Posts tagged ‘buttercream’

Apr 13

Iron Cupcake Earth: Cherry 7UP Cupcakes

When voting for the Iron Cupcake: Earth ingredient for April, I voted for herbs & spices! I wasn’t very interested in a cupcake made from soda pop. But since I didn’t enter last month’s competition, I decided I could come up with something for this month.

I chose to do something with the new Cherry 7UP. I have seen these done before from NZ Cupcake Queen, but she didn’t post her recipe. Hers are very pretty!

I chose to alter a Mountain Dew cupcake recipe I had found online. I replaced the Mountain Dew with Cherry 7UP, replaced the lemon extract with maraschino cherry juice and omitted the lemon and lime zest in both the cupcake and buttercream recipe. I also drizzled the cupcakes with fresh Cherry 7UP after baking, which made the cake very moist.

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Note: It’s cloudy and rainy today – when you rely on natural light to take your pictures inside the house, cloudy days are not good, hence the grayish cast to this photo!

Surprisingly, this cupcake does not taste much of cherry or 7UP (although the drizzling of fresh Cherry 7UP gave it a tiny hint)! I’m a little disappointed. But they do make a nice sweet dessert, and they are pretty cute.

Our April ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:

A creation by FRUITFLYPIE, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=16748
a pair of cupcake earrings from LOTS OF SPRINKLES at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6057281.
a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin’ Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/
PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!

Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com .

Now, the recipes…

Cherry 7UP Cupcakes
Adapted from Quirky Cupcake
Makes 12-14

Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup Cherry 7UP
3/4 teaspoons maraschino cherry juice or syrup
1 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
Extra Cherry 7UP for drizzling

Method
Preheat oven to 350F. Line cupcake pan with paper liners.

Beat butter on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar; beat on medium-high until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time; scrape the sides of the bowl between each addition.

Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl. Add to butter mixture. Mix on low for 5 seconds.

Add Chery 7 UP and cherry juice or syrup. Mix to combine.

Fill cupcake liners evenly with batter, about 2/3′s full (I actually went about 3/4′s full).

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Immediately after baking, poke deep holes – but not all the way through – each cupcake with toothpick or fork, and slowly drizzle approximately one teaspoon over cupcake. Let sit to absorb and completely cool before frosting.

Cherry 7UP Buttercream
Adapted from Quirky Cupcake
Frosts 12-14 cupcakes

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
2-2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon Cherry 7UP
1 teaspoon maraschino cherry juice or syrup
Red food coloring gel (optional)

Method
Sift confectioners’ sugar into a bowl or onto parchment paper.

Beat butter at medium-high speed until creamy. Add half of the sugar, mix on low for 5 seconds.

Add Cherry 7UP and cherry juice or syrup. Beat until combined.

Add food coloring, if desired, for a pinker hue.

Gradually add remaining sugar until a proper consistency and sweetness is reached.

Mar 30

3 Comments

Baby Bluebird Cupcakes

It’s a bit early for Easter, but I couldn’t resist making these nesting baby bluebird cupcakes from Martha Stewart – instructions here.

Mine are nowhere near as cute as Martha’s – they are very easy to make, but the hardest part for me was piping those tiny beaks. I don’t have a small leaf tip, so I made one from a Ziploc bag, reinforced with tape. Maybe that was my problem!

I did not use the vanilla cupcake recipe or the chocolate buttercream from Martha’s instructions. I used Billy’s vanilla cupcake recipe, and Martha’s basic buttercream recipe (both recipes divided in half). I’ve made Billy’s vanilla cupcake recipe before, but this is the first time I’ve got to taste them – I love them! I’ve been having a hard time finding a good vanilla cupcake recipe, but I really really like this one.

I would like to try to make these again sometime, they really are super cute (well, Martha’s are, anyway!) and I’d like to perfect the beak-piping technique!

Mar 22

6 Comments

Chocolate Avocado Cupcakes

I had a very ripe avocado that I’ve had stored in the refrigerator for the past couple of days and was thinking of something to do with it. I really love avocados, so I thought I’d see if I could find a recipe for avocado cupcakes. Then I found the chocolate avocado cupcake recipe. Very interesting! I had to give it a go.

