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!)

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!

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. :)

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. :)