I heart cupcake cookies

Cupcake and heart sugar cookies

Not real cupcakes, but I had a great deal of fun decorating these, although the results are admittedly clumsy. I have two left hands, at best, but these were still fun to do, therapeutic with music and the aircon on. Have to perfect a sugar cookie recipe though. Tried these with the original amount of sugar, part icing, part granulated, and the dough was still hard to handle. It doesn't roll or cut well, and the cookies spread a great deal during baking. In fact, the cupcake shapes were unrecognisable, and to salvage them, I cut them after they were baked – hence the rough edges.

The hearts came out better, maybe because heart-shapes have more definition in the first place. I tried some designs from Cookie Craft on them.

Fun. I like that these are more project-like, with the various stages of icing, and more arty, with the colours and designs. I also love how easy clean-up is, the icing washes away with none of the horrid cling of buttercream since it's mainly sugar. And of course I love the excuse to buy more equipment! :)

Fantasy cupcakes v7.0

One-bowl chocolate cupcakes with rainbow buttercream

Cuspcake rating: 3.5

These looked much better in my head than they did in real life. Tried the one-bowl choc cupcakes recipe from Martha Stewart as I've read favourable reviews of them several times, and am still in search of a go-to chocolate cupcake recipe.

This one was easy, chocolatey and moist (it uses oil instead of butter) and was light and tasty – definitely a go-to in-a-hurry recipe. The batter was liquid too, which made filling the cups especially easy.

The rainbow buttercream was too soft, as my buttercream is wont to be, partly I think the new brand of butter I bought. The painting-the-inside-of-the-piping-bag method was fun though (although my hands were stained with food colouring for several days after!). Used animal biscuits to cover up the ugly piped cream (and uneven colours) but it was too soggy so they wouldn't stay up straight. Also wasn't able to get the chocolate teddy grahams I'd wanted, which I think would've been alot cuter than these plain zoo ones.

These were nice, and will use them in future for sure, especially in a pinch. They're crowdpleasers, but lack a certain something-something, will continue to look for the perfect choc cuppies...

Peanut buttercup cakes

Chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter filling and peanut butter cream cheese frosting

Cuspcake rating: 4.5

Probably the longest title in the short history of my cupcaking. Nope, couldn't keep away from cupcaking this weekend after all. This recipe was from Good Housekeeping, by the way of one blog and another. I've realised that sometimes after bloggers change up a recipe, which is then changed up by someone else and so on – whether in the name of improvement or avoiding copyright infringement suits, who knows – isn't it as likely that the recipe will be worsened by all this as improved?

Anyhow, I tried to go back to the source for this one. I have a perpetual craving for Reese's peanut buttercups, which I can't get here, and was hoping these'd be better than the real thing. I mean, it's cake, right?

The peanut butter didn't shape up into balls at all, so i ended up dropping teaspoonfuls of it into the first layer of cake batter. Was left with not enough batter to cover the last two cuppies (bad conversion or over-enthusiastic heaping of heaped tablespoons?) so swirled them around and hoped for the best.

Seems like everytime I use my muffin pan I reach the same conclusion. Again, will I never learn? Once in a while it seems like it'd be nice to have pretty patterned cupcake papers, and not need to space souffle cups out, or guess at quantities (since everything's written for regular muffin tin sized cuppies), so I dutifully pull my muffin tin out, and end up with oddly lop-sided cuppies, with scrunched-up paper cups (why do mine seem too big for the tin somehow?), am desperately unable to rotate the tin, or to even remove it properly from the oven, almost drop a few and swear never to use it again.

Yet.

They looked lovely up till 15 minutes into baking (isn't that always the case?) and then started developing the cracked, rounded tops I always seem to turn out. Never beautifully rounded either. They just never look like they do in the books. Or do they just not, ever? Well in any case, I'm hoping its the oven and not me, as I've tried everything and the only common factor seems to be, well, the oven.

Will take them to work tomorrow, haven't brought any in for more than a month now. Would rather bake for appreciative kids than weight-watching adults, really. Report back then.

Update: Took them to my cousin's wedding instead, and the relatives were glad for them (several were peckish between the ceremony and the dinner). The cream went down particularly well, even a non-peanut-butter eater liked it. The cupcakes are best at room temp, when they have a nice, fine crumb and rich flavour, possibly a good choc cupcake recipe on its own? A winner! Next time I won't do them in the muffin tin, and I'll make sure the centres are properly buried, and I won't overfill the cups.

Tough cookie

Rolled sugar cookies with glaze

Not that these were tough at all, they were in fact fragrant, and tender. I think they're better the day after they're baked – they were moist and soft the day they were made, and then firmed up to become tender with bite, with a slight crust your teeth break through, and then a tasty, not-too-soft inside.

I've never met a sugar cookie I liked, so this was great, they do indeed deserve their allrecipes' name! They're something like those Danish butter cookies you grew up eating, but lighter, and with a chewier texture. Doubled the sugar and vanilla as some folk suggested on allrecipes, but found them too sweet in the end. Also really should have waited to cream the butter first before adding the sugar instead of mixing it all together, it just didn't seem like the dough came together quite like it was meant to (when will I learn?) Also this generic brand of sugar I'm using now may be having unpredictable effects on my baking (see also Fantasy Cupcakes v6.0!). Next time I think I'll try using confectioner's sugar (or grinding mine down fine) and stick to the original amount of sugar in the recipe.

The dough was extremely sticky and soft, which made it hard to roll (lucky I read Cookie Craft before starting, and utilised their handy rolling tips) and cut, and even harder to transfer nicely to the baking sheet. I recognise this might have been my fault, so will give the recipe proper another shot before changing anything else. They also spread alot more than I expected (they needed more than a half-inch between them, and my medium cutters turned out cookies the size of the large ones! Not cute), and also rose more than I thought, and the tops of many of them cracked slightly, perhaps because I left them in too long?