This recipe is not made with a mixer, but a food processor. I don’t have a food processor so I used our blender instead. The blending of all the wet ingredients made a very creamy and beautiful pale green mixture. This mixture is then whisked into the dry ingredients.

The cupcakes need to be baked a few minutes longer than the average cupcake baking time of 20 minutes, mine ended up around 27 minutes total. The tops of these cupcakes cracked, as you can see in the photo at the top of this post, and they were slightly crunchy. It looked more like a muffin, actually. The smell of these cupcakes baking was amazing, it was a rich chocolately smell blanketing the entire house!

The chocolate avocado cupcakes have an amazing soft, moist texture. This is what I like most about them. Can I taste avocado? No! I personally don’t care much for the taste of the cake itself, though it isn’t bad. I would definitely make these cupcakes again. They taste great with buttercream (and would probably taste nice with the glaze in the original recipe, but I didn’t have all the ingredients necessary to make that).

The buttercream frosting I used was my new favorite buttercream from Martha Stewart, recipe divided in half.

Mar 22

4 Comments

Baby Shower Cupcakes

A couple of months ago a friend asked me if I’d like to bake two dozen cupcakes for a baby shower she was hosting for a friend of her’s. Of course I said that I would, and that day was today. She requested one dozen vanilla cupcakes and one dozen strawberry cupcakes, and for both to be frosted with vanilla frosting.

I began the task yesterday. I used Billy’s vanilla cupcake recipe for the vanilla cupcakes, a cupcake which I had never baked before. While I couldn’t taste-test these (as I got exactly one dozen after cutting the recipe in half), they seemed to be moist and smelled of sugar cookies.

For the strawberry cupcakes, I used Sprinkles’ strawberry cupcake recipe. I’ve made these once before and noticed the strawberry taste isn’t very strong. They also don’t turn out very pink. My friend specifically said that she didn’t want a very strong tasting strawberry cupcake, so I thought these would be fine.

For the frosting I used the Basic Buttercream recipe which can be found in February 2009′s issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine, or at her website. I had never made this frosting before, but was extremely pleased with the results. It was very smooth, a perfect texture I would say, and it was not too sweet. In fact, it was quite buttery. I will definitely be using this buttercream recipe again in the future. I used the recipe in its entirety for these two dozen cupcakes and had just approximately 1/2 cup leftover.

Above are the vanilla cupcakes, below are the strawberry cupcakes. They are not the best photos as I photographed these in the morning and can never get good lighting in the house in the morning for taking food photos.

This the first time the Cupcake Courier has really been used, so I had to take a photo of it as well!

I personally did not get to taste-test any of these cupcakes because I made exactly the right amount! I can’t wait to hear if everyone enjoyed them!

Mar 7

3 Comments

Ghirardelli Devil's Food Cake & Mocha Buttercream

Yesterday was my birthday, so I just had to bake a cake. It took a while for me to decide what kind of cake I wanted and I ended up with a couple of recipes inside of a Ghirardelli 100% Cocao baking bar (that’s an unsweetened chocolate baking bar, in case you weren’t sure). It was for a one-bowl devil’s food cake and mocha buttercream.

This was going to be a bit of a dare, however, as the recipe asked for shortening – 1) I don’t have any shortening because 2) I don’t like shortening. I had read many comments from people who always substitute butter for shortening with minimal or barely noticeable differences, so I took a chance and substituted unsalted butter for the shortening.

What I thought would happen though, ended up happening. The recipe tells you to sift a flour mixture into a large mixing bowl, then put all the wet ingredients on top of that and mix for 2 minutes. That’s a really strange way to make cake batter, in my opinion. I thought that the butter wouldn’t mix in thoroughly and would leave butter chunks in the batter. And, well, I was right.

I didn’t want to keep beating the batter so I wouldn’t overbeat it, so I poured it into a pan and sat it on the stove over gentle heat for just enough time to melt the butter. I kept thinking I should have went with a different recipe, because this one would end up a disaster and I would have wasted a whole bar of that 100% cocao!

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However, the cake ended up baking just fine, much to my surprise!

