Piping Pretty Cupcakes!

So, a few readers have asked how I get my cute little frosting tops. This is the frosting recipe I use. The consistency always comes out perfect for piping on to cupcakes. I put it in a piping bag fit with the Large Coupler, and I'm not sure the exact number tip I use...I'm not near it right now...but it is one pretty close in size to the the 1M from Wilton. Other recommendations I have is to make enough or more than enough frosting to cover the cupcakes. You'll want to pile the frosting high to get that swirly-tower-of-frosting look. And you'll also want to start on the edge of the cupcake, spiraling inward... its hard to describe in words, so just watch! :)

Here is a video of Daniel piping some frosting on to our Turtle Brownie Cupcakes:

Cupcakes for a Cause

WHEW! Life is moving very quickly. My thesis writing is thoroughly under-way (thus the absence of posts). The rough drafts of my first two body sections are done, and the first half of the very detailed outline for my next section is done. I have to finish the rest of that outline, actually write the section, do the same for the last body section, write an intro and conclusion, format it to UCF and the binding company's specifications, make a notice of defense to be signed by my committee members, write a proposal and get that signed by my committee members, have an initial format review, a final format review, a proposal review and a slew of other requirements... All before early - mid November. Ah hah hah! It's ok, I'm surviving. At the end, I will have a nice little bound book, written by yours truly, with its own call number for the library and everything. So it's worth it... I think. :)
Anyways, so that is why you haven't been seeing many posts lately. It's sad. But as soon as this is over, I'll be back in the kitchen, whipping up some goodies to try to make my boyfriend fat again.

For now, I'll show you what I have been doing in the kitchen. No new recipes, though. Mi dispiace, not yet.
Last week, I had to do 25 cupcakes for birthday parties (woohoo!!). Luckily, all three parties wanted to same color combination, so it went rather swimmingly. All three little girls wanted pink and purple, so I started by making these cupcakes a little extra-special by putting pink heart shaped sprinkles right in to the batter:



I figured all kiddies like surprises, and little girls would definitely like being surprised by seeing little pink hearts when they bite into their cupcakes :)

Then, I made two different color frostings: pink and purple, and I put them side by side in the piping bag:
>
It only takes a tiny bit more time, and it makes them look much much cuter. Topped 'em with some pinky-purply butterfly sprinkles, and you've got the quintessential cupcake for a little girl's birthday party.

Since I had to have 25 cupcakes for the parties, and my recipe makes 15 each, I had a few extra. With one of them...well...you can never have too much frosting, right?


Haha, WRONG. No one ate that one. Daniel claims, "I don't know how to eat it." But you can really see the side-by-side colors in that one.

The other baking thing I did this week was the "Cupcake of the Week!" This week's flavor? Vanilla with Vanilla Buttercream! Nope, no fancy flavors this week! Because this week at the mall is Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. So, I made Pink themed cupcakes to go along with this event, and with each cupcake sold, 50% of the money goes to Breast Cancer.





After the walk, the participants will probably be hungry and want a perfectly pink cupcake, right? Hopefully, they'll all be purchased up, and I can make a donation to making strides.

While I was making and baking those bad boys up, I figured I'd take some pictures to give a few simple little cupcakes tips to all you cupcake bakers out there. These are some no-brainer tips that you may or may not know already, but once I figured out these little methods, it made cupcake baking a little bit easier.

