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!)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.