White Christmas Cupcakes

Tis the season for White Christmas Cupcakes.

Though in the Seattle area, we are more accustomed to wet holidays than the white variety… which I'm absolutely not complaining about, since my car readily doubles as a sled when there is so much as a blush of frost on the ground.

I'll take frosty christmas cupcakes over the real thing any day. More so today, since I was having a raging pregnancy sugar craving.

Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes

Last weekend I found the most adorable cupcake liners! The sweet little, fluted orange cups caught my eye immediately.

So I'm standing there in the baking store, holding paper liners and slipping quickly into the food blogger trance of doom... must... make... orange creamsicle cupcakes.

Oh yes.

So I baked them last weekend and they lasted roughly 5 minutes. I admit to eating way more than reasonable. It was a total slip in my generally reserved approach to baked goodies. Now I have to go work out to make up for the extra calories. By my calculations I need to spend roughly a month on the treadmill to break even.



So, for these cupcakes I used an orange bakery emulsion. Generally, this isn't something you can find at your local grocery store, but you can order them online and find them in specialty baking shops. You use them like extracts, but unlike the alcohol based extracts, the flavor they impart will not bake out.

They are absolutely wonderful, I reach for my emulsions far more often than I do my extracts. They make an almond emulsion that makes my pound cake bliss...

...

Darn that trance!


Anyway, before I ramble further on about individual ingredients, let's get to the cupcakes.




Not So Humble Orange Creamsicle Cake
yields 24 standard cup cakes, a 9x13" cake or 2 8" rounds
3 large egg whites, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon orange gel coloring
1 1/2 teaspoon orange emulsion
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
200 grams all purpose flour
200 grams granulated sugar
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (58 grams) canola oil
1/4 cup (57 grams) (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup (115 grams) sour cream

Preheat your oven to 350°F with a rack placed in the lower third of the oven.

Prep your pans with cupcakes liners (or if baking a cake, use parchment and nonstick spray).

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder and set aside.

In a second bowl gently mix the egg whites, orange gel coloring, orange emulsion and vanilla. You don't want to over beat the eggs, just make the mixture uniform.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the butter and oil with the paddle attachment for about a minute on medium speed. The mixture won't be completely smooth, so don't worry about little bits of butter suspended in oil.

Add the sour cream and mix to combine. Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until the ingredients are moistened and crumbly. Add half of the egg mixture to the flour and beat on low for 20 seconds until moistened and then beat on medium high speed for 40 seconds. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, then add the remaining egg mixture and beat on medium high speed for 40 seconds.

Divide the batter into your cupcakes (or pans if using), filling each cup halfway.

Bake for 20-25 minutes for standard cupcakes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

If you're baking the 9x13" or the 8" rounds, allow 5-10 more minutes. Also
this is very moist, delicate cake, so be careful when checking on the cakes. I usually don't pull my cakes out on the oven rack, as too much jostling of the pan before the center has set could cause the cake to fall. I just stick my hand into the oven and touch the center of the cake. If it springs back, it is done and you can pull the cake out carefully.

Frosting is flexible. For the layer cake I made today I used a regular vanilla butter cream. On the cupcakes I used a white chocolate cream cheese frosting. Feel free to use your favorite creamy vanilla frosting, I can't think of a single type that wouldn't pair well with this cake.



If you want the frosting shown above, no worries I'll post it.

Rose's White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
adapted from Rose's Heavenly Cakes
yields 2 cups frosting, you'll need to double this if you're planning on loading on the frosting or doing a layer cake.
6 ounces white chocolate
8 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1 tablespoon sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt the white chocolate, either in the microwave or over a double boiler. Set aside until no longer warm to the touch.

In your food processor, beat the cream cheese, butter and sour cream until smooth. Scrape down the sides and add the cooled white chocolate. Blend until the chocolate until incorporated and then pulse in the vanilla.

For a firmer frosting place in the refrigerator for roughly 30 minutes, until it reaches the desired consistency.


Oh and if you like the mini cupcake liners too, I'm so sorry but I wasn't able to find them online. I did find the standard-sized version of the cupcake liner here though: Pastel Fluted Baking Cups

@ Mr. Humble: So, how about a nice four layer orange cream cake for dinner? Or are you going to insist on 'real food' again?



You know, there is a pound of butter in that photo, seems pretty 'real' to me.

