Spiderweb Pumpkin Ginger with Cream Cheese Frosting (10-18-10)

I had been wanting to do some Halloween-inspired cupcakes for this month and finally got around to doing it. I decided on Elinor Klivan’s Spiderweb Pumpkin Ginger cupcakes.

I did something new this time in baking; laid out my ingredients “miz en place:”





THE RECIPE:

Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
3 large eggs
1/4 cup crystallized ginger, cut into 1/8 – 1/4 inch pieces (I just used a dash of ground ginger because I didn’t have crystallized.)

I did this to cool the butter quicker:



Frosting
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
6 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 – 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 – 2 tsp. whole milk

Cupcakes
Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. Sift all the dry ingredients together and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar, and pumpkin until smooth. Mix in eggs and crystallized ginger, and then slowly mix in the dry ingredients until everything is incorporated. Spoon batter into your muffin tin. If you are using a silicone one, you can fill the cups all the way to the top. If not, place cupcake papers into a metal tin and fill halfway. Bake until firm, about 20 minutes or so. Cool on rack.



Frosting
Beat butter, cream cheese, and vanilla until smooth. Add powdered sugar until frosting is smooth and light.

Set aside 1/4 cup of frosting, and mix cinnamon into this until it turns a light brown color. Add a touch of milk, so frosting is thick but pourable. Place in a sealable freezer bag with all air pressed out, and cut a tiny hole in one of the bag’s corners. This is now a makeshift pastry bag.

Frost cooled cupcakes with white frosting then, using the brown frosting, pipe a dot in the center of the cupcake, and two concentric circles around the dot. Drag a toothpick from the cupcake center to the edge to create the spiderweb pattern.




The spiderweb pattern was difficult only because my extra frosting for the design wasn’t firm enough. I kept trying to get the balance of milk and cinnamon right. I added too much milk and tried to harden the thing by putting it in the fridge… but I just didn’t get the right consistency. I was able to do the design, but it dripped down the sides a bit. I also would have liked the color of the webs to be darker. But overall, I was pleased with my attempt.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT:



COMMENTS AND CONCERNS:

My entire family was pleased with the results and thought the cupcakes were very good.
David’s mom said they were delicious and David liked them too.
I thought they tasted very good as well, but I would have liked there to be a stronger pumpkin taste. David thought there was a nice balance of flavors. But I would add more pumpkin next time I make these

Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting (10-15-10)

My boyfriend and I visited a Sprinkles cupcake bakery. I ordered the Red Velvet and it was just delicious. I was then inspired to make my own red velvet cupcakes. My sisters were dubious about this endeavor, since the last time that I attempted red velvet; they did not turn out well at all. I carried through with the plan anyway.

I did some research about red velvet, reading reviews on various recipes online. It seemed that reviewers were not happy about red velvet cakes that called for too much cocoa powder. Apparently anything over 1/4c cocoa powder is “too much.” This makes the cake too chocolate-y, when the chocolate taste is only supposed to be subtle. I decided to use a recipe that I found on foodgawker.com from annies-eats.com. The recipe is as follows:

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Yield: about 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the cake:

2½ cups cake flour

1½ cups sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tbsp. cocoa powder (I used a little more, trying to find a happy-medium between too much and too little)

1 tsp. salt

2 large eggs

1½ cups vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk (we didn’t have buttermilk, so I made my own by mixing milk and vinegar together)

2 tbsp. (1 oz.) liquid red food coloring (Apparently the little tubes you get at the grocery store are less than 1 oz. So I didn’t use quite that much red.)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. distilled white vinegar

I used Elinor Klivan’s cream cheese frosting recipe that I usually use (found on my past posts).

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line cupcake pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine the cake flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt; whisk to blend. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla and vinegar. Beat on medium speed until well blended. Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared liners. Bake, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 18 minutes. Let cool in the pans 5-10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT:

COMMENTS AND CONCERNS:

I had a love/hate relationship with these cupcakes. There was an undeniable bitterness to the cake, tasting like vinegar. This is either because the recipe calls for too much vinegar, or because the vinegar I used for the buttermilk made it too overpowering. My mom was doubtful that my buttermilk creation would be the cause, but I’m suspecting that was it. The taste of the frosting balanced out the bitterness, but not enough for some of my tasters.

As far as the texture goes, I would have probably benefited from removing the cakes from the pan earlier so as to prevent over-baking. They were fluffy, but not as moist as I would have liked.

My mom thought they were good, but was a bit reluctant in concluding that.

My dad said they were delicious.

Aubrey didn’t like them at all.

My boyfriend, David, tried to be nice and felt bad telling me the truth; he didn’t care for them either.

Kim said she could definitely taste the vinegar but it wasn’t bad. But I’m not sure if she actually liked it :p

I got used to the taste of the cupcakes, and when cold from refrigeration, I actually thought they were quite good. But about three days later, after having quite a few, they lost their appeal for me.