Tip #1: How to get evenly sized cupcakes
I like to put all my batter into a big zippy bag fitted with a piping tip. This way, I can squeeze the batter into the liners in the pan, and it won't be all lumpy. When piped in rather than scooped in to the pan, you can easily see if they are all equally filled up or not. It also makes for MUCH LESS MESSY cupcake batter distribution. No dripping from the measuring cup or spoon, you just squeeze out the batter, stop squeezing when you're done, and then move to the next liner... No drips on the pan between the wells.
BUTTT, if you're alone and baking cupcakes, How do you get that batter in a bag? YOU ONLY HAVE TWO HANDS, RIGHT?
What I like to do is fit my ziplock bag with the tip, take the tip and fold it upwards (positioned so that no batter will drip out of the tip due to gravity...stupid gravity), and lay the bag in a bowl:
really terrible picture warning:

You can either spread the opening of the bag over the rim of the bowl, or just hold the bag open with one hand. Then, pour your batter in easily! :)

really really bad picture warning

Then you just pipe your batter into your liners. See how much easier it is to tell if they're equally filled? It's nicely even and not lumpy.

Tip #2: How to get the cupcakes out of the pan easily
I usually let my cupcakes cool in the pan for just 1 - 5 minutes. This way, I don't scorch my fingerprints off, but I also don't allow the cupcakes to continue baking in the pan for that long. As soon as they get out of the oven, however, I take a toothpick and run it around the edges of the cupcake: releasing that top little blub of cupcake that may be stuck to the pan.

Then I let it cool for a tiny bit longer, and pop 'em out. Its much easier to get this cupcake rim un-stuck when they are still fresh out of the oven... no ripping or breaking. And then they literally just fall out of the pan. VOILA!

So those are my cuppity-cake tips. They're common sense, but it took me quite a few batches to figure them out. Maybe they can save you a little bit of time and aggravation in the kitchen. Happy Baking!!

Halloween Cupcakes... I've lost it!

What's with all the candy wrappers? Is Stephanie having a meltdown? Is she doing some emotional bingeing?...No, not yet. The Reese's Wrappers are from my latest cupcake creation... or should I say my latest cupcake disaster?? It seems I've lost it! Last week's banana fluffernutter cupcakes were a little on the funny-lookin' side and this weeks? Well... you can see for yourself. The IDEA was to do something that combined these two ideas I found on the web...


And...


I was going to make little hershey kiss + cookie Witch hats, and put them on top of Green Witchy-Face frosting. I thought that maybe the Kiss + Cookie hat would be too heavy, so I added a Reese's Cup under the frosting for some structural support...



But, this is what Cupcakes turn out like when you are in a rush, and you've been running around various parts of the state since you woke up...



NNNNNNNNNNo. Not exactly what I was going for. My frosting was a little too stiff, and spirals was DEFINITELY not the way to go. Not to mention my "Witch Hats" look more like Sombrero's. ::Sigh::

Oh well... when life hands you lemons, make lemonade, right?

I took the little hats off and put them aside. They just were not gonna work. I took the frosting + hidden reese's cup and put them in my kitchenaid mixer. I mushed it with a fork, then blended it with the wire whisk. Result? A perfect creamy Peanut Butter cup filling!! And the Icky green color is perfectly ghoulish for halloween!!



Yeah I know... really gross.

And luckily I had made some extra frosting, so I tinted it fluorescent orange, and VOILA. The Creepy Icky Green Halloweeny filling is perfectly until you bite into it. They're not exactly unique looking, but its better than throwing away an entire batch of ugly cupcakes! Plus, they taste pretty darn good.



"Spooky Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes, Topped with Vanilla Buttercream and... Surprise! There's a Treat inside! Ghoulish Green Peanut Butter Cup Cream Filling!" :)

Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes enough for a small batch of 7 regular sized cupcakes
from Billy's Reece's Chocolate Cupcake Recipe (I can't find it online anywhere, but this is him)
Ingredients
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted in double boiler and let to cool for 15 minutes
• 1/2 cup cake flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup buttermilk (room temperature)
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Optional black food coloring

Preheat to 350. Cream together butter and sugars. Add the egg and mix. Add the cooled melted chocolate and mix. Combine the flour with the baking soda in one small bowl, and combine the buttermilk and vanilla in another small bowl. Add this flour mixture to the wet mix alternately with the buttermilk mixture. Stir just until combined. If making black cupcakes like I did, add to the batter at the end. I needed about 1/4 ounce of black gel food coloring to achieve this color.

