Week 5 and A New Year

Week 5 was the last tasting box I did before the holidays I decided to make one of the cupcakes fit in to the "Christmas" theme. Cupcake #1 is a gingerbread cupcake that is frosted with a vanilla buttercream frosting and decorated with a homemade mini gingerbread man. Cupcake #2 is a banana cupcake that is filled with a chocolate ganache and then frosted with a peanut butter mousse frosting and decorated with a dried banana chip. The peanut butter frosting was AMAZING, I could have eaten it by the spoonful, yum!

I took the time between Christmas and New Years off from cupcake testing, so I could spend the holidays with the family. We had a nice Christmas, my parents came up from VA and we had lots of visits from family in RI over the next week.

I am excited to see what 2012 will bring. I am working on lots of new tasty treats for the upcoming weeks, some of the flavors I am hoping to try are tiramisu, red velvet, hummingbird, carrot cake, maple bacon, and a few others.

Week 3 & Week 4

Cupcake tasting is moving right along, so far the response has been great and I have gotten a ton of great feedback.

Week 3 only had 1 cupcake in it, I had planned on doing a caramel apple cupcake, however could not get them to cook right. They would rise really high then fall and sink really bad in the middle. My google research gave me the reassurance that this is a common problem with apples, due to them holding in steam. I may try this again but grate the apples this time. I did however send out a really yummy pecan pie cupcake. It was a cupcake filled with a ton of pecans and topped with a brown sugar frosting, it really did taste like a slice of pecan pie! YUM

Week 4 was a fun week, cupcake #1 was the lemon lime one that I have made several times for other occasions. It is a lemon lime cake that is glazed with a lemon lime frosting, it is a great end when you want dessert but dont want something overly sweet. Cupcake # 2 was chocolate stout cupcake frosted with a vanilla bean cream cheese. I used Youngs double chocolate stout beer in place of the Guiness and it worked really well, made a nice moist cake. The frosting was amazing, I used a vanilla bean paste in addition to the vanilla extract.

Where does the time go??

Wow it has been a really long time since I sat down and updated about life in cupcake world...

I have been toying with the idea of selling my cupcakes, I thought the first step was to actually figure out if my cupcakes were good enough to sell. I enlisted a group of 11 local moms to be my testers, every week for 10 weeks, they get 4 cupcakes to test, only requirement is they give me honest feed back. So far it is going really well, I have actually been asked to bake cupcakes for a ladies night and a few other things.

Week 1 I did chocolate cake that was frosted with a chocolate buttercream frosting and garnished with chocolate chunks. The second cupcake was a vanilla cake frosted with a vanilla buttercream and garnished with a fondant flower for some color.

Week 2 I did my favorite cupcake, salted chocolate caramel. It was a dark chocolate cupcake, filled with a homemade caramel and sea salt, frosted with dark chocolate frosting and garnished with sea salt. HEAVEN. The second cupcake was a spiced pumpkin frosted with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting, I am not a fan of pumpkin but I can say the frosting was quite yummy! These both got amazing reviews.

This week I am trying a pecan pie cupcake and a caramel apple cupcake, I am excited to see how they turn out :)

lots of yummy things

Last week I tried a new cheesecake recipe, I think I have finally found my go to recipe! This was the perfect balance of creamy and rich, not too dry but not mushy, just right! Every one in the house had multiple slices, and Matthew asks daily if I can make more! I made a homemade raspberry sauce to go with it, I used really nice fresh raspberries and used a spoon to break them up so you got nice bites of raspberry, only added a small amount of sugar so it wasn't overly sweet....yumm it was perfect! I was quite pleased by how easy and tasty it all was.