The glaze I tried (also from allrecipes) didn't colour as intensely as I'd hoped, the colour was somewhat translucent. It was a good initiation into cookie decorating though, since it was as easy as dip and twist. I was going to pipe designs on them, but changed my mind and just sprinkled them vigorously instead.

All in all, the glaze plus the cookies with added sugar was waaay too sweet, but I couldn't stop eating them anyhow, and polished off all the extra cookies, iced and un-iced! These are going to cupcake's school tomorrow (yes, I needed a break from cuppies, and wanted to try something new), hopefully the kids like them as much as they seem to like the cuppies!

Fantasy cupcakes v6.0

Yellow butter cupcakes with chocolate-egg white buttercream

Cuspcake rating: 3

Was most delighted to get my hands on Rose Levy Berenbaum's new book (when am I not delighted to get my hands on any new book?), and keen to try some recipes. Picked the first Baby Cake recipe, Yellow Butter Cupcakes, as I love butter cake and haven't done one yet, and well, it was first in a very short list of recipes.

Was very interested to try her reverse method of mixing batter, and while I was doing it, was really excited about it, as it seems to be far less mess (none of that creaming, and less splashing), and resulted in a lovely batter which tasted fantastic off the spoon. She also bakes at a slightly lower temp and a lower rack position than all the other recipes I've tried.

Believe I followed the recipe to the best of my attention, but somehow the cakes turned out each with crooked tops, which appeared to be caused by a large air bubble trying to get out of the cooked top of each cuppie. And then the cake batter under that hole seemed undercooked. Not sure what I did wrong, was rather disappointed, but the cakes still tasted great.

Opted for the chocolate-egg white buttercream, to offset the vanilla cake. It was easier to do than the recipe sounds, and the texture of the buttercream was perfect. A bit rich, perhaps because my dark chocolate was too dark, but still yummy. Finger-licking good, even in my overheated, frosting-averse state.

Topped them off with marshmallows, which looked comically huge on the tiny cuppies, but I thought would do well to cut the richness of the chocolate, and my little cupcake loves marshmallows. :)

Fantasy cupcakes v5.0

Dad's brownie cupcakes with vanilla buttercream

Cuspcake rating: 2

Finally got around to trying dad's brownie recipe as a cupcake, only I used part self-raising flour, and, well, let's just say it works better as a brownie recipe! It was too sweet, and rose too much then sank. Also created that crusty top that works on brownies, but not in little portions, somehow. Back to the search for the perfect chocolate cuppie then!

As for the vanilla buttercream, used the Primrose Bakery one again, but managed to botch it up. Really must stop trying to skip steps. Seems ridiculous to botch up a recipe I've used before. It tasted good, but was runny, and if you looked closely, looked like it was separating. I made up for it with extra gumpaste flowers and star sprinkles.

Nonetheless, I was rewarded for my sub-par efforts by the sight and sounds of my favourite 5-year-old licking and yumming her way through her cuppie :) Kids. Gotta love 'em. And I guess it proves the theory right that kids like anything sweet, soft and damp.

Fantasy cupcakes v4.0

Red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

Cuspcake rating: 5

My weekly baking for the kids, and after tossing ideas around in my mind all week (caramel cupcakes? malted cupcakes?) I hit on the perfect idea – red velvet cuppies. They were my first – and worst – attempt (see entry #1, and my misunderstanding of butter measurements), and I think it's about time after about 20 different recipes that I try them again, isn't it?

Have collected quite a number of red velvet recipes to date – from chowhound, cupcakeblog, various books – but decided to try the repressedpastrychef one, since it looked easy and I don't have shortening.

The batter didn't taste too great off the spoon, but the cake turned out fluffy and moist, with a fine crumb, and cocoa-y and sweet enough (the batter tasted of salt and baking soda). The baking soda aftertaste is a little stronger than I'd like (or perhaps its the colouring, it's something artificial, anyway), but I'm sensitive to these things.

The cream cheese frosting recipe looked a little wrong to me, so I added more sugar, and used more butter to replace the shortening I didn't have. It turned out fluffy and cheesy, and in combination with the cake – heavenly. Amazing how the sum of the parts is so much greater than the whole. Red velvet should not be eaten on its own. And although people say cream cheese icing is all wrong for Red Velvet cake – well, traditional or not, it's yummy!

(So yummy I had to stop myself eating all 6 extra minis at once – and I've really been suffering cupcake fatigue and have a splitting headache to boot!)

Baking vs. cooking II

Made baked chicken meatballs tonight for dinner, and spaghetti cabonara for lunch, and realised how much easier baking cupcakes really is! No wonder I've settled on this as a hobby. The amount of washing up and chopping and mincing is time-consuming and less soothing than mixing baking ingredients.

Although the results are often yummier (I think my tastebuds are really tiring of cake), it seems like much more work to cook for a group when you could so easily mix up a bunch of cupcakes that would make a whole lot of people smile.

I suppose cooking is something I do for the end result, which I enjoy very much, whereas cupakes I do for the process? (Seeing as I often don't eat any of it beyond for tasting!)

I am keen on trying very-amateur-food-photography though, so will try to steer my brain back into a cooking and baking mindset. I mean, how many cupcakes can you photograph?

Fantasy cupcakes v3.0

Vanilla cupcakes with milk chocolate frosting

Cuspcake rating: 4.5

Another of my now-weekly batches for the kids. Tried the Magnolia Bakery vanilla cupcake recipe again, and it's really tasty, just it rose with bumps in the centres again, I have no idea why. Definitely didn't overmix, and it wasn't even the same recipe as I used the two-flour version instead of the one-flour Chockylit adaptation.