Quick Cupcake Decorating

I needed a quick batch of cupcakes this weekend. A very, very quick batch of cupcakes. I had roughly an hour to whip up something that had to look respectable. So, I grabbed a box of cake mix (yes, I can do that!), a hunk of fondant and my set of daisy fondant cutters.

The cutters quickly and easily transformed ordinary cupcakes into something really cute!

To make these flowers, you'll need:
Set of three daisy cutters (link)
1/4-1/2lb of rolling fondant.
gel food coloring (optional)
corn starch for dusting
muffin tin or egg carton
bamboo skewer or toothpick
small dish of water

If you desire colored flowers, tint the fondant with a little gel color and knead until uniform.

Dust your work surface with a little corn starch and roll out the fondant about 1/2 cm thick. Cut out sets of your shapes and then, using the toothpick or skewer, press a line into each petal.

Assemble the flowers with a dab of water, stacking them from smallest to largest and then lay them in an egg carton or muffin tin. Adjust the petals a little to give them a more natural look and allow to dry for about 20-30 minutes.

After frosting your cupcakes, simply pick up the flowers and gently press onto each cake.

Thats it! So easy even my husband could do it.



Serve and be prepared to get plenty of oohs and aahs.

Jumbo 'Hostess' Binary Cupcakes

Not all of my cupcake batter went to making brains yesterday, I reserved half of it to make yet another go at the elusive Hostess style cupcake.

This has to be my fourth time making them. There have been some dramatic failures in the kitchen attempting these. Now the chocolate glaze and cupcakes themselves are not hard to make, it is that creme filling! What IS that stuff anyway? Not sure where to start with the filling, I did a little research into other peoples cupcakes of that type a few months ago and started trying new recipes.

Let me tell you all, there are some really gross filling recipes out there! One that I tried was basically sweetened country-style gravy. I gave it a shot because it was reminiscent of pastry cream--minus the egg yolks--and although I was skeptical, the recipe's reviewers seemed to like it. So I gave it a shot, and wow... it was so incredibly vile.

That was failure number one.

Two and three were much better but they either lacked the right texture or the filling absorbed into cake within 24 hours. Eventually, I figured that whatever was inside a hostess cupcake was not man-made and was created with technology on par with CERN's new Hadron Collider. So I gave up. That is, until I had a breakthrough while making fudge for the holidays...

I was going through a lot of marshmallow creme and while noshing on a spoon it came to me....this stuff is pretty close! Really close, actually. So I decided to give the cupcakes one more go and it resulted in my Jumbo Binary Cupcakes with creme filling. Fully edible and finally, a result better than the store bought variety.



I was going to put nucleotide bases across the tops of these cupcakes, but I changed my mind last minute and put binary on them because I haven't done anything computer-science oriented for the blog yet. I know programmers don't code in binary, but even with my Java and C++ background I couldn't come up with a clever 10 character, comp-sci oriented message to sprawl across the cake. Binary is instantly recognizable and cute, so I went with that.

(Though, Mr. Humble gave me flak for not attempting to write out "cupcakes" in binary, but that is probably 50 characters long!)

Anyway, that's enough rambling on about cupcakes. Let's get on to how they were made.

Not so Humble's Creme Filled Jumbo Binary Cupcakes:
To make these I rounded up the following:

one batch of devils food cake batter
jumbo sized muffin pans
18 paper mini cupcake liners
6 oz semi sweet chocolate finely chopped
1 tablespoon corn syrup
3/4 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons butter at room temperature
7 oz jar marshmallow creme
3 oz white chocolate

Since Hostess cupcakes don't have liners or crimping around them I wasn't going to put a paper liner into my jumbo muffin cups. Instead, I used a mini cupcake liner, flattened and placed it into the bottom of the cup. These things are exactly the right size when smoothed out to line the bottom of your large muffin tins. Great trick to help those muffins pop right out.

So I divided my batter among 18 of the muffin cups and baked according to the instructions (Yes, I know... I'm using cake mix, bad foodie move but also a busy mommy foodie today). I allowed them to cool completely, peeled the liner off the bottom and then got to work on the filling and glaze.

To make the filling, beat together the marshmallow creme and the butter and then put into the fridge to chill. Using a 1.5-inch biscuit cutter, core out the centers of the cupcakes and remove some of the cake from the middle. I prefer to do this over piping in the filling because it allows me to really stuff my cupcakes with the creme. Fill each cupcake with a heaping tablespoon of the creme and then replace the "core" you removed earlier, after trimming the excess cake off its bottom.