Note, number of candles not relative to my age (although some could argue that)

The buttercream was very strange to make as well, even though I did have all the required ingredients for that. The recipe says to melt a bar of 100% cocao. Then dissolve two teaspoons of instant coffee in 2 tablespoons of boiling water, and stir it into the melted chocolate. This turned the melted chocolate into a sticky clump of chocolate and my first thought was that this would not be able to mix into the frosting without clumping. And, well, I was right again.

I beat the frosting for quite a while (maybe two minutes?) at medium-high speed just to work out the clumps and this did actually work. It’s a very light and creamy buttercream with a strong mocha taste. I didn’t need to add all of the milk the recipe asked for, I left about 2 teaspoons (give or take) of the milk out. If I added more it would have been to wet to stick on the cake, I think!

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So, how did this cake end up, overall? First I will say that I will not be making this cake again, even with using shortening. I personally don’t think this cake tastes all that great, but it isn’t bad. I feel like I wasted my nice unsweetened chocolate on this cake, though.

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View printer-friendly PDF recipes here.

Dec 6

2 Comments

Coffee Buttercream

I spent some time searching for an easy coffee buttercream recipe, but the only ones I could find involved either raw egg whites, or was a Swiss meringue buttercream. I just wanted a regular coffee buttercream to frost the next batch of chocolate cupcakes that I would remove from the freezer.

However, I could not find a regular buttercream that was coffee-flavored. It would be easy to create one myself (I presume I would just dissolve instant coffee in milk and add that to the frosting), but I did find one in one of my cookbooks, Chocolate, Coffee, Caramel: A Cook’s Book of Decadence.

I’m posting it here in case someone else is in need of a simple coffee buttercream.

Coffee Buttercream
adapted from Chocolate, Coffee, Caramel: A Cook’s Book of Decadence
Makes enough to frost 12-18 cupcakes

Ingredients
2 teaspoons instant coffee
1 tablespoon hot water
6.5 ounces unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
10 ounces sifted confectioners’ sugar

Method
Dissolve the coffee in the hot water, then set aside and let come to room temperature before using. Using an electric mixer, mix the butter, coffee mixture and vanilla in a bowl until well combined. Gradually add the icing sugar, beating until smooth.

Not the best photo, but just wanted to give you an idea of what it looks like. The frosting is pipeable, but I just used a knife to spread it on. Thank my daughter for the chocolate jimmies!

Nov 12

4 Comments

Jupiter Cupcakes

These are Jupiter cupcakes for the solar system cupcake contest!

The cake is chocolate with a kick of cayenne pepper to represent the heat of Jupiter’s core, and the center of the cupcake is filled with a soft whipped cream to represent the many layers of clouds on Jupiter. The frosting is a cream cheese/chocolate buttercream swirl in colors similar to Jupiter’s. Hanging above the Jupiter cupcakes are the 4 Galilean moons of Europa, Ganymede, Io and Callisto, formed from homemade playdough.

Thank you Cupcakes Take The Cake for posting my Jupiter cupcakes on your blog!

Recipes:

Chocolate cupcakes
Makes 12

Ingredients
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (use more or less to suit your taste)
1 large eggs
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons warm water
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons buttermilk
1 tablespoon + 1 1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with liners; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, sift together cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cayenne pepper and salt. Add the eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla; mix batter until smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to assure batter is well mixed.

Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about one-third full. Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 20 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.

Whipped cream filling
Makes about 1 cup

Ingredients
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
Chill stainless steel bowl and whisk attachment of an electric mixer in freezer for about 10-20 minutes. Combine all ingredients in steel bowl and use whisk attachment at high speed until stiff peaks form. Fill cupcakes when the cupcakes are completely cool.

Cream cheese frosting
Makes enough for 1-2 dozen cupcakes

Ingredients
8 ounches cream cheese, softened and cut into small pieces
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened and cut into small pieces
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

Method
In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla and beat well. Gradually add the sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating continously until smooth and creamy. Cover and refrigerate frosting for 2-3 hours, but no longer, to thicken before using.

Chocolate buttercream
Makes about 1 cup

Ingredients
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
Melt butter. Stir in cocoa powder. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount of additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla.

To make swirled frosting, spoon an amount of each color individually into a piping bag so that the colors are side by side. Squeeze out the frosting over a bowl first until all the colors start coming out, then start swirling!