Added mini M&M baking bits to the batter for variety, since they had vanilla last week too, and I'm guessing they aren't as attuned to the subtle variations in Magnolia vs. Primrose recipes the way I am. Topped them off with the Milk Chocolate Icing from Magnolia Bakery, which was quite runny at room temperature, but tasty and sticky. The gumpaste flowers are new, they came in assorted colours, which looked especially pretty altogether.

I hear they went down well again. Wonder how many kid-friendly choc and vanilla combinations I can come up with before they get sick of them!

Oreo cheesecakelets

Oreo cheese cupcakes

Cuspcake rating: 4.5

My second recipe from Martha's cupcake book, the batch of banana cupcakes I made put me off (through no fault of hers, my sour cream was off and they gave me a stomachache, thankfully I'm in the habit of taste-testing my cuppies before I give anyone else food poisoning. Note to self: Sour cream doesn't smell sour), so it's been a while since I felt my appetite stir while reading her book.

These are also a request, someone in the office suggested cheesecake, and since my last attempt (whole Oreo cheesecake, baked too long at inaccurate temp) didn't work out so well, I thought why not.

They were easy to put together, just a matter of lining the cups with whole Oreos (a cute and easy touch), mixing all the rest of the ingredients then baking at low temp and fridging overnight.

Enjoyed these alot, although not sure why mine are so much yellower than the photos in the book, and than the average oreo cheesecake you see outside – perhaps my cheese or eggs? I personally ate more of these than any other cuppie I've made yet, or maybe I had as many melt-in-the-mouth choc ones.

Tasters were much amused by the whole cookie as the base. These tasted best the first two days, then got progressively denser and harder, though no less tasty.

Fantasy cupcakes v2.0

Vanilla vanilla cupcakes

Cuspcake rating: 3

Probably unfair to rate these, as I needed 22 and only had 22 38mm cups, so am not getting to taste the actual product. Moreover, the real success of these depends only on how much my almost-five-year-old patron and her friends like these.

Baked the leftover batter in larger cups (44mm, I got another 9) and left them in the oven too long so they went crispy on top. They're very tasty, and I'm a weird one who likes my cakes crispy and golden so, again, probably not entirely fair to rate these (they tasted like big, less-sweet kueh baulus – one of my favourite snacks). The buttercream was pretty, light and easy to spread, but waaay too sweet for my grownup tastebuds, hopefully the kids will feel otherwise.

From the Primrose Bakery book – have to say I am pleased with the recipes I've tried so far, it's turning out to have been a great budget birthday gift to myself, at least, I certainly can't think of anything else that could have given me as much entertainment and pleasure for $15.

Update: These were a hit, I'm pleased to report. The kids asked for more cupcakes, and even the boys thought they were pretty. :)

The earl of grey

Earl Grey Cupcakes with Milk custard
Cuspcake rating: 2.5

I love Earl Grey tea, and it also reminds me of afternoons spent working over my favourite things – travel stories while I was freelance writing, sipping inspiration while designing cushions and rooms, trying to stay awake manning my little store, and many a post-lunch lull editing stories in sleepy Emerald Hill. A box of Twining's is the first thing I bought for my desk drawer, along with a noisy squeeze bottle of condensed milk our British editor used to wrinkle his nose at – I'm sure it offended his English sensibilities! :)

Earl Grey icecreams are one of the flavours I'm most likely to try at icecream parlours as well, so I've been keen on trying this cupcake recipe from Primrose Bakery.

It was surprisingly easy to put together, I think I must be getting used to the process, but it also has slightly fewer ingredients, no baking powder, soda and vanilla extract, so I suppose that's a little less measuring to do.

The tops didn't rise till they cracked as they usually do, I still wonder why my cupcakes always do that. I made sure to beat the butter and eggs for a longer time, and the consistency of the batter did change – it became somewhat stickier – which I have not observed it doing before. Perhaps that made a difference. Or maybe it's because this recipe also calls for a lower temp – 160ºC – than usual. Or the self-raising flour instead of baking powder?

Anyway the batter filled 16 of my 50mm cups, and smelt deliciously of the tea. Texture is good, the top crusts a little and you can taste the sugar, while it's springy and light and slightly fragrant of tea. There seem to be slightly larger air bubbles than usual, but not huge and not detrimental, wonder why it is. The crumb isn't as velvety and fine as the chocolate were, springier instead. Didn't think these should be kept in the fridge, they seem like they'd go heavy, but unfortunately keeping them outside didn't seem to stop them going heavy either. They were much yummier fresh from the oven, but I think this is in part because I didn't bake them long enough, as they looked somehow undercooked the next morning, which is far more offputting when they're cold.

Yet another failed custard buttercream attempt resulted in a milk custard cream topping, which worked although it looked awful – I like taking my Earl Grey with milk, and this is what it tasted like. The wetness of the cream also helped with the heaviness of the cake. Pity, because I think this recipe tasted great out of the oven. Will try cooking them longer next time.

Chocolate cupcakes v2.0

Chocolate cupcakes with salted caramel filling

Cuspcake rating: 3.5

So, everything you've read about poorly designed muffin pans being a pain in the arse is right. My $20+ muffin pan from Cold Storage (double what I expected to pay in a supermarket) has no "handles", which led to me dropping it and ruining five cupcakes.

I kinda like my souffle cups better.

It also makes it a real pain to turn, or to hold at all with an oven glove on. (Although I'm certain it'd be more of a pain without one). Absolutely annoying.

Tried the chocolate cupcakes from primrose bakery, have to say, was a little disappointed with them right out of the oven. They were very fluffy and the texture is great, seemed perhaps a touch dry (which might be my genius pan, anyway), smell fantastic, but tasted somehow...bland. Decided to make the salted caramel filling to zing them up.

