Posts from the ‘Iron Cupcake: Earth’ Category

Oct 15

Iron Cupcake Earth: Cheese

I almost opted out of this month’s Iron Cupcake Earth challenge because of the bizarre ingredient. True, I could have just used cream cheese, but that wouldn’t have been quite so challenging. I wanted a cheese in both the cupcake and frosting, but I knew I didn’t want the average cream cheese… and well, I knew I didn’t want to make a savory cupcake. Hence, this was born…

A chocolate cupcake with a cherry ricotta center and frosted with mascarpone frosting. A dusting of cocoa powder sits on top, accompanied by a cherry. I can’t believe that it actually tastes quite nice! It’s the first time I’ve ever eaten a sweet ricotta, as well as the first time I’ve ever tasted mascarpone.

I’m quite proud of this cupcake, much more so than my entry last month for the basil challenge.

This month, the prizes for winning Iron Cupcake Earth are from Etsy artist Art On The Menu, Etsy artist Lots of Sprinkles, Bakelove Bakewear, Fiesta Products, Hello, Cupcake, Jessie Steele Aprons, Cupcake Courier and Taste of Home. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers.

Here are the recipes…

Martha Stewart’s One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes
-recipe cut into thirds

Cherry Ricotta Filling

Ingredients
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 heaping tablespoons cherry pie filling (without cherries)
2 heaping tablespoons cherry pie filling cherries, chopped

Preparation
Drain ricotta cheese if watery through a cheesecloth for 30-60 minutes. Mix ricotta, sugar, vanilla, cherry pie filling and cherries with a spoon until combined. Refrigerate about 30 minutes.
When cupcakes are completely cool, fill them with cherry ricotta filling using the cone method.

Mascarpone Frosting

Ingredients
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
4 ounces mascarpone cheese
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation
Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla until fluffy. Then mix in cold mascarpone cheese until smooth. Frost cooled cupcakes.

Sep 23

Iron Cupcake Earth: Basil

I wasn’t fully prepared for this month’s Iron Cupcake Earth challenge. I also couldn’t give it my total concentration because a variety of personal/family things have needed top priority this month.

I did try to make a white chocolate cupcake, filled with basil cream and frosted with strawberry meringue buttercream earlier this month, but that attempt failed – sunken cupcakes and non-fluffy meringue! Not to mention, I didn’t have enough basil to make basil syrup.

So my entry, with just a couple of days until the deadline, is, admittedly, a hurried and not full-hearted attempt at creating a basil cupcake.

A strawberry cupcake, filled with basil whipped cream, frosted with strawberry mousse that has chopped up basil in it. The taste? I’ll just say that basil cupcakes are not high on my list of favorite cupcake flavors.

Strawberry Cupcakes

Ingredients
2/3 cup whole fresh or frozen strawberries, thawed
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 cup whole milk, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
2 large egg whites, room temperature

Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners; set aside.

Place strawberries in a small food processor; process until pureed. You should have about 1/3 cup of puree, add a few more strawberries if necessary or save any extra puree for frosting; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a small bowl, mix together milk, vanilla, and strawberry puree; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter on medium-high speed, until light and fluffy. Gradually add sugar and continue to beat until well combined and fluffy. Reduce the mixer speed to medium and slowly add egg and egg whites until just blended.

With the mixer on low, slowly add half the flour mixture; mix until just blended.

Add the milk mixture; mix until just blended. Slowly add remaining flour mixture, scraping down sides of the bowl with a spatula, as necessary, until just blended.

Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Transfer muffin tin to oven and bake until tops are just dry to the touch, 22 to 25 minutes. Transfer muffin tin to a wire rack and let cupcakes cool completely in tin before icing.

Basil Whipped Cream

Ingredients
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
5 ounces basil or mint
1 cup heavy whipping cream

Method
Bring sugar and water to a boil, stir until sugar dissolves. Chop basil or mint and add to the mixture. Boil for 3 minutes. Cool to room temperature.

Beat whipping cream on high until stiff peaks form add the five to six tablespoons of syrup to taste and beat until combined.

Strawberry Mousse Frosting

Ingredients
2 cups fresh strawberries, rinsed
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin
2 cups heavy cream
3 tablespoons sugar

Method
Combine raspberries and sugar in a saucepan and cook over medium heat. Stir mixture until it is basically a liquid. Stir in gelatin, continue to cook until dissolved. Remove from heat and transfer to a medium sized bowl. Refrigerate overnight.