Nov 9

12 Comments

Iron Cupcake Earth: Cranberry

I’m going to admit first thing that I do not like the taste of cranberries, so I was a bit apprehensive about creating a cupcake for this particular Iron Cupcake: Earth challenge. It didn’t deter me, however, from my first entry into the cranberry challenge (I will submitting another entry this month); my green tea cupcakes, filled with cranberry cream cheese filling and frosted with cranberry buttercream with a drizzle of white chocolate.

I think the green tea and cranberry is a nice pairing. The overall taste of the cupcake is very sweet; the cranberry taste of the frosting is very subtle, while the strongest cranberry taste comes from the filling. I will also note that I used a small amount of red food coloring in the cranberry parts of the cupcake.

The Iron Cupcake: Earth prizes this month are from Etsy artists Lollipop Workshop, Cookie Sunshine, Lots of Sprinkles and Cakespy. Corporate prizes are from Fiesta Products, Hello, Cupcake, Jessie Steele, Cupcake Courier, and Taste of Home. For this month only we have an added bonus from Sweet Cuppin Cakes Bakery and Cupcakery Supply.

Iron Cupcake: Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers.

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Recipes:

Green Tea Cupcakes
based on Magnolia Bakery’s vanilla cupcake, and the same cupcake recipe I used for my my green tea cupcakes. What I did differently was divide the recipe by thirds; I ended up with eight cupcakes. For the green tea, add 1.5 teaspoons of green tea (matcha) powder to the flour mix.

Cranberry Cream Cheese Filling

Ingredients
* 1.5 ounces cream cheese
* 2 tablespoons cranberry sauce
* pinch of salt
* 6 ounces confectioners’ sugar

Method
Soften cream cheese and cranberry sauce together in medium sized bowl. Add salt. Gradually add sugar, beating with electric mixer until creamy. Add red food coloring, if desired, for a brighter color.

Cranberry Buttercream

Ingredients
* 1/2 cup cranberry juice
* 1/4 cup sweetened dried cranberries
* 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
* 1 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar, more if desired for firmer texture
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
In a small saucepan, combine the juice and cranberries. Simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until softened. Let cool and either strain cranberry juice, pressing the berries until most of the juice is gone, or chop the cranberries finley.

In a large bowl, combine the butter, sugar and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer until light and creamy. Beat in the cranberries. Add more confectioners’ sugar for a firmer texture, if desired. Add red food coloring, if desired, for a brighter color.

White Chocolate Drizzle

Ingredients
* 2-3 squares Ghirardelli White Chocolate

Method
Melt white chocolate in small microwave safe bowl, microwaving in short bursts of 15 seconds, stirring after each 15 seconds. Shouldn’t take more than 30 seconds total. Spoon into sturdy sandwich bag, or piping bag, cut off a small tip of one corner and squeeze white chocolate in a quick sweeping motion on top of frosted cupcakes. Top each cupcake with a fresh cranberry, if desired.

Oct 27

Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes

I’ve really been in the mood for pumpkin ever since my pumpkin cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting turned out so well. I bought a can of pumpkin at the store the last time I was there and I’ve been trying to think of what to do with it. I decided on chocolate pumpkin cupcakes with pumpkin buttercream frosting.

For the cupcakes, I used a recipe I found from Country Living magazine online and divided the recipe into fourths. The recipe said it would make 36 cupcakes, so I intended on getting 9 cupcakes; I actually ended up with 15! I added about 1/8 teaspoon of ginger to the recipe. The cupcakes rose to a very nice dome, I was very pleased. The cake itself is fluffy and moist.

For the frosting, I found a wonderful, no, awesome, pumpkin buttercream recipe from A Year In The Kitchen, originally created for pumpkin sandwich cookies. This frosting really added the flavor to the cupcakes; it’s a perfect pairing. I’m so glad I found this recipe!

I’ll also add that my daughter greatly approves of this recipe. She normally only eats the frosting off cupcakes, but with these cupcakes she ate the whole thing! She gives them two thumbs up!