Strangely enough both the cupcakes and caramel taste better the next day. Perhaps I was tired? The cupcakes are chocolatey and the texture is velvety (it settles down a little overnight, i kept them in a box at room temp), like red velvet. I did mix in cake flour, perhaps that makes a difference too.

The caramel that I filled the cupcakes with the night before got half absorbed by the cakes, I suppose because it's meant to be a sauce not a filling. The sauce was rather a pain to make, but I think my mistake also is making all the components of more complicated cupcakes at the same time rather than spacing them out at a more leisurely pace. It took much longer to reach all the stages described than you'd think – from the sugar dissolving to the caramelising to the thickening.

Also, I tried the custard buttercream I made successfully on my birthday morning, but it was runny and ugly because I mixed the butter right into the custard before creaming it with sugar. Heh. At least I've learnt that doesn't work :) It tasted good but looked awful though.

All in all, they seemed a hit at work, I was surprised, until I ate one myself. They taste pretty good, even after they've been fridged, and do keep well for three days out of the fridge as well. Could this be the chocolate cuspcake recipe I've been looking for? Perhaps. Will have to try them in my regular souffle cups to see if the slight dryness can be managed, and with a plainer topping to see if they can hold their own.

Thoughts

Just some odds and ends I wanted to record.

Watched Julie and Julia today, and was inspired to roast some chicken parts and new potatoes for dinner. One thing I'd forgotten about cooking, which makes me realise why I'm enjoying baking so much – there's no sharp knives, cuts and chipped nails!

Wanted also to document a buttercream attempt, at 5am on my birthday, I tried making the custard buttercream I'd read about, somewhat like Magnolia Bakery's buttercream (yes this is what I do when I can't sleep!). I doubled the milk paste, reduced the sugar, and I believe I have finally arrived at a buttercream I can eat. It's light, tasty and smooth, and not too sweet. Finally!

Have only to try colouring it, swirling it, and piping it now to understand its versatility. It doesn't melt in this weather, so that's a plus. Will have to test storage methods and how long it stays fresh for too. Pleased.

My to-do list for now:
1. Test and perfect vanilla buttercream - ease of frosting and piping, how well it takes colour and flavour, and how well it keeps.
2. Find the perfect chocolate cupcake. This seems to be a basic, and while the melt-in-the-mouth ones are yummy, they are not an everyday or a crowdpleasing recipe. I also had high hopes for cupcakeblog's old-fashioned choc recipe, but turns out they aren't to my taste. I'm thinking of adapting my parents' failsafe and very yummy chocolate brownie recipe, it's already rather more cakelike than an average brownie, so I think it's not too far off. Also want to try the Primrose recipe, I somehow have a good feeling about this book! And probably will try some Devil's Food recipes.
3. Perfect the perfect vanilla cupcake. There's that yellow cake recipe I want to try too from repressedpastrychef, and the lighter, cake flour version of Magnolia's, with fresh milk instead of evap like I did last time.
4. Devise my own perfect cream cheese icing. This shouldn't be too hard.
5. Red velvet. Cupcakeblog's recipe?
6. Stock up on exciting Halloween candy when it goes on sale, for topping off cuppies. Order some fun toppers from Bake It Pretty. Buy a proper muffin tin and cups? I wonder if it makes a difference than doing them in the souffle cups...

Honey granola muffins

Honey granola cupcakes (Primrose)

Cuspcake rating: 4

Funny how something can be so different served warm and not! These cupcakes – really, I think they're better called muffins, ingredients like granola aren't expected in cupcakes, plus when you call it a muffin, the cakelike, light and crumby texture is a bit of a surprise and all the more enjoyable.

I love granola, especially on frozen yoghurt (the only topping I'm in the habit of paying for!), but somehow never buy it to eat as a cereal – cereal-and-milk, while one of my favourite foods in the world, somehow isn't a habit of mine, strange, I know. And granola is expensive for a boxed cereal, so I've never bought it I think, and instead nurse a perpetual granola craving.

These are hearty, tasty, and really yummy warm, especially split open and slathered with salted butter and/or cream cheese. Cold (by which I mean room temp) however, they are too sweet, dense, and the honey is sharp and pungent.

All in all, I'd make these with less honey next time, but will have to research a replacement first. Or perhaps with a lighter honey (can't remember what I used this time, though). And I think I'd toast the granola first, so perhaps it'd be crunchy – that'd be perfect, because they were mainly chewy bits of oats this time now.

Not a child-pleaser though, I suppose the lack of frosting doesn't help. But something I'd be pleased to have for a decadent breakfast every so often.

Coconut cupcakes

 

Coconut cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (Ina Garten)

Cuspcake rating: 3

Made these in a hurry to take on board on a day of boating with colleagues (to celebrate my birthday). Been wanting to try the recipe because of all the rave reviews it got on Chowhound. Have to admit that coconut is not my favourite flavour, and strangely enough, although it is an Asian flavour, lots of the people I know don't really like coconut. I think it's just too dense and rich and heavy in our weather. Ironic, I know, but I really prefer coconuts when they're young, and their flesh is translucent, jellylike and refreshing, rather than flaked and sweetened in a packet.

As it turned out, the boating outing was catered, so noone got around to eating these at all. I did have one warm out of the oven, and I have to say it is a really good coconut cupcake recipe. Fragrant, chewy, just a little sticky. The cream cheese is a nice contrast (recipe had too much butter in it though), and I think the coconut topping is overkill.

I'd do these again for a coconut fan (Dad'd love this I think), but bake them till the tops are more golden, possibly use fresh coconut if I can get some (which would cut the sweetness, but possibly the stickiness too...maybe I'll do half-half), serve them warm with just frosting and no coconut topping. The 3 rating in this case is purely personal (they all are, of course, but you know what I mean), because I think a coconut fan might go as high as a 4.5 on these.

