Posts tagged ‘Frosting’

May 28

Key Lime Cupcakes

I’m not a huge fan of limes, but I could not resist this recipe for key lime cupcakes with white chocolate and coconut frosting.

Unfortunately, there was no buttermilk at the store I bought my ingredients from so I had to fall back on a substitution. Put one tablespoon of white vinegar into a standard 1-cup measuring cup, pour in enough milk to come up to the 1-cup line, and let stand for five minutes – use as much “buttermilk” as your recipe calls for.

The other thing I did differently was toast the coconut. I did this because I felt that the toasted coconut would look nicer on the white frosting.

And, I could not get heavy whipping cream for the frosting at my store, so I went in search of a white chocolate frosting recipe that called for the ingredients that I did have. I found this one, and while it did taste fine, it melted quickly and I had to store the frosted cupcakes in the refrigerator.

I found that the zesting and juicing of the tiny limes took a bit of extra time than the average cupcake, but felt that it was worth it in the end. This is definitely a recipe I will make again (hopefully with normal buttermilk and the original frosting recipe!).

May 28

Chocolate Cupcakes

These are the best cupcakes I have eaten in a while. They are, of course, my standard eggless and butterless chocolate cupcakes with a chocolate frosting recipe I found on the Cupcakes Take The Cake blog.

I added the rainbow non-pareils as a treat for my daughter, who loves sprinkles. I used a plain old Ziploc bag to pipe the frosting on the cupcake.

May 28

Banana Cupcakes

I found this recipe while looking for banana cupcakes, which uses a super sweet honey-cinnamon frosting. Fresh bananas are optional, but helped to alleviate the sweetness of the frosting.

Recipe from MarthaStewart.com. This recipe uses 1 1/2 cups of mashed banana, so there is definitely a strong banana taste which I loved.

I baked these in my Wilton silicone baking cups. Not sure if I like the silicone baking cups – they are hard to wash and while dishwasher safe it is hard to keep them in one place in the dishwasher.

May 28

Short Black Cupcakes

I saved this recipe from a newspaper article in Sydney, Australia dated from my daughter’s birthday in 2006. I finally got around to making them a few weeks ago! They might have looked nicer had I dusted them with cocoa powder or chocolate shavings.

Short Black Cupcakes
Originally from Donna Hay Magazine
makes 12-14

Ingredients
125g butter, softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbs cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk
100g dark chocolate, melted

Coffee icing

Ingredients
1 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
2 tbs instant coffee
3 egg whites

Method
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius.

Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and creamy. Gradually add the eggs and beat well. Sift over the flour, baking powder and cocoa and beat until combined. Fold through the milk, stir in the chocolate and spoon the mixture into four 12-hole 25ml capacity mini-muffin tins lined with paper pattycases. (I used regular sized cupcake tins and got 14 of them out of this recipe.) Bake for 10-12 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool on wire racks.

To make coffee icing
Place the sugar, water, cream of tartar and coffee in a saucepan over high heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 3 minutes.

Place the egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until soft peaks form. While the motor is still running, gradually add the sugar mixture and beat until thick and glossy.

May 28

Chocolate Cupcakes & Vanilla Frosting

My husband was teaching a class in his office a few weeks ago but fell ill in the middle of the week. A coworker covered for him for a couple of days, which was a big help to my husband. I baked a batch of my favorite cupcakes as a thank you present.

This was my best batch yet; these cupcakes just get better and better each time I bake them. These cupcakes were shared throughout my husband’s office and everyone loved them.

May 28

St Patrick's Day Cupcakes

I baked these for a St Patrick’s Day party that my playgroup was having. They are vanilla, with a small dollop of green-tinted batter in the middle of each cupcake, the frosting is the same that I used here.

I made a makeshift shamrock stencil for the white-frosted cupcakes, but it didn’t turn out as well I’d hoped. The kids didn’t mind at all, though.

The cupcake itself was quite a bit more dense than I like and I probably won’t be making this recipe again. Still on the search for my perfect vanilla cupcake recipe.

May 28

My Birthday Cupcakes

My birthday was quite uneventful; it was playgroup day for my daughter and her friends, so I invited them to our house and served these cupcakes – recipe here. I used one drop of each of fluorescent food coloring to color the icing.

They were a hit and I had to give out the recipe! I wasn’t surprised, however, that the kids only ate the frosting and left the cake. I hated to see it go to waste!

May 28

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Valentine's Day Cupcakes

I promised my daughter a Valentine’s Day party with cupcakes. I was after a batter that was safe to eat, so that we could lick the bowl and spoons. Luckily I found this eggless, butterless recipe on MarthaStewart.com and the frosting to match.

They were absolutely delicious. The chocolate cupcake recipe has become my standard chocolate cupcake – I won’t make any other chocolate cupcake! It is also so simple, requiring no eggs or butter.

What I also like about these cupcakes are the perfectly domed tops – so cute!

I did use regular skim milk and regular unsalted butter in the frosting (the original recipe, linked above, called for dairy ingredients that were specifically for people who are allergic to diary) and it still turned out perfect. I added a single drop of pink food coloring to the frosting and topped it with pink sugar sprinkles.

Since making this recipe, I have not been able to find cake flour in my local grocery stores. I use plain old all-purpose flour for this recipe and it turns out so moist and delicate.

This cupcake recipe is thought to be dated back to World War II, created as a result of rationing when eggs and butter were scarce. It is traditionally called “wacky cake”.

May 28

Half-Birthday Cupcakes

I baked these cupcakes for my son’s 6-month birthday. Of course he couldn’t eat any of these, but the rest of us took care of that. We thought it was so funny my daughter only ate the iced side of these cupcakes!

I used this recipe.

May 28

Nigella's Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

This is a recipe I was just dying to try out from Nigella Lawson’s book How To Be A Domestic Goddess. This is one of the best cupcakes I’ve ever tasted. The chocolate ganache frosting is a perfect topping to this cupcake. I did have a problem finding natural colored glace cherries, so had to use the bright red ones. Didn’t subtract from the sinful flavor of these cupcakes though!

You can find this recipe on Nigella.com.

May 28

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Sprinkle Cupcakes

This is the first recipe I tried out on my new Breville planetary mixer that I received for my birthday in 2006. It’s a simple butter cake recipe with a simple chocolate icing.

Butter Cupcakes

Ingredients
125g butter, softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 eggs
300g self raising flour, sifted
3/4 cup milk

Preparation
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add vanilla essence. Add eggs one at a time; beat well after each addition.

Slowly add flour and milk alternately to form a smooth batter.

Divide mixture evenly into two lightly greased and lined 20cm round cake pans, or one deep 22cm round cake pan. If making cupcakes, divide the batter into lined 12-cup cupcake pan.

Bake for 45-50 minutes for cake, or 20-30 minutes for cupcakes. Cake is done when golden on top, or when toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. Turn out onto wire rack to cool.

Chocolate Icing

Ingredients
(I halved this recipe and ended up with just enough to ice the cupcakes – if you want to make a layer cake I’d recommend making the full recipe)
2 tablespoons cocoa
1/2 cup boiling water
40g butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted
Multicolored sprinkles – optional

Preparation
Dissolve cocoa in the boiling water, stir in melted butter and vanilla essence.

Gradually add sifted icing sugar and stir until mixture is smooth and well combined. Spread onto cake and toss on some sprinkles. Be sure to add sprinkles immediately after icing each cupcake, otherwise the icing will become to hard for the sprinkles to stick to.