Oct 2

6 Comments

Chocolate Cupcakes With Cream Cheese Filling

How To Eat A Cupcake often inspires me. In her recent post about making Martha Stewart’s one-bowl chocolate cupcakes, she raved about how “INSANELY good” they are; with this sort of review, I just couldn’t resist trying these one-bowl chocolate cupcakes for myself.

Now, remember that I had leftover cream cheese filling from those banana whoopie pies (How To Eat A Cupcake coincidentally posted a whoopie pie post just shortly after mine!) and I mentioned that I’d like to use it as filling in chocolate cupcakes. I planned to do this, and decided to mix mini chocolate chips in with the cream cheese filling and use chocolate buttercream for the frosting.

They were indeed very good! Great chocolate cupcakes, and so easy to make! I love how dark they are too.

My 3-year-old daughter and her dinosaurs helped make the frosting with me…

Veloca Raptor climbs out of the bowl, having finished up the last of the frosting!

Recipes:

Martha Stewart’s One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes

Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Frosting

Cream Cheese Filling

Ingredients
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
mini chocolate chips

Method
In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add confectioners’ sugar and vanilla, mixing until smooth and creamy. Mix in enough mini chocolate chips to suit your taste. Fill cupcakes when they are completely cooled. This filling is best used with the cone method for filling the cupcakes.

Sep 14

1 Comment

Chocolate Cherry Diet Dr. Pepper Cupcakes

These cupcakes were a total spur of the moment decision. I had a bottle of Chocolate Cherry Diet Dr. Pepper and I remembered having seen this recipe recently. I’m not sure if Chocolate Cherry Diet Dr. Pepper or just plain Dr. Pepper is supposed to be used in this recipe, but I used the chocolate cherry one. I did know right away, however, that I would be using a different frosting (I originally wanted a white chocolate cherry ganache frosting, but couldn’t work out how to make that and couldn’t find a recipe for it!).

In reviewing this cupcake, I have to say right away that these are the moistest and softest cupcake I have ever eaten. The cake itself could have just melted in my mouth. It is absolutely delicious and does indeed taste like Chocolate Cherry Diet Dr. Pepper.

I had to make some changes to the recipe to suit my ingredients. First, I wanted to cut the recipe into fourths, since the original recipe is for 30 cupcakes and I am only one person! I wanted to make about 7 or 8 to share with the family though, so using this calculator I cut the recipe into fourths. Isn’t it strange though that I ended up with 15 cupcakes! The reason is, I believe, that I didn’t fill the cupcake liners up as much as I should have. I found out through trial and error that the liners should be over 3/4 full of batter in order for the cupcake to rise into a nice dome above the top rim of the liner.

My substitutions of ingredients were as follows, since I didn’t have all the ingredients called for in the recipe:

* I used all purpose flour instead of cake flour.

* I used a melted chocolate substitute for the unsweetened chocolate. 3 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder mixed with 1 tablespoon of oil equals 1 ounce of an unsweetened chocolate bar. I used this substitution, but I added it to the batter right after I let the Dr. Pepper and butter mix set for 10 minutes, then whisked in the chocolate substitution.

* I used plain yogurt instead of sour cream.

* Note that this batter is very runny; I used a measuring cup to pour it into the liners.

* As for the frosting, I decided to use a different recipe because I’ve recently had an experience using an egg white-based frosting and I didn’t have much luck, so I used a basic vanilla buttercream recipe (recipe here). Instead of using 1 tablespoon of milk in the buttercream, I used 1 tablespoon of maraschino cherry syrup and I also added one drop of pink food coloring to give the frosting a nicer pink coloring. There was only a very very slight taste of cherry in the frosting.

I decided to use the pink and purple sugar sprinkles like the photo in the original recipe because for some reason those two colors remind me of soda, so I think it adds a nice touch. The cherry on top is a must, too; wouldn’t be complete without it.

Final word – these are SO good, and like I said, extremely moist! Such a nice treat on a rainy Sunday afternoon, like today!

Updated later: On the second day, these cupcakes taste even better and are still more moist than any cupcake I’ve eaten. I do notice that on the second day the cherry taste of the cake is stronger than it was right after I made them. These little cakes are so flavorful that I dare say they don’t even need frosting; a scoop of ice cream and a cherry would suit these cupcakes just fine, I’m sure!