Fantasy cupcakes

Old-fashioned chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream

Cuspcake rating: 2.5

Now these were requested by my favourite almost-5-year-old. She gets a cupcake every week at least, usually the prettiest one which is photographed for this blog, and was so enamoured of the melt-in-the-mouth choc mini that she wanted to treat her friends to cupcakes.

Spent rather a long time deciding on a combination of flavours – I wanted to be certain her little pals would be impressed. Settled on the old-fashioned chocolate cupcakes from cupcakeblog, and chocolate buttercream from my new book Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery, a steal at just $15.94 and my 30th birthday gift to myself. Topped them off with hundreds and thousands, and mini M&Ms (rather anally arranged all in the same order too).

In my eagerness to please, I also led to my own first failed cupcakes – I'd stuffed marshmallows in the centre of each of the first batch, hoping for a gooey melted marshmallow filling, but ended up with eruptions all around instead. 

I later discovered with my second batch that this recipe is somewhat prone to coming over the top of the cups and developing a bubbly, sticky top (others have commented on the same on Cupcakeblog). Perhaps this is because of the sugar, or perhaps because my oven has a fan and should be set to a slightly lower temperature (noticed that in Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery temperatures are offered in various conversions and there's usually a 20ºC difference with fan). Thankfully they didn't affect the taste and the little 'uns, it is reported, liked them.

I found them rather too sweet and sticky, and the chocolate buttercream wasn't to my taste either (is it ever?). But hey, I'm slowly discovering that baking for kids is a whole different affair. As as long as my tiny was happy, I'm happy. These were my most rewarding batch ever to make. I hear she was delighted when she saw them, and I was thrilled to make them – they brought back lovely memories of being a child in kindergarten and having a cake to share on my birthday, complete with fancy buttercream icing, my name piped on in cursive, and even a fancy topper like a little rubber Strawberry Shortcake figurine. :)

These'll melt your heart

Melt-in-the-mouth chocolate cupcakes

Cuspcake rating: 5

A super-easy recipe with barely any cleanup! Love not having to plough through a ton of dishes after. These were literally one-bowl, and wouldn't have needed the hand-mixer, although I did use it. Now this is what I call an after-work recipe.

Made these because I was craving something chocolate, and sated myself on licking the batter off the spoon :) These are from chocolateandzucchini.com, via cupcakeblog. Made half a recipe, which turned out 14 tiny cupcakes. Adapted baking time to 12 minutes, and left them in the oven after for another 8 (was going to be shorter, but I got distracted).

The tiny size is irresistible – why do women find everything miniature adorable? They look like they'll just be a mouthful or two. Chockylit finished hers off with simple whipped cream and a maraschino cherry, which looked really cute. I plan to dust little icing sugar hearts on mine and call it a day.

The recipe says they should be made the night before, so I'm waiting till tomorrow to taste them. Report back then. Fun! All baking should be this easy.

Update: The cupcakes taste just like my favourite "flourless" chocolate classique cake from French-style patisserie Canele, which obviously excites me a great deal. It always feels something special when you duplicate a recipe that tastes like something you get in a shop, somehow. The tiny size was just right, anything bigger would've been overkill, these leave you satisfied but wanting more. The whipped cream would probably be a perfect, light touch (the one at Canele is served with a side of whipped cream) or even a tiny scoop of vanilla icecream. Delightful, and thoroughly rich enough to satisfy a chocolate craving! The first to attain full cuspcake-hood.

Do you hear the muffin man?

Blueberry muffins with cinnamon crumble

A break from cupcakes this week, I got a request for blueberry muffins so tried my hand at my first muffins instead. Of course, having an excuse to purchase yet another piece of equipment (just a humble 12 muffin pan) helped. I sometimes wonder if I have more fun prepping and shopping for my baking experiments than I do baking!

I sometimes hear people debating whether something is a cupcake or a muffin, but the differences have always seemed quite obvious to me. A muffin is something you'd eat with coffee, or at breakfast with no guilt. A cupcake is something you'd eat mid-afternoon, with tea. (That's not to say you can't eat either of these any other time of course, I eat cupcakes for dinner after all. Just that if you had to pick one occasion and accompanying hot drink, that's what cupcakes and muffins would pair up with naturally). Muffins have puffed up tops (hence the dreaded fashion term, "muffin top") and no frosting.

Have not really eaten a blueberry muffin here that I would eat again, so took a little time researching a recipe. In the end I went with a combination of three: Fine Cooking's Blueberry muffins with cinnamon crumble as my base, with the jam technique from Cook's Illustrated's Best Blueberry muffins with frozen blueberries, and the chopped apple and lemon zest additions from Ottolenghi's Blueberry crumble muffins.

They came out very light and moist, really very cake-like. I'd say they're a do-over. I'd add more blueberries next time, and cut down on the cinnamon and nutmeg even more. Was hoping the flavours of these spices would blend into the rest, as they are not two of my favourites (strange how I can take any number and amount of pungent Asian spices, but these two "Western" mainstays just disagree with me!). In fact they quite overpower everything else, including the zest (another of my not-quite-favourite flavours). But the texture is so delightful that I had no trouble gulping one of these down, warm from the oven.

And they make the house smell amazing!

On decorating

I find I am getting a little tired of eating cupcakes, and hence more critical of the final results. This can only be good for the cuspcake quest, of course, but I'm starting to find that after a whole day of plotting, baking, filling then frosting cupcakes, when I'm done, all I really want to sink my teeth into is an apple.

One other thing I have realised is, I do not like buttercream. My shortlived urge to learn to create buttercream flowers is dying. I would be happy to master enough skills so all my cupcakes looked liked this:

(vanillabakeshop.com, check it out!)

which look fairly minimal. I dislike handling it in this weather, feeling it get too-soft-to-handle after just three cupcakes. I dislike the taste of buttercream. And I really hate the cleaning up. Pastry bags are impossible to clean!

