Laura's Surprise Strawberry Cupcakes....two months later

One of my favorite friends had a birthday back in January and so we all gathered for a little surprise birthday at Cuba Libra on Henderson in her honor. Side note: If you ever find yourself at Cuba Libra, I recommend the Dugeness Crab BLT Tacos and Mango margarita.

I thought it would be nice to make Laura some cupcakes, so I called her up and told her I would like to bake something for her since I had to work all weekend and was going to miss her birthday. (just fyi: DID NOT ruin the surprise. Even though I am sure some people would peg me as the type to spill the beans). Laura decided she wanted Strawberry cupcakes. Seriously? I haven't had a strawberry cupcake since the 2nd grade, but I would make it work. I scoured the web for some recipes (because I didn't want to use a box).

I found one recipe that used strawberry puree, strawberry gelatin and white cake box mix. I thought I could use it as a guideline to create my own from scratch strawberry cake. But I bought a box of cake mix and some extra frozen strawberries, just in case. In the end, the whole adventure turned out wonderfully.

Strawberry batter

Pretty in Pink

Strawberry Cupcake with Vanilla Buttercream

My friend loved (I'm pretty sure) the cupcakes and I was very satisfied how they turned out. I decided on a vanilla buttercream for the frosting. I think if I do strawberry cupcakes again, I might try a different frosting. The strawberry cake is so sweet I think I need an icing that will downplay the sweetness. Perhaps cream cheese?

Surprise!!

How do I get a birthday tiara?!

Make a wish

Let me admit that it has been too long since I made these cupcakes. Since I altered a recipe and I didn't write it down (iiiii-diot) I am going off my memory. I am pretty sure this will work out well...if it doesn't, ooops?

Here's the recipe:

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
3 cups sifted flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
1 3-ounce box strawberry gelatin
1 10-ounce package frozen strawberries in syrup, thawed and pureed
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons milk*

Procedure:
Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl
Cream butter and sugar
Mix in vanilla
Add eggs gradually
Add flour and strawberry puree alternately, beginning and ending with flour
Add milk in as needed*

*Since there was the strawberry puree, I used this as the liquid ingredient. The batter was a little thick, so I added milk a tablespoon at a time. I also needed to be careful not to overmix. So I would just be careful if you do end up making this recipe.

White Chocolate Mocha Cupcakes: The Recipe

Here is the recipe for the White Chocolate Mocha cupcakes:

Cupcake**:

Butter 9 oz.
Sugar 15 oz.
Sea Salt 1 tsp.
Bittersweet 3 oz.
Chocolate, melted
Semi-Sweet 3 oz.
Chocolate, melted
Eggs 8 oz.
Cake flour 12 oz.
Baking Powder .5 oz.
Milk 7 oz.
Coffee 7 oz.
Vanilla extract .25 oz.

Procedure:

Cream together butter and sugar
Blend in melted chocolate
Add eggs until mixed in, one at a time
Add sifted dry ingredients and liquid ingredients alternately in three parts, beginning and ending with flour (1/3 dry, 1/2 liquid, 1/3 dry, 1/2 liquid, 1/3 dry)

**This recipe calls for ingredients to be weighed, not measured. So, for example, if you measure 1 1/2 cups flour instead of weighing out 12 oz. it may not translate and I can't promise the cupcakes will turn out the way you want**

White Chocolate Buttercream:

1 cup butter
2 cups confectioners sugar
6 oz. white chocolate, melted
3-5 tblspns heavy cream

Procedure:

Sift confectioners sugar and beat with butter
Add chocolate and heavy cream
Beat for 3-4 minutes

Like I mentioned in the previous post, I kind of took some liberties with the type of chocolate and added coffee from the basic chocolate cake formula I found in my textbook. The outcome was good, but I think it is a recipe that can be improved.

White Chocolate Mocha Cupcakes

As soon as I claimed my mixer on Friday afternoon I decided it had to be used immediately. I was actually planning on making cupcakes, so it was pretty much an added bonus I finally had a stand mixer instead of my hand-held mixer that I don't like very much because it is just too fast. Anyway, I have been wanting to attempt this recipe for a while now. I didn't really find it from anywhere so I had to scour websites, blogs and cookbooks to find an acceptable recipe for both the cupcakes and the frosting. One of the main problems I had was I wanted to use melted chocolate (a mixture of bittersweet and semisweet) and all the recipes I was finding called for unsweetened cocoa powder. And then I remember I am a baking student with a big fat text book, and voila, I had a recipe.

Since I pulled a recipe from my textbook, I need to weigh the ingredients instead of measuring.

Getting ready to scale out ingredients

Weighing the butter

The recipe I used was for a basic chocolate butter cake, but I took some liberties here and there. I really wanted a cake with a strong coffee flavor, not a chocolate cake with a hint of coffee. The formula called for 14 oz. of milk, so I substituted 7 oz. of milk and 7 oz. of cold coffee. The flavor worked out well, but I think I need to increase the amount of chemical leaveners I use next time.

Coffee & Milk mixture

My machine, hard at work, creaming butter...

