Cupcakery

24th October, 2010 - Posted by cmwhitten - No Comments

Black & White CupcakesCupcake Ingredients

• 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt
• 2 cup granulated sugar
• ½  cup oil or 1 stick unsalted butter @ room temperature
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

Frosting Ingredients

• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter @ room temperature
• 1 box of powder confectioners sugar
• 2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
• 1 or 2 tablespoons of milk (Optional)

Directions – Cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, coca, baking soda, baking powder, salt, set aside.
4. In a large bowl, beat together until creamy granulated sugar, oil or butter, vanilla and eggs. Add in milk.  Slowly add dry ingredients, and mix until smooth.  Stir in boiling water.  The batter will be thin.
5. Divide batter evenly among cupcake tins, filling each about ⅔. Bake until tops spring back when touched, and a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean, 20 – 22 minutes, Cool completely before frosting.

Directions – Frosting

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and vanilla together until smooth.
2. Slowly add the powder sugar on a low speed, beat until smooth.
3. Increase the speed to high and mix until light and fluffy – you may need to add 1 or 2 tablespoons of milk.
4. Frost the cupcakes and decorate as desired.

Makes 2 Dozen

 

 

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes w/ Cream Cheese Frosting & Roasted Walnuts

Cupcake Ingredients

•2 cups all-purpose flour
•1 teaspoon baking soda
•1 teaspoon baking powder
•1 teaspoon coarse salt
•1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
•1 teaspoon ground ginger
•1 teaspoon nutmeg
•1 teaspoon ground allspice
•1 cup packed light-brown sugar
•1 cup granulated sugar
•1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter @ room temperature
•4 large eggs, lightly beaten
•1 – 1 ½ cups pumpkin puree

Frosting Ingredients

•1 (8 ounce) package of cream cheese, softened cups all-purpose flour
•½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter @ room temperature
•1 box of powder confectioners sugar
•1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
•1 or 2 tablespoons of milk (Optional)
•½ cup roasted walnut pieces (sprinkle on top of the cupcake after frosting)

Directions – Cupcakes

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside.
3.In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice; set aside.
4.In a large bowl, beat together until creamy, brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and eggs. Add in pumpkin puree. Slowly add dry ingredients, and mix until smooth.
5.Divide batter evenly among cupcake tins, filling each about ⅔. Bake until tops spring back when touched, and a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean, 20 – 22 minutes, Cool completely before frosting.

Directions – Frosting

1.In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until smooth.
2.Slowly add the powder sugar on a low speed, beat until smooth.
3.Increase the speed to high and mix until light and fluffy – you may need to add 1 or 2 tablespoons of milk.
4.Frost the cupcakes and sprinkle with the roasted walnut pieces as desired.

Lemon Zester Cupcake

Ingredients

½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup granulated white sugar
1 tsp lemon extract (1 tsp vanilla extract for vanilla cupcakes)
¼ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (no seeds)
3 large eggs
Zest of 1 large lemon, finely grated/chopped
1 ½ cups of cake flour sifted
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¼ cup milk

Lemon Curd Filling Ingredients

3 large egg yolks
1/3 fresh squeezed lemon juice (no seeds)
1 tbsp Lemon zest, finely grated/chopped
¾ cup granulated white sugar
4 tbsp Unsalted butter, room temperature

(You can also use a store-bought Lemon Filling if you are running short on time).

Lemon Frosting Ingredients

¾ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 box powdered confectioners’ sugar
2 tbsp Heavy cream
2 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice or lemon extract
¼ tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp finely grated/chopped lemon zest

Lemon Cupcakes Directions

Preheat over to 350 degrees and line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

Beat together butter & sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Be sure to scrape the bowl sides often. Beat in lemon zest, lemon extract and lemon juice.

In a separate bowl – sift together flour, baking power and salt.

Add the flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture; alternately add the flour mixture and milk. Mix between each addition. Also scrape the bowl sides often.

Fill the cupcake cups with the batter 2/3 full, I use an ice cream scoop – it works perfect. Bake for 18 – 20 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack before filling and frosting.

Lemon Curd Filling Directions

Combine all ingredients in a small stainless steel bowl over a simmering pan of water. Stir non-stop until mixture thickens a little and coats the back of a wooden spoon. Remove from heat and cover immediately to prevent a “skin” forming on the curd – place the bowl in the refrigerator. It takes about 10 minutes of non-stop stirring to make this curd which will continue to thicken as it cools.

*You may want to pour the mixture through a fine strainer to remove any lumps before covering and putting it in the refrigerator.

Lemon Frosting Directions

Beat the butter until creamy; gradually beat in the powdered confectioner’s sugar on low speed. Add the cream, lemon juice, vanilla extract and lemon zest. Beat on medium-high for about 3 minutes until the frosting is light & fluffy.

Cupcake Assembly

Using a straight, round apple corer, take the center out of the cupcakes leaving about ¼ inch in at the bottom – fill with the lemon curd using a pastry bag. Next frost with Lemon Frosting.

RED VELVET

What is a Red Velvet Cake?

A Red velvet cake is a cake with a dark red, bright red or red-brown color. It is usually prepared as a layer cake somewhere between chocolate and vanilla in flavor, topped with a creamy white icing. Common ingredients are buttermilk, butter, flour, cocoa, and red food coloring Beets were used to make the cake for a short period of time. The amount of cocoa used varies in different recipes. A typical frosting is a butter roux (also known as a cooked flour frosting). Cream cheese or butter cream frostings are also used. (Source: Wikipedia)

 History of Red Velvet Cake

Jan 26, 2009 by Stephanie Jolly

 

 

 

Historic Cookbook Recipes for Velvet Cake and Devil’s Food Cake

Recipes for velvet cake appear in numerous 19th century cookbooks, including the 1896 publication The Boston Cooking-School Cookbook and the 1885 book Good Things to Eat, and given the similarity of the names it is probable that these cakes were the predecessors of red velvet.

However velvet cake recipes provide instructions on how to make a butter based cake, blended together with whipped egg whites and ground almonds for texture, a far cry from the ruby-red cake recognized by contemporary bakers.

Several years later, at the turn of the 20th century, Devil’s Food cake began appearing in print. In what appears to be a chocolate version of a velvet cake, a 1902 recipe for Devil’s Food cake, from Mrs. Rorer’s New Cook Book of 1902, calls for cooking milk and cocoa together with baking powder, before folding a butter batter into whipped egg whites. A later recipe, submitted to the Good Housekeeping Woman’s Home Cook Book in 1909 omits the whipped egg whites, and resembles modern recipes for Devil’s Food chocolate cake.

Early Evidence of Colored and Dyed Red Cakes

One of the earlier