I am however still quite keen to learn to handle fondant, which looks simpler (how wrong can you go with cutters?) and cleaner. I love these cupcakes from therepressedpastrychef's review of Leda's Bake Shop, with the simple, layered fondant shapes, and slightly off-centre placement. So pretty and modern. And they look like the cream bits are straightforward to do too!

Anyway I'm off to find out if I can take Wilton course 2 (fondant), without taking course 1 (buttercream!) first, although I somehow suspect I can't...

Lavender Blue Dilly Dilly

Lavender cream-filled cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

Cuspcake rating: 3

Started with the same batch of Amy Sedaris vanilla cupcakes as the Bellini cupcakes, just wanted to experiment with a different combination.

The cream and frosting are from cupcakeblog. Liked these quite alot, they taste very refined and dainty. Botched the lavender cream recipe by adding twice the amount of cream, so made up for it by drizzling a few drops of the lavender syrup and dropping a flower or two in each cupcake's filling. That worked out well to make up for the oversight, with little pops of lavender fragrance when you bite into a bud.

Added only about 3/4 the sugar to the cream cheese frosting, and more lemon juice (no zest though as it seems to be an acquired taste and I'm taking these to the office) in an attempt to cut the sweetness of the cake. The overall result is still a little sweeter than I'd like, probably because of the lavender syrup, but I like the delicacy of the flavours, and would just improve on the cake.

Break out the bubbly

Bellini cupcakes
Cuspcake rating: 2.5 (3 if not for the filling!)

Started with Amy Sedaris' recipe for vanilla cupcakes, was wary of overfilling cups so filled them only about half, as a result, most of them didn't rise to the tops of the cups as I'd hoped. They are tasty, a little too sweet for me, and had a fine texture after baking. Unfortunately after keeping them overnight in the fridge, the texture seems to have changed quite alot and they are rather dense now. Will leave them to come fully to room temperature and report back.

To compensate for the cakes' sweetness, and to more quickly satisfy my curiosity about the recipes I study all week and wait till the weekend to try, I tried two combinations: The first, an attempt at the Bellini cupcake I spoke of. I had in mind a sourish roasted peach filling with a champagne whipped cream. The second is the Lavender cream filled cupcake with citrus cream cheese frosting, in the post after this.

It's such a tough juggling act – how do you make frostings that stand up to 30ºC+ weather, which aren't too sweet? It seems like all the nice light, less-sweet frostings need to be fridged, in which case, the cakes turn hard and cold. Hard cakes with nice frosting? Or nice cakes with toe-curlingly sweet frostings?

Scared off by the too-sweet honey buttercream of my mid-week attempt, I decided to err on the side of taste this time. Adapted the champagne curd recipe from cupcakeblog, and combined it with a filling of pureed roasted peaches, which I heated with a little brown sugar and lemon juice.

First, my caveat – I have never tasted a Bellini before. But from a cupcake point of view, my off-season white peaches were unfortunately rather tasteless, and I rather wish I could taste them more. Perhaps I should use tinned ones next time – sadly enough, tinned peaches are what most of us in this tropical country think of when you say "peach" anyhow. The curd however is quite yummy, despite not being a champagne drinker, (or liking alcohol at all) I find it enjoyable. The bite of the curd did successfully offset the sweetness of the cake, pity it also overtook my poor peach puree.

Well, at least this one seems to be an easy fix.

In search of frostings that are good to eat

Roasted banana cupcakes with honey (Martha Stewart's Cupcakes)

Cuspcake rating: 2

Very spur of the moment attempt – returned home after work to discover bananas on the verge of overripeness, so decided to look up a banana cupcake and settled on my first-ever Martha recipe.

It's likely that I baked the cupcakes too long – I used my new smaller cups for the first time and tried to adjust the time accordingly, but think I got it wrong. Also forgot the vanilla essence in the cakes, so added it to the icing instead. So much for successful after-work baking! Think in future I'll leave it to weekends when I'm concentrating a little more.

The cakes were a tiny bit too dry, and since I left out the essence, tasted a little salty. The frosting on the other hand, while it does smell and taste quite satisfying of honey (I'd thought the icing sugar would have covered the little bit of honey), is way too sweet for my taste.

Which leads me to my main thought today. Are there no frostings that are good to eat? So far, I've not met a cupcake frosting which wasn't too oily, too sweet, too rich or too heavy, either of my own making or not. I wonder about the limitations, because icing has to hold its shape at room temperature etc. I'm sure there must be a way to create icings I'd actually want to lick off my fingers (or the bowl), and am bent on finding it. Guess some experimenting is on the cards!

Have also wondered if perhaps my standards are too high. Will any cupcake ever attain the elusive 5 cuspcakes rating? The closest so far, the lemon curd-filled cupcakes with cream cheese frosting seemed to have been a 5 in everyone else's books. But I just can't bring myself to give them a 5 till the cakes are corrected...

Well, if nothing else, I should have a repertoire of pretty great cupcake recipes when this is over.

No cakes, just plans

Didn't have time to make anymore cupcakes, but did manage to make it down to the baking store and have been savouring cupcake blogs for ideas. Discovered thecupcaketologist – few recipes but some great ideas and all the cupcakes are beautiful, very sophisticated. I like how she frequently frosts the cakes and then pipes a little buttercream on top, it's both decadent and minimalist, and lends the opportunity for another layer of flavours. Must try that sometime. Lovely photos and poetic musings to match.

It all got me dreaming of a Bellini-inspired cupcake, a very light white cake, almost chiffon-like, with a peach puree filling and champagne cream. I also want to do something with ginger and toffee in it (and perhaps finely chopped dates).

Am going to have to start doing smaller batches of cupcakes. There aren't enough people in my weight-conscious office to offload my treats on as it is.