And my beautiful batter...

This formula yielded approximately 36 cupcakes. They were on the smaller side and they didn't rise very well, but I suspect that is because of the proportion of coffee vs. the proportion of baking powder. And since I totally altered the recipe in a somewhat major way, I really wasn't expecting perfection in the presentation the first go at it.

Cupcakes cooling...boy, those look good

Next up, I had to prepare the white chocolate buttercream. For the frosting, I found a recipe online so I turned out quite nice.

I usually like to ice with a large star tip, but typically I think it leaves the cupcakes with a little too much frosting, plus since my formula gave me 36 cupcakes, I wasn't really sure if I would have enough frosting. Instead of a large star tip, I used a #12 round tip. They still looked pretty and I had just enough frosting.

Frosting the cupcakes

The finished product looked nice and tasted wonderful. I think the flavor balanced out nicely, but the frosting could of had a little more chocolaty flavor.

White Chocolate Mocha Cupcakes

I promise I will post the formulas later.

Mint Chocolate Chip Deliciousness

It has been a while since I have been able to bake for fun so I decided last weekend I needed to make some cupcakes. If you have been following, the early part of this fall was dedicated to burnt orange cupcakes so it was definitely time to try something new. I had the perfect recipe in mind: Chocolate Chocolate Chip cupcakes with Mint Buttercream frosting.

Mise en Place

The recipes I used I came across on a now defunct cupcake blog, aptly named the Cupcake Bakeshop. I made a couple of changes to try and get the result I wanted.

Devil's Food Chocolate Cake

2 cups flour (I used cake flour so I added 2 tablespoons)
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Mint Buttercream Frosting

1 cup butter
4-5 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/4 cup milk (I used a small amount of cold water)
1/8 teaspoon all natural peppermint extract

I used the creaming method to mix which is as follows:

Cream butter & Sugar;
Gradually add eggs, mix until combined;
Alternately add sifted dry ingredients with liquid, beginning and ending with dry.
In this case the sifted dry was the baking soda and cake flour and the liquid is the milk. I added the flour in three parts. I also incorporated the cocoa powder and vanilla before the flour. Lastly, I folded in the chocolate chips after the batter was mixed.

Make-up & Panning

I filled the cupcake liners 2/3rds full with the batter and baked @ 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. The cupcakes turned out pretty nicely.

Just out of the oven

I usually let my cupcakes cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes after pulling them out of the oven. I then let the finish cooling on a cooling rack so the bottoms don't get soggy from the steam. I made the cupcakes on Friday evening and waited until Saturday morning to do the frosting. The cupcakes had good flavor, tenderness and moisteness BUT all the chocolate chips sunk to the bottom. Oh, the lessons you learn through your mistakes! Of course I will be trying this recipe again until I get it just right, but I think I will try cutting chocolate chunks instead of chocolate chips.

Finished Product: Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

The flavor combo of Mint Buttercream and Devil's food cake was so delicious! Once I work out the kinks with the chocolate chips/chunks* it will be a most excellent cupcake!

*Someone gave me a tip that if I coat the chocolate chips in flour they won't sink. I asked on of the baking instructors and he said that may not work because chocolate chips have a waxy coating and are heavy. It was suggested I try the chocolate chunks.

Baking with Laura

A couple weeks ago, Laura asked me if I would help her make some burnt orange cupcakes for a work party and of course I acquiesced. It's always fun to bake and even more fun throw out concepts like gluten development and overmixing to those not familiar with the trade. This was also the first time Laura had ever made cupcakes from scratch so it was great to be able to teach someone else how fun baking is...although I don't foresee her whipping up anymore homemade treats in the near future.

Laura and her handiwork

Laura rocking the Cupcake Courier!

I heard they went over well at the office...even her boss (a big Sooner fan) couldn't resist the burnt orange! Good job, Laura!

'Burnt Orange' Velvet Cupcakes: The Sweet Smell (and taste) of Success

I did it! After last weekend's somewhat failed attempt (I can't call it a complete failure because it helped in making this weekend's success) I was determined to get it right. Appropriately, my adventures in cupcake coloring took place during the UT game so we could indulge in a sweet treat to celebrate Texas' commanding win. Let's just hope we can (and by we, I mean Mack Brown and the Longhorns) be this successful all season long. Because I don't think I can take losing to OU this year.

I've been talking about the burnt orange cupcakes for quite a while now. Some people questioned why I insisted on turning red velvet burnt orange instead of simply making a white batter and coloring it orange. My reasons were three-fold:

1. I am stubborn and determined. I decided that I wanted burnt orange velvet and I wasn't going to stop until I got burnt orange velvet. Luckily, it only took two tries;
2. I like the rich flavor of red velvet; and
3. There is something satisfying about taking something red and transforming it to burnt orange (because it all goes back to the old college rivalry. OU sucks!).

Looks like I'm off to a good start...

Perfectly burnt orange

Texas Fight!

Now that I have the perfect cupcake recipe for football season I can focus on other things. Like school. We start baking in Fundamentals tomorrow!