at 350 degrees or closer to 350 will avoid temperature adjustments and give me better control over the cake’s texture.

Can’t wait to try more of my favorites from the cookbook!

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Guinness, Chocolate and Potato Chips – Super Bowl Sunday!

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Hope everyone had a fun Super Bowl Sunday! The game ended on an exciting note . . . but of course you know I was only watching for the commercials, and for an excuse to bake more cupcakes.

These two cupcakes draw inspiration from Chuao Chocolatier again, this time from one of their newer flavors, the “Potato Chips in Chocolate” bar. This first cupcake is a simple chocolate cake. I tried to work with an even simpler recipe than my prior chocolate cupcakes, in case I ever needed to pull it together with basic ingredients, and I think this one worked out well enough. The frosting is a Swiss meringue milk chocolate buttercream frosting, topped with crushed potato chips and some added sea salt. Mildly sweet with a bit of crunch.

Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 21-22 cupcakes (or 54 minis)

  • 3 ounces finely chopped bittersweet chocolate
  • ¾ cup Dutch-processed cocoa (2 ¼ ounces)
  • 1 teaspoon espresso powder
  • 1 ¼ cups boiling water
  • 1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour (7 ½ ounces)
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 ½ cups sugar (10 ½ ounces)
  • 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 6 tablespoons vegetable oil

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
  2. Combine the chocolate, cocoa, and espresso powder in a large bowl. Pour the boiling water over the chocolate mixture, cover, and let sit for a few minutes to help melt the chocolate. Whisk until smooth, then set aside to cool slightly, about 2 minutes. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together.
  3. Whisk the sugar, eggs, and vanilla into the cooled chocolate mixture. Slowly whisk in the oil. Whisk in the flour mixture in two portions, mixing gently until most of the lumps are gone (do not overmix).
  4. Bake for 20-22 minutes for regular cupcakes, or about 10 minutes for mini cupcakes.
Milk Chocolate Frosting

Makes 2 ¼ cups

  • ⅓ cup (2 ⅓ ounces) granulated sugar
  • 2 large egg whites
  • pinch table salt
  • 12 tablespoons (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • 6 ounces milk chocolate, melted and cooled
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

  1. Combine sugar, egg whites, and salt in bowl of stand mixer; place bowl over pan of simmering water. Whisking gently until sugar is completely dissolved and mixture is slightly foamy.
  2. Place bowl in stand mixer with whisk attachment. Beat on medium speed until stiff peaks form. Add butter, about 1 Tbsp at a time, and beat until smooth. Then add cooled melted chocolate and vanilla; mix until combined. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until light, fluffy, and thoroughly combined.
The second cupcake is a Guinness draught chocolate cake with a Guinness cream cheese glaze, topped with a potato chip dipped in milk chocolate. Because of the Guinness, this cake is a bit more bitter, but that makes for a nice contrast to the sweet glaze and salty-crunchy topping. 
Guinness Cupcakes

Makes 21-22 cupcakes (or 54 minis)

  • 1 cup of Guinness® Draught
  • 1 stick plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 2 cups dark brown sugar
  • ¾ cup sour cream
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 ½ teaspoon baking soda 
  • Pinch of cinnamon

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
  2. In a large sauce pan over low heat, combine Guinness® and butter, stirring until butter melts. Remove pan from heat and whisk in cocoa powder and brown sugar. 
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk together sour cream, eggs and vanilla. Combine with beer mixture. 
  4. Sift together flour and baking soda, then fold into batter.
  5. Bake for 20-22 minutes for regular cupcakes, or about 10 minutes for mini cupcakes. 
  6. Make the glaze. With a mixer, whip 8 oz. cream cheese until smooth. Sift 1 ¼ cups confectioner’s sugar into cream cheese, and beat. Add ⅓ cup Guinness®, and beat until smooth. Note: The recipe I found stops there; however, I added a stick of unsalted butter to provide for a sturdier frosting. Dip the top of cupcakes into this glaze/frosting and twist when lifting for a smooth coating.
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Chai Tea Cupcakes

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I’m not much of a coffee drinker, but I do love me some good tea, especially a chai latte. So I decided to see if I could alter the spices of the cinnamon cupcakes from my last post to create a masala chai flavor. I’m not sure I really succeeded in evoking “chai tea” with this one, but it was still a tasty spiced coffee cake (tea cake?).

The cake is the cinnamon swirl sour cream cake used with my maple turkey-bacon cupcakes, but in addition to cinnamon, I added ground cloves, cardamom, ginger, pepper and nutmeg. At the last minute, I realized I forgot to add the tea component of a chai tea, and so I was light on that flavor as I tried to add in some black tea without changing the batter consistency too much. It would be easier to steep black tea in milk, so I will probably need to revise the recipe to replace sour cream with milk or cream.

The streusel on top contains the same spice combination, and the icing is made with black tea-infused whipping cream, powdered sugar, a bit of butter, and the same spices. Without this icing, I think the cupcake would have just tasted like a cinnamon streusel cake. Although I didn’t quite achieve “chai tea” flavors, there was definitely something je ne sais quoi about this cupcake. I’ll post a recipe once I’ve had a chance to tweak and optimize.

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