Bought mini cups and somewhere-between-mini-and-reg cups, the long-awaited icecream scoop and oven thermometer, gel food colouring and confetti. Plan to teach myself cake decorating (all the weekend courses are filled till next year) – first, borders and simple designs with my starter set of tips, and then I'll invest in a flower nail and tips for flowers. I have a vision of spending weekends covered in confectioner's sugar creating temperamental flower sculptures with my piping bag.

After that, I'll try my hand at fondant (which seems by comparison, easy, especially with all the pretty moulds and cutters I spied at the store).

Looks like this is turning out to be a full-fledged hobby!

Bottoms up

Black bottom cupcakes (The Great Book of Chocolate)

Cuspcake rating: 3

Second batch today, think I'm starting to understand the general principles of baking cupcakes. Cleanup's gotten alot easier too, although I lack a few pieces of equipment which will streamline things. Must head to the baking supplies store soon, also to buy decorating bits. Am toying with the idea of taking a course in cake decorating, something I never thought I'd say.

Been curious about Black bottom cupcakes, the chocolate-and-cheese combination is still new to me as I used to think it sounded quite appalling. Used David Lebovitz's recipe, which was simple enough to do, and followed it to the T, as I had all the ingredients on hand.

They're tasty, the sort of treat which could become a family favourite. Nice contrast of creamy cheese, bittersweet chocolate chip, and light fluffy chocolate cake. Ate one for dinner – a recent TV appearance made me realise I should lose a little weight, so a cupcake diet it is.

One main problem though – most of the cheesecake centres erupted up and all over the tops while baking, even though I'd dropped them quite neatly in the centres and pressed them in a little. I've long suspected my oven's temperature is off (note to self: buy oven thermometer) as I never get pretty cupcake tops – they're always bumpy or cracked. But in the case of these cupcakes though, the problem is two-fold – these don't need icing so there's no covering-up, and the cheesecake filling when exposed to heat turns dry and crumbly and tastes of egg, instead of staying creamy and cheesy.

Next time I try these I'll push the filling in more and maybe spoon a little more chocolate batter over the top, so it'll hopefully it'll be completely hidden, which should improve both taste and appearance.

And I'll be sure to have my thermometer by then too.

Boring breakfast cupcakes

Apricot-glazed almond cupcakes (Vegan Cupcakes)

Cuspcake rating: 2

A long weekend, during which I happily plan to pack in as many cupcake tryouts as I can.

First up, my second attempt from Vegan Cupcakes. Mine weren't vegan though, I used sour cream instead of soy yoghurt, which I can't find in my local super. Was tempted to replace the oil with brown butter but decided not to deviate too far from the recipe for a start. Also replaced almond essence with a little more vanilla and soy, as I have not been able to get organic essences and cannot stomach artificial almond flavours.

Wasn't too crazy about the cupcakes on first tasting, although I suppose they'd make a decent breakfast. They lack dimension. The almond meal in the cupcake batter is indiscernible, and the taste of soy milk was more obvious this time around. Of course this is probably because I didn't have almond essence. The baked-in apricot preserve filling is a nice surprise though, except the cupcake isn't flavourful enough to offer any contrast.

Since the cupcakes tasted of just soy and sugar, I added lemon juice instead of water to the glaze for some contrast, and topped with toasted sliced almonds. Ending up doubling the amount of glaze on each cupcake, and the end result was pleasant enough but forgettable, like eating any plain cupcake with apricot jam.

Disappointed since apricot and almonds promised to be such a great combination, but it just didn't come together. Will research other almond cupcake recipes and definitely seek out some almond essence. Suspect the omnivore in me will win out – I just feel like browned butter, slightly toasted almond meal, perhaps mixed with some ground hazelnuts, and milk might elevate this recipe to match my imagination – a buttery, fragrant, flavourful cake with a pleasant, grainy bite and surprise centre of sticky sour-sweet apricot.

The Cuspcakes rating system

Cuspcake Rating: 1
Edible, but barely. Too sweet, dense, oily, bland or dry.
Fatal weakness in one component.

Cuspcake Rating: 2
Too sweet or dense. Combination does not work.

Cuspcake Rating: 3
Good blend of flavours, all components at least average in quality. Textures or combination may not be perfect yet. Must have one other plus, eg. health benefits, one component is above-average etc

Cuspcake Rating: 4
Good overall flavour and texture. Yummy, but missing a few final tweaks to hit fullfledged Cuspcake status.

Cuspcake Rating: 5
Crowdpleasing overall flavour and texture. Satisfying without being rich. Components each good on their own. The sort of mouthwatering recipe you'd make to sell, if you were into that sort of thing.
Craveworthy.

Eating her curds and whey

Lemon curd-filled vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (cupcakeblog)

Cuspcake Rating: 3.5/5

So I outdid myself this weekend with two batches of cupcakes, the second being more complicated than any I've tried – the Lemon Curd-filled Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting from Cheryl Porro's cupcakeblog, a delicious blog I'm forcing myself to devour bit by bit. She's got a great, scientific approach to cupcaking, really unusual flavour combinations and by the looks of this one – superb recipes!

The people at work, tired out by rich chocolatey desserts, had requested something fruity for a change, and I love tart flavours so I zoomed in on this recipe. Plus, the chance to try my hand at making curd and stuffing cupcakes was irresistible.

I used evaporated milk in the vanilla cupcakes as that's all I had on hand, not sure how that affected flavour and texture. Also doubled the vanilla as I wanted it discernible to contrast with the lemon, and used a 1:4 ratio of cake flour to all-purpose, as I'd read reviews where cupcakes had turned out dense. The batter half-filled 16 2-inch cups.

The cupcakes turned out very tasty, and moist in a slightly sticky way, which may have been the evap milk talking. They also mostly had round bumps just in the centre, which was odd, but worked out alright as they lent a base to the eventual mound of frosting. I plan to experiment – just a little lighter (the weather is always hot here) and this'll be my go-to vanilla cupcake recipe.