Bake in 350 degree oven for about 17-20 minutes. Let cool in cupcake tins for about 5 minutes, then remove to finish cooling on a wire rack.

Peanut Butter Cup Cream Filling
Ingredients
about 1/2 C - 3/4 C of the following buttercream frosting recipe
7 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
Green and black food coloring

Mix it all up with a fork and/or a electric mixer, and fill middle of cupcakes.

Alternate Buttercream Recipe (this is not my usual buttercream recipe... its a little stiffer)
1/2 c solid veg. shortening
1/2 c butter, soft
1 tsp vanilla extract (clear, if possible)
4 c sifted confectioner's sugar (~1lb)
Food coloring, if desired

*Cream shortening and butter.
*Add vanilla, mix well.
*Add sugar, one cup at a time, beating on medium speed. Scrape down side of bowl often.
*Add milk, beating at medium speed until icing is light and fluffy. Add coloring if desired.
Keep if refrigerator and rewhip before using (if not used immediately).
Makes 3 Cups.

More Halloween cupcakes to come...

Banana Fluffernutter Cupcakes and Mini-Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting

I'm back from my trip, and back in the blogosphere! The trip was beautiful. Venice, Bari, Olympia, Mykonos, Santorini, Athens, Croatia, and home. We had wonderful weather, tremendously enjoyable excursions, and outrageously good food. And now, we're back in the land of dollars instead of Euros, homework instead of guided tours, and peanut butter sandwiches instead of 6 course european meals. Ehh... its...good.. to be home? I'm joking. It was a great trip, but it is nice to be back in our house with our beloved puppy. Unfortunately, life is still chaotic and busy. Thesis deadlines are rapidly approaching and I need to continue doing some serious intensive work on it for the next few weeks. But, I still found time to make cupcakes.

This week's cupcake of the week, the Banana Fluffernutter Cupcake, is... really ugly. In my head, they looked quite adorable. Once executed, however, the cupcakes appearance proved to be less than cute. But oh well, they still taste good. I just don't know how well they will sell. This week's flavor combo was inspired by that amazing Fluffernutter sandwich from childhood, (or adulthood if you're a child at heart like me and still eat them) made from Peanut Butter and Marshmallow Fluff spread on bread. With the addition of banana, the flavor combo is a total winner. Banana cupcakes, topped with peanut butter frosting, and then some homemade marshmallow cream and crunchies for a garnish (an attempt to make them look a little less ugly... didn't help.)

Banana Fluffernutter Cupcakes
The Banana Cupcake recipe was the same one I used as my Hound-dog Heaven cupcakes, and the Peanut Butter Frosting is the same one I used here in the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes (except this time I made the mistake of skipping the step of food processing the Peanut Butter... so it is much clumpier and MUCH drier...NOT cute). For the Marshmallow Cream frosting, I used this Epicurious Recipe scaled down.

Marshmallow Cream Frosting
Ingredients:
1/3 cup + 2 teaspoons white granulated sugar
1 Lg egg white
1/8 teaspoon Cream of tartar
2 tablespoons Water
1/2 teaspoon clear Vanilla extract
Tiny dash of salt

In large metal bowl, whisk together water, sugar, egg white, cream of tartar, and salt. Set bowl over pan of barely simmering water and mix with handheld electric mixer at low speed. Gradually increase speed to high, beating until mixture holds stiff peaks, about 5 minutes.

Transfer bowl from pan to folded kitchen towel on counter and continue beating until mixture is cool and billowy, about 2 minutes more. Beat in vanilla. Cool piped frosting on to cupcakes.


Ehh, I told you they were ugly. The marshmallow frosting was pretty easy to do, and had a great consistency for piping. Very much like marshmallow fluff. I will definitely use this recipe for frosting again.