I want to try red velvet again but use less vinegar, or maybe even flavored vinegar.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting (9-9-10)

On September 9^th, I made chocolate cupcakes; my first chocolate batch. I used Elinor Klivan’s recipe for Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting.

I was about to make these cupcakes on Friday, but realized that I didn’t have all the ingredients, at which point Kim told me that I should make the cupcakes when I actually had all the ingredients so that I wouldn’t have a long list of mistakes to put on my blog. Rather obvious, I know, but sometimes I get stuck in a plan and have trouble abandoning it. However, I did wait till I had all the ingredients and I think it paid off.

The process of baking these cupcakes was rather uneventful, that is, nothing tragic or miraculous occurred.

THE RECIPE:

Cupcakes:

• 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped


• 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder


• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda


• 1/4 teaspoon salt


• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature


• 1 1/4 cups sugar


• 2 large eggs


• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 1/2 cup sour cream


• 1/2 cup water

Frosting:

• 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 2 ½ cups powdered sugar
• 1 ½ tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ cup heavy whipping cream, at room temperature

Position rack in the middle of oven. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 12 muffin tin cups with paper liners.

Make the cupcakes:

Put chocolate in heatproof bowl or the top of a double boiler and place it over, but not touching, a saucepan of barely simmering water or the bottom of the double boiler. Stir until chocolate is melted. Remove from the water and set aside.

(I melted the chocolate in a different and simpler way by Kim’s suggestion. I simply melted the chocolate in a frying pan on very low heat, constantly stirring so as to prevent the chocolate from burning. It took about five minutes to completely melt 3 oz. of chocolate)

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and sugar until smoothly blended, about 2 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed. On low speed, mix in the melted chocolate. On medium speed, add the eggs one at a time, mixing until each is blended. Add the vanilla and beat until the mixture looks creamy, about 1 minute. Mix in the sour cream until no white streaks remain. On low speed, add half of the flour mixture, mixing just to incorporate it. Mix in the water. Mix in the remaining flour mixture until it is incorporated and the batter looks smooth.

Fill each liner with a generous 1/3 cup of batter to just below the top of the liner. Bake until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. (I baked for about 25 minutes) Cool the cupcakes for 10 minutes in the pan on a wire rack.

Make the frosting:

(same process for melting chocolate)

Sift the powdered sugar and cocoa powder into a large bowl. Add the butter and, using an electric mixer on low speed, beat until smoothly blended, about 2 minutes. At first the mixture will look crumbly, but then it will form a smooth mass. Beat in the melted chocolate. Add the vanilla and cream, mixing to incorporate. On medium speed, beat the frosting for at least 3 minutes, until it looks smooth and creamy and the color lightens. Use a small spatula to spread about 3 tablespoons of frosting of frosting on top of each cupcake, mounding the frosting in the center.

My method of using the frosting was a bit different.

As the book Hello, Cupcake! by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson teaches, you can use a Ziplock bag to pipe your frosting. Place your piping tip in the corner of the bag and cut a miniscule hole in the corner (about 1/16 inch or just eye-ball it to be a little smaller than the width of the narrow end of your tip). Position the tip so that it is held in place by the hole. Hold the bag in your hand and fold out about half of the bag. Spoon the frosting in to the bag, which is now supported by the palm of your hand. Fold the sides of the bag up again and fasten with a rubber band. Mine looks the opposite of professional, but it works.

I used a Decorating Tip that I bought before this project. It’s Wilton’s #10 Round for balls, beads, and figure piping. Because it is a simple round tip, I thought it would be good for making a simple, dollop look. However, either because I was wrong about the tip, or because of the fact that the frosting was brown… the result resembled dog poo:

Thankfully, my new cake spreader, Wilton’s 9’’ Angled Stainless Steel Spatula, came to the rescue. I also added some sprinkles, after much deliberation about what to top them with.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT:

And the OTHER ONES:

(Or, the humorously ugly ones):

The entire batch:

COMMENTS/ CONCERNS:

Milly: Very good. I like how the taste of the cake and the frosting are different even though they are both chocolate flavored.

Kim: *smiles giddily and eats more* The cake is light and fluffy.

Owen: Some! More! Bite!

Aubrey: They are good, even though I don’t like chocolate. (In retrospect: I thought they were scrumpuous, but the frosting was a bit too soft.)

David: Oooh they look so good! (After eating: They are good! Mmm.)

Ruth: Yum!

My opinion: I thought the cupcakes tasted very good. The cake was moist and continued to stay moist a few days after. For being made with a lot of chocolate, they did not taste heavy or too sweet. The chocolate flavor was pure and very counter to the processed taste you would get from cupcakes at the grocery store. I attribute this to Baker’s Pure Unsweetened Chocolate.

The frosting should have been thicker, but it tasted good.

Also, I must add that some of the cupcakes had strange areas in the center that looked like gooey cocoa powder. This did not affect the taste, and I'm guessing was either due to the cupcakes being a bit undercooked, or, I did not stir the batter enough. Or maybe it was completely normal and I just don't know.

But overall, I deem the batch a success!