Now your cakes are ready to be glazed.

To make the glaze, place the finely chopped chocolate into a heat safe bowl and bring the cream and corn syrup to a simmer. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and fold together until smooth. You can either dip the cupcakes into the glaze, or like I did, apply the glaze with an offset spatula (I like to load on as much as possible).

Allow the cupcakes to dry for about 30 minutes and then you can work on your binary decoration.

Melt the white chocolate in the microwave, being careful as it can scorch fairly easily. Then using a piping bag with #2 tip, pipe on the ones and zeros to finish the cupcakes.



Let the glaze set for a few hours until it is no longer shiny and then they're ready to serve. That is, if you can wait that long.

Chocolate Ganache Filled 'Brain' Cupcakes

These cupcakes are for Jurij Dreo, a med student working in a neurophysiology lab in Slovenia. Jurij wanted to see something neuroscience or brain related on the blog and this is what I've whipped up: chocolate ganache filled brain cupcakes! Because it is a well known fact that human brains are filled with chocolate ganache.


Originally, I was trying to think of what cake flavor would be appropriate for these cakes, I wanted something "smart". You know, a brain appropriate flavor. So Mr. Humble and I were discussing the possible cupcake flavors and this is how that conversation went:

Me: I need ideas for a cupcake flavor that is brain related, or 'brain healthy.' You know, sort of like how Cheerios are considered 'heart healthy', what would be brain healthy?

Mr. Humble: Fish is brain healthy, you could make salmon cupcakes.

Me: Gross. I'm not making salmon flavored cupcakes.

Mr. Humble: Why not, you did make a bacon cake.

Me: ...

So I tossed out the idea of being clever by making 'brain healthy brain cupcakes' out the window. Well, I suppose cacao could be considered a 'brain food', but certainly not in this form. So I am not going to pretend these little cakes are in anyway good for you. These cupcakes, topped with a swiss meringue butter cream and a chocolate ganache filling, pack all the health benefits of a stick of butter. Meaning, they're really good.

Let's get down to how they're made.



So, I've taken 18 ordinary devils food cupcakes and tarted them up with the following (these are both adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes):

Chocolate Ganache:
4 oz semi sweet chocolate, finely chopped
3/4 cup heavy cream (40% milk fat)
1 tablespoon light corn syrup

Place the chocolate in a heat proof bowl and set aside.

In a small sauce pan heat the cream and corn syrup to a simmer, stirring constantly. Once the cream is hot, pour it over the chocolate and allow it to sit for 3 minutes then mix well. I poured my ganache into a squeeze bottle (like these) and then inserted it into my cooled cupcakes to fill them. You can also do this with a piping bag. That's it for the filling, now the cupcakes are ready for frosting...

Swiss Meringue Butter Cream:
5 large egg whites
1 pound butter (4 sticks) at room temperature divided into tablespoons
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Bring a sauce pan of water to a simmer and in a metal bowl combine the egg whites and sugar. Whisk the eggs and sugar in the bowl sitting over the pan of water (not in the water) for several minutes until the mixture is creamy and there is no grit if you rub the mixture between your fingers.

Then transfer the eggs to your stand mixer with the whisk attachment and beat them to stiff but not dry peaks. Allow this mixture to cool completely (roughly 10 minutes). Then on medium speed begin slowly beating in all the butter a few tablespoons at a time and then add the vanilla. The mixture might look a little curdled at first, however continue beating until it comes together in a light fluffy mixture. Then remove the whisk attachment and use the paddle to mix the frosting on low speed for 2-3 minutes to beat any air bubbles out of the frosting.

Using a piping bag equipped with a medium round tip (I used an Ateco #12) and filled with my frosting I pipped a half inch mound onto each cupcake. Then I began crafting my 'brain'. I started by piping a D-shaped outline on each side of the frosting mound and then filling the empty space with swirly brain-like frosting coils.



That is it! Brain cupcakes.

These were soooo yummy. Swiss meringue butter cream has to be my favorite frosting (it will kill you, but it is just so yummy without being too sweet) and it compliments the bittersweet ganache very well. These are best kept at room temperature and eaten the same day.



Brains om nom nom!

Wait... I totally missed my chance to fill a post with zombie jokes.