BUT THATS NOT ALL. That's right! There's a bonus recipe this week! Tonight, I have a little get-together with the girls from my Italy abroad trip. For the occasion, I whipped up some mini-vanilla cupcakes topped with nutella frosting, in honor of the delicious hazelnut spread we ate daily during our time abroad there. The cupcake recipe is my usual one, scaled down to 1/4 of the original, so that it only makes 24 mini-cupcakes (approximately 7 or 8 regular sized cupcakes). But its the frosting thats the star of these cupcakes.

Nutella Frosting
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons nutella
1 1/2 cups of sifted confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
Little sprinkling of salt
4 teaspoons milk

In a small bowl, In a medium bowl, using an electric hand mixer, beat softened butter, nutella and vanilla until well mixed. In a small bowl, mix sugar, salt and cocoa powder until its thoroughly mixed. Gradually, add this dry mixture to the butter mixture, adding milk as needed to get a creamy frosting-like consistency.
I got JUSTTTT enough out of this to pipe frosting on to 24 mini-cupcakes. It is very, very good if you like nutella.

Arrivederci...Again!

Yes, its that time again. Today, me, Dan, and the dog are off to NY. And on Saturday, me and Daniel leave for Europe. Ahhhhh, bellissima. So posting will have to be put on hold while I cruise through a cruise leisurely through the Mediterranean, making stops in Italy, Croatia and the Greek Isles. Mi dispiace. Mi mancherai! I shall be back in a little over a week. I leave you with this:
Wine served in glasses made of chocolate?

Fino ad allora,
Stephanie

Sweet! By Good Golly Miss Holly: Cupcakery Review

Until recently, I think I had been a bit ahead of the cupcake-game in the Central Florida area. In New York and LA, every turn you make you are met with another sweet shop, filling their cases with various cakelets topped with towering mounds of fluffy frosting. But here, not the case. For the most part, you can only find cupcakes mass-made at your local Publix... until recently, that is. On July 3rd, 2008 Sweet! By Good Golly Miss Holly, cupcakery and frozen yogurtery, celebrated their opening in the Waterford Lakes Town Center in Orlando, right down the block from UCF. Since you get a free cupcake when you sign up for their mailing list, I had no excuse not to go check it out and do some "research".
Well, its an adorable little place. A minimalist, happy, cheerful interior. I walked up to the counter to check out what they had. They have "Breakfast Cupcakes," (muffins... cute.) "Original" cupcakes for $3, and slightly smaller "Classic" cupcakes for $2.50. They have a menu of certain cupcakes they feature every day, and other flavors that rotate daily. The friendly cupcake dude at the counter handed me my free Original Cookies and Cream cupcake and I went home to do the real experimentation... Eating it!



Its a pretty decent sized cupcake - more than enough for me and the boy to split. We cut it into 4 slices and prepared our very critical, cupcake-expert tastebuds. It was a very tasty cupcake - the cake part itself was very good. Moist, but not too moist, and held together very well. And the frosting? Also very good, but me and Daniel both agreed it tasted rather commercial, like it came out of a Betty Crocker can... which of course is delicious, but not what we were expecting. It even had the same thick-ish, dry, sturdier texture of frosting from a can. Not as wet and squishy as home-made frosting. (How DOES one achieve frosting with that kind of consistency with home-made frosting? If anyone knows of a recipe, let me know! I think stiffening my frosting consistency will be my next baking quest, so that they are better suited for transport home in a little take-out box. I'd love to achieve that texture frosting but with the taste of my home-made frosting.) Though, theirs is probably closer to the flavor of frosting people grew up knowing, as most parents probably didn't send cupcakes with home-made buttercream frosting to elementary school with their kids for their birthday. It just wasn't as "Gourmet" as we expected it to be.