Added more lemon juice to the curd with no apparent ill-effects, as I wanted something really tangy. The curd was yummy, I'd love to eat it over icecream, and could see myself just glazing plain cupcakes with it in a pinch. Wonder how a mango version'd work out, think mango juice might not hold up to heat as well as lemon? I added the leftover curd to the frosting, with some more lemon juice to counter all the sugar (didn't use it all in the end).

The results got good reviews at work (except from a dieter who went unhappily without). But honestly I didn't really care since, most importantly, they pleased a picky almost-five-year-old (who ate mostly the frosting and the coloured hundreds-and-thousands I'd bought expressly for her pleasure) and a perhaps-pickier 37-year-old, which pleased me no end.

There's nothing quite like baking for people you love. And no baked good says love quite like a cupcake, don't you think?

Animal-free cupcakes

Basic Chocolate Cupcake and Rich Chocolate Ganache Topping (Vegan Cupcakes)

Cuspcake Rating: 3/5
 

Perfect chance to try a vegan cupcake recipe today – I'm heading to a family gathering later and as with most modern families, I too have some relatives with medical conditions and the related dietary concerns, so I'd feel guilty bringing dessert if it weren't a somewhat healthier option.

While most of the reviews of Vegan Cupcakes I read raved about the fact that omnivores wouldn't be able to tell the difference between these and regular cupcake recipes, I beg to differ.

The cupcakes are like chocolate cupcake lite – with a lighter and less crumbly texture, almost like an Asian steamed rice cake. The closest description I can think of is the difference between drinking soy milk and full-cream milk – similarly, these are less cloying in the mouth and the stomach, and leave you feeling virtuous, and like you're on a diet. Which unfortunately for me means my omni relatives will probably need more than one each to feel satisfied.

The Ganache was good, not too rich, despite its name, and a welcome touch to the breathy cupcakes. I'm glad I opted for it instead of a cream frosting, which I think would have made the eating even more fleeting.

Will definitely try more recipes from the book, which as far as I can tell mostly replaces dairy products with their soy equivalents, and magically makes up for the missing eggs, I have not yet figured out what replaces them. I like the convenience of not having to look out for the expiry dates on a dozen packages of dairy perishables, and think these vegan recipes will make a great pulled-these-together-last-minute option since all the main ingredients involved keep quite well.

Will perhaps look for soy milk powder and try that out too, as currently soy milk is the only fresh refrigerated ingredient I'll have to remember to keep on hand.

Update on the vegan chocolate cupcakes: They were well-received, said to be very moist and enjoyable. There were lots of I-can't-believe-it's-vegan!-type responses and expressions. Will try more soon, especially since there's loads of soy milk in the fridge! Perhaps the Apricot-glazed Almond Cupcakes this weekend, since I've an opened package of almonds as well.

Second try

Chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting (Ina Garten)

Cuspcake Rating: 2.5/5

Used cake flour in place of all-purpose, which made them almost velvety in texture, and very crumbly after refrigeration, even when warmed up to room temperature before eating.

The frosting was a hit though, much better than the too-heavy cream cheese frosting which was my last attempt. Definitely a do-again.

Am wondering if I should get some muffin pans, even though I've already stocked up on several packets of what my baking supplies store calls mini souffle cups, firm waxed white cups which hold their own so I can use them on a baking sheet.

Bought Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero, and Crazy About Cupcakes by Krystina Castella today, curious about the difference using soy milk and other vegan alternatives will make to cupcakes – from reviews of the book it seems like the recipes turn out amazingly well, keen to give one a shot! So far the introductory chapters are an amusing and spunky read, great fun and most cupcake-passion-igniting.

Update: Realised where the fatal error lay with the cream cheese frosting recipe I last tried. A US stick of butter is half the size of one here. So there was twice the amount of butter in my recipe than there should have been! Bring on standardisation already! 

Make cupcakes, not war

Red Velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (Paula Deen)

Cuspcake Rating: 1/5

I'm about three years late on the craze, but I made my first batch of cupcakes last night.

Red velvet with cream cheese frosting. The icing was too sweet and too oily, badly piped. The ziplock bag I was using to frost them burst and dripped messily on the floor.

But it was great, like the best childhood craft project imaginable, with edible results.

I've found my cooking niche.

I've noticed that a number of cupcake bloggers aren't at all what you'd picture cupcake bloggers to be. And while I have no tattooes, I daresay I wouldn't match your mental picture either. I work in fashion, and most of my contemporaries spend most of their spare time at the manicure salon or at the latest trendy fusion fitness class.

One certainly does not expect me to love dessert. Most don't even expect me to eat. Perhaps even less than they'd expect I spend weekends elbow deep in batter.

I never pictured myself as a hobby baker, and I've never really liked cupcakes, finding them much better to look at than to eat. Give me something heartier and uglier for dessert every time – a whopping slice of cold cheesecake, icecream, brownies. Preferably messy to eat, rather than nibble off a china saucer with a silver fork.

An amateur home-cook at best, I'm more used to jointing a chicken than to piping delicate cream swirls. Yet I somehow arrived at this after a nine-month search for a new hobby, which took me through stovetop cooking (curries from scratch, stews and braises), to a short flirtation with roasting, then baking whole cakes.

So my perfect cupcakes may not be anyone else's perfect. But here's what I'm on a quest for: Cupcakes that taste great first, and look good second. Each one should offer the satisfaction of a hearty, full-sized dessert, in a cup. A good blend of the flavours and tasty textures everyone somehow finds nostalgic and comforting. Fun to do, and they must, must make the eater feel special. 

Ceux-ci sont mes petites génoises individuelles parfaites.