Dang.

Miniature Cupcakes with Marzipan Cherries

What to do with leftover cake batter?!

Earlier this week, I found myself with leftover cake batter from the Bacon cake. There really wasn't much left, and despite being boring ol' yellow cake mix, I was reluctant to throw out the cup of batter that remained. Something neat could be made with it, I just had to think small...

I decided on a batch of bite sized mini cupcakes. In the classic cupcake style, with swirls of pink frosting and a marzipan cherry on top.


My daughter, who turns two at the end of the month, has a book that features a drawing of a cupcake just like this, one that she likes to grab at with her hands and pretend eat. Which is a little strange, since she has only had one cupcake in her lifetime and that was over a year ago. She seems to naturally know that cupcakes are yummy.

Well maybe...

She also tries to eat this sail boat on the same page.

Anyway, I figured I'd make the littlest Humble a treat from the remaining batter.

If you have any leftover cake or brownie batter, feel free to give this a go. I wouldn't attempt this with a full batch of cake batter as it will make well over a hundred cupcakes. I don't know about you, but dealing with that many tiny cupcakes seems a little tedious to me.

Not so Humble Mini Cupcakes with Marzipan Cherries:

makes approximately 2 dozen

Leftover cake batter, roughly one cup

1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon heavy cream

1 oz marzipan

1/2 oz fondant

red food coloring

brown food coloring

Using 1 1/3" x 3/4" foil liners set into a mini muffin tin, divide your leftover batter among the cups. Bake at at 350 degrees for roughly 10 minutes and then allow to cool completely.

In your mixer beat the sugar, butter, vanilla, cream and a drop of red food coloring until light and fluffy. Add the frosting to a pastry bag fitted with a medium sized round tip (Ateco 12).

Tint your marzipan with a drop of red food coloring and kneed to distribute. If it gets sticky add a little powdered sugar to your hands. Roll the marzipan into a half inch thick log and then slice into small even pieces. Roll each into a ball and then roll one side of the cherry along the length of a bamboo skewer to create a little crease in the side of the cherry.

Tint the fondant brown in the same manner as the marzipan and then roll out into a very thin length. I used the tip of my skewer to cut each length, stabbed one end of my 'stem' to pick it up and then stabbed it (the stem and my skewer) into the top of my cherry to securely place it.

Top each cupcake with a swirl of frosting and top with your marzipan cherries and you're done.

My daughter was thrilled by them. These would be great for a child's tea party.

Playing with Peppermint Bark

Peppermint bark is one of those seasonal items that should really be year round. Egg nog, now that stuff I can happily kiss goodbye as soon as January rolls around. Mostly because a glass of the stuff requires a minimum two hours of pilates to burn it off (check the label, I think a glass of puréed bacon has fewer calories!). Of course, I would never actually do two solid hours of pilates so that stuff needs to be off my grocer's shelf ASAP, lest temptation strike. Yikes, I'm rambling on about egg nog in my peppermint post... Back on topic.

Peppermint bark never really loses its appeal and I thought I could work the flavors into some of my other run-of-the-mill baked chocolate treats in an attempt to make them a little more 'festive'... and yummy. So, I decided to whip up some peppermint bark brownies and peppermint white chocolate topped devils food cupcakes.

I've started with basic, totally ordinary chocolate cupcakes and brownies--I'm going to write up recipes for basics, they're not hard to find--and tarted them up with the following:

White Chocolate Peppermint Butter Cream:

5 cups confectioners sugar
1 cup butter, softened
4-6 drops peppermint oil
3 oz white chocolate melted and cooled for a few minutes
heavy cream

2 tablespoons piping gel
red food coloring

Mix a generous amount of red food coloring (5-6 drops) with the piping gel and set aside.

Cream the butter in your mixer and add the chocolate and peppermint. Add the powdered sugar a cup at a time and mix on medium speed until moistened. Add the heavy cream a tablespoon at a time, whipping after each addition, until you reach the consistency desired to frost the cupcakes.

Outfit your piping bag with a large open star tip and line the bag with stripes of the red piping gel.

A small paintbrush works just fine for this, or a small squeeze bottle equipped with a piping tip

Then add your butter cream carefully to the bag, trying not to disturb the stripes more than necessary and pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes.