Not until the cupcake was 3/4 gone, did we realize that there was an ooey-gooey cookie-ish filling:



I apologize for the less than appetizing picture, but thats as good as I could get in a hurry (we wanted to finish eating it). So, overall it was a very good cupcake. Though Dan said he didn't really get a "cookies and cream" flavor from it. But I think I'll have to do some more "research" of the other flavors before I reach a final conclusion. :) That key lime cupcake did look quite good...

Chocolate Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

It is absolutely amazing how fast the week flies by when you are trying to accomplish 9,000,000 things every day. Another week has gone by, and I feel like I have accomplished none of the work I planned on getting started on. ::sigh:: I can only hope that I'll actually be able to get it all done by the due dates. I'm getting quite nervous. And next Friday I leave for Europe for a week... oy vey. I thought your senior year, last semester was supposed to be easy??

Anyway, in between making my Italian presentation on Restaurazione D'Arte in Italia for Tuesday and NOT getting any more work done on my thesis, I was able to whip up this batch of Cupcakes of the Week. I must say, I'm more than happy with the results. A few days ago... well maybe it was more like weeks ago... I'm not sure... but I saw a little blog snippet of Chocolate Snickerdoodle Cookies. How amazing does THAT sound? Combining the amazing-ness of Cinnamon Sugar with Chocolate?! Count me IN. I decided to try to make the Cupcake version of that.

For the Chocolate Cake, I went with this recipe for Double Chocolate Layer Cake from Epicurious. It had a good number of good reviews, and I really wanted a rich, deep, chocolatey, moist cake to be my base. I scaled it down and played with it as such:


don't they look soo dark and chocolatey?

Chocolate Cinnamon Cupcakes adapted from Epicurious
Makes 17 cupcakes

Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
3/4 C Hot brewed Coffee
**EDIT: 1 1/2 C Granulated Sugar
1 1/4 C Flour
3/4 C Unsweetened Cocoa Powder (not Dutch Process)
1 Teaspoon baking soda
1/4 + 1/8 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 + 1/8 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 Eggs (I know, I'm so annoying!)
1/4 + 1/8 C Oil (I used olive oil, its fiiiinneee)
3/4 C Buttermilk
1/4 + 1/8 Teaspoon Vanilla
1 teaspoon of Cinnamon

Preheat to 300, and line your cupcake pans with 17 liners.
Put the semi-sweet chocolate chips in a glass measuring cup, and the hot brewed coffee in another glass, microwave safe measuring cup. If your coffee is not super hot, I recommend making it so with the help of your trusty microwave. Pour the hot coffee over the chocolate and let it melt. Give it a stir every couple of minutes.
In a medium bowl, combine sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the eggs until they are slightly thickened and a light, opaque yellow color.
Slowly add the oil, buttermilk and vanilla to the eggs. Then add the melted chocolate mixture, beating until combined well.
Next, add the sugar mixture and beat on medium until combined well.
Pour batter into cupcake liners until they are about 3/4 full. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
Place cupcake pans on cooling rack and let sit for 5 minutes. Then, take a knife and gently separate any cupcake-tops that may have grown and stuck to the pan. Remove cupcakes from pan and let cool completely on wire rack.



Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
2 sticks of butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 cups confectioners sugar

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until light, fluffy and creamy. Then, add the vanilla. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and ground cinnamon. Then, add slowly to the butter mixture. Beat on high for about 5 minutes, until it reaches desired consistency.



I would definitely use this chocolate cake recipe again, it was easy, and came out very moist and chocolatey. And the cinnamon buttercream... great. In both the cake and the frosting, the cinnamon was noticeable but not overpowering. It had a good balance of rich, intense chocolatey-ness, and spice from the cinnamon.



And before I go, I would like to share two things with you. One is silly and one is exciting. Ok, the exciting one first:

LOOK, I got on Cupcakes Take the Cake! I was so excited! Theirs is one of my favorite blogs, so getting on there was a very cool thing for me :)

Ok, here's the silly thing:



How cute is Ernie taking pictures of his chocolate cuppycakes? He'd be a good foodie blogger.