Beat heavy cream on high until stiff peaks form. Add the three tablespoons of sugar and beat until combined.

Mix about a third of the whipped cream into raspberry mixture until well combined. Fold in remaining whipped cream.

Prizes this month are Metal Sugar, Head Chefs by Fiesta Products, Hello Cupcake by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, Jesse Steele Aprons, Cupcake Courier and Taste of Home.

Aug 20

4 Comments

Iron Cupcake Earth: Chili

I have finally completed my entry for Iron Cupcake Earth’s challenge of chili pepper. I made two variations of my entry and chose the one I liked best.

My entry is a chocolate cupcake, filled with chili chocolate ganache, topped with a layer of chili chocolate ganache, frosted with peanut butter frosting and sprinkled with a dash of cayenne pepper.

My other variation was the same as the above, but with chocolate frosting.

I chose the one with peanut butter frosting because it tasted more interesting. I loved this cupcake; it tasted like a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting, but with an extra spicy tingle. When my husband took his first bite he said, “I don’t taste any chili in these!”. I smiled and waited. A second later, he said, “Oh, now I do!”.

What I also love about these cupcakes was the fact that I used our own chili peppers that we grew in our garden. We dried them and kept them to use for later. I ground them up today and mixed them up in the chocolate ganache, along with a dash of cayenne pepper.

I didn’t post a cross section of this cupcake because the chili chocolate ganache was so dark that you couldn’t even tell that the chocolate cupcake was filled with the ganache in the photos!

The winner of Iron Cupcake Earth receives prizes from Cakespy’s Etsy shop, Cupcake Courier, Fiesta Products, Hello, Cupcake, Jesse Steele, and Taste of Home.

Recipes:

Chocolate Cupcakes
Adapted from a post at Cupcakes Take The Cake
makes 12-14 cupcakes

Ingredients
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla

Method
Preheat oven to 375, then turn it down to 350 just prior to baking

Beat the butter with an electric mixer until it is soft, then add sugar. Beat about 3 minutes.

Add the eggs, one at a time beating until they are well combined.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients and whisk them to incorporate them.

Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar and beat it just to combine. Add 1/2 of the liquids (milk & vanilla), scrape down bowl and beat to combine. Continue adding the dry and wet ingredients alternately making sure you END WITH THE DRY.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3′s of the way.

Bake for about 20-22 minutes. Do not overbake! Allow to cool, then frost.

—

Chili Chocolate Ganache
Adapted from Cupcake Bakeshop
makes about 1/2 cup ganache, you’ll probably have some leftover

Ingredients
1/4 cup + 3 tblsp + 1/2 tsp heavy cream
1 tblsp + 1/2 tsp butter
1 3/4 tsp ancho chili powder
1 small pinch ground cayenne pepper
3.6 ounces dark chocolate, chopped

Method
Heat cream and butter over medium heat until butter is melted and cream bubbles around saucepan edge.

Place peppers and chopped chocolate in a medium sized bowl, pour heated cream and butter over the chocolate.

Let the mixture sit for about 30 seconds then start whisking it until smooth.

Set aside mixture and stir occasionally with a wooden spoon, until it cools enough to use.

—

Peanut Butter Frosting
Adapted from Shazam In The Kitchen

Ingredients
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup peanut butter
3 cups powdered sugar
2-4 tablespoons milk
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 small pinch cayenne pepper (optional)

Method
In large bowl, combine butter, peanut butter, sugar, salt, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons milk. Mix well, adding more milk as needed to make a fluffy spreadable frosting. Sprinkle with a very small pinch of cayenne pepper if desired.

Aug 6

Join Iron Cupcake: Earth

Iron Cupcake: Earth is a brand new worldwide cupcake-baking competition that will promise a lot of fun and will challenge our creativeness. Each month a new ingredient is announced that must be incorporated into a cupcake. Bakers have until the end of the month to come up with their own original cupcake entry and the winner will receive a great set of prizes. To join Iron Cupcake: Earth all you have to do is send email to IronCupcakeEarth@wi.rr.com with the following information:

Name
City, State, Country
Blog Address
Flickr Name
Referral: The Sweetest Kitchen

Head on over to the official Iron Cupcake: Earth blog for more information.

I’ve already joined and look forward to creating my first Iron Cupcake: Earth entry!