I topped my cupcakes with a sprinkle of red luster dust and either peppermint candies or little white/dark chocolate whirly-bark things with crushed peppermint bits (yes, that is my technical term for them).

Moving on to the brownies!



Peppermint Barked Brownies:

6 oz white chocolate
5-6 peppermint candies
4 drops peppermint oil
8 oz dark chocolate
red food coloring

Crush the peppermint candies and set aside. Melt the white chocolate and flavor with the peppermint oil. Divide the chocolate into two containers and tint one with red food coloring.

Turn your completely cool brownies out onto a cutting board and remove the parchment. Sprinkle the brownies with the crushed peppermint candies and then dollop on the red and white chocolate. Smooth the chocolate over the brownies swirling the colors together gently. Move the brownies to the freezer to quickly set the white chocolate. After about 10-15 minutes the chocolate should be set enough to pour on the dark chocolate.

Melt the dark chocolate and pour over the brownies. Give the brownies about 10 minutes on the counter for the chocolate to set up slightly and then cut with a warm knife into pieces. Allow the chocolate a few hours to set completely and they are ready to eat.

Sushi Cupcakes

Sunday Morning Baking: Sushi Cupcakes! Or maybe this is more of a petit four? Well, they are adorable, whatever they are.

I found some gorgeous coal black, coarse sanding sugar at my local baking supply store this weekend and I knew what I had to do... make sushi from cake!

Usually I would use fondant or fruit leather to make the nori but as soon as I saw this sugar, I knew had to test out its seaweed-replicating powers. The sugar grains have a really interesting shape, they are broader and flatter than other coarse sugars I have.

To make these I took a basic sheet cake and cut out the appropriate shapes with a knife and a small biscuit cutter. However, next time I attempt to do frosted nori I'll use a denser cake, perhaps a pound cake (maybe even brownies) as frosting nearly the entire surface of such tiny, fluffy nuggets of cake was not very easy.

Anyway, I made up some butter cream, divided it and tinted it dark green, red and reserved some white to do the rice. To make the nori, I coated the sides of the rolls in the dark green butter cream and then rolled them in my black sugar. The rice is created by frosting the roll with white butter cream and pressing it into a plate of white sprinkles. I made the flying fish roe in the same manner, with red nonpareils and red-orange butter cream.

The shrimp and fillings are made from tinted and painted fondant, coated with a little piping gel to make them look fresh and glossy.

I wouldn't try to make dozens of these, but they really required less effort than I expected.

I'm probably going to head back to the kitchen now and make some more sashimi out of fondant just for fun. I think I may need to go find a little dark green fruit leather to wrap up some tamago too...

Chai Spice Mini Angel Food Cakes

Light and fluffy little angel food cakes, a perfect use for those leftover egg whites you have on hand from a previous recipe.

I've topped these mini cakes with a chai-spice glaze and candied ginger. They pair perfectly with a milky cup of tea.

Not so Humble's Chai Spice Mini Angel Food Cakes:
Adapted from The Cupcake Deck
Makes 9 large cupcakes

1/2 cup cake flour
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
5 egg whites (at room temperature)
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 almond extract

Chai Spice Glaze:
1/4 teaspoon chai spice (store bought or homemade - see below)
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter melted
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
2-3 tablespoons whole milk

Sift together the cake flour and two tablespoons of sugar and set aside.

In a large bowl whisking lightly by hand, dissolve the salt and cream of tarter in the egg whites. Add this to your stand mixer outfitted with the whisk attachment and beat on high until the egg whites form soft peaks. Slowly beat in the remaining 3/4 cup of sugar a couple tablespoons at a time. Beat on high for a minute and then mix in the vanilla and almond extracts. Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly sprinkle in the flour sugar mixture.

Divide the batter into 9 unlined muffin cups (roughly half full) and bake at 325°F for 20-30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan upside down for at least 30 minutes. Slide a small knife around the edge of the cakes to release them from the pan.

To make the glaze mix the sugar, chai spice, vanilla and butter in a bowl and slowly add the milk while whisking. Add just enough to make a smooth glaze.

Pour a little of the glaze onto each cupcake and sprinkle with chopped candied ginger. These are eaten the same day you bake them.

---

Chai Spice Blend:
2 tablespoons ground ginger
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground cardamon
2 teaspoons nutmeg
2 teaspoons allspice
1 teaspoon ground cloves
pinch of white pepper

Mix the spices and store in an air tight container