Saturday we went to "lobster fest" at the Kemper house, I decided to try a new cupcake recipe on everyone...lemon-lime. Wow, they were AMAZING! Not too heavy or sweet with a nice lemon lime bite, the perfect end to lobster night. I was really surprised by how easy the batter was, eggs sugar, lemon juice powder, lime juice and zest, and a small amount of cake flour. They had a lemon lime glaze on them instead of the usual buttercream frosting. Thank you again to the Kemper family for having us and for all the wonderful food! Erik definitely got is fill of lobsters, stuffies, and steamers!
Today is rainy and nasty out, and I am in the mood to make soup. I will have to go raid the pantry and fridge and see what I have in there to throw together. I am really craving Portuguese soup, I think I have everything except the kale. I may have to brave the rain and go to the grocery store.

Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes

I thought instead of making my birthday boys the same ole vanilla or chocolate cupcakes for their birthday I would try something new, chocolate salted caramel cupcakes with a chocolate ganache frosting. Who knew something so tasty could be so easy??

First you had to make the yummy devils food cupcakes and cut a cone in the middle of each one (this is where the YUMMY caramel will go)


Next you have to make the caramel, I have to say it was alot easier then I thought it would be. Basically you boil sugar and water together until it starts to caramelize. Pretty easy, despite the instructions telling me to have a bowl of ice cold water nearby incase the caramel gets on my skin while it's cooking)

Starting to boil....



Yummy homemade caramel...



After you have your cupcakes ready and your caramel made it's time to fill them, the recipe says to fill them with the caramel immediately, however I waited a bit until the caramel started to firm up. (All I could think of were the instructions that called for a large bowl of ice water incase this stuff gets on your skin while it's hot)

You want to fill them as full as you can get them, the caramel will soak into the cupcake a bit so just keep filling.



Your final step is frosting them with a really rich dark chocolate ganache.



They were a huge hit and will be added to my cupcake rotation. Now I need to come up with a new cupcake for Matthew's birthday...Thoughts?


Here is the recipe for the cupcakes, caramel and frosting :)

Martha Stewart's Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes

The Cupcakes
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup warm water

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line mini muffin tin with paper liners. Whisk together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. With mixer on low speed, add eggs, buttermilk, oil, extract, and the water; beat until smooth and combined.

Spoon the batter into liners about two-thirds full. Bake approximately 15 minutes, or until tester comes out clean. Transfer tins to wire racks and allow to cool for 10 minutes; turn cupcakes onto racks and let cool completely. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 1 month in air tight containers.

To finish, use a paring knife to cut a cone-shaped piece (about 1/2 inch deep) from the center of each cupcake and throw away the pieces. Spoon 1 to 2 teaspoons warm Salted Caramel Filling into each hollowed-out cupcake. You will notice the caramel will sink into the cupcake a little, just fill it up a bit more. Sprinkle a pinch of sea salt over filling.

Use a pastry bag with a medium open-star tip (I used Wilton #1M) and pipe Dark Chocolate Frosting onto each cupcake, swirling tip and releasing as you pull up to form a peak. Garnish each cupcake with a pinch of sea salt. Cupcakes are best eaten the day they are filled and frosted. Store at room temperature in airtight containers - do NOT refrigerate. Enjoy!

Salted Caramel Filling
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup water
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
2 1/2 teaspoons sea salt, preferably fleur de sel

Directions
Heat sugar with the water and corn syrup in a heavy saucepan over high, stirring occasionally, until syrup is clear; clip a candy thermometer to side of pan and stop stirring.

Cook until syrup comes to a boil, washing down sides of pan with a wet pastry brush as needed. Boil, gently swirling pan occasionally, until mixture is caramelized and just reaches 360°F. Remove rom heat and slowly pour in cream; stir with a wooden spoon until smooth. Stir in sea salt.

Use immediately; if caramel begins to harden reheat gently until pourable.

Dark Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients:
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon boiling water
2 1/4 cups (4 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 pounds best-quality semi-sweet chocolate, melted and cooled

Directions:
Combine cocoa and boiling water, stirring until cocoa has dissolved.

With electric mixer on medium-high, beat butter, confectioners' sugar, and salt until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Add melted and cooled chocolate, beating until combined and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in the cocoa mixture.

Frosting can be refrigerated up to 5 days, or frozen up to 1 month in an air tight container. Before using, bring to room temperature and beat on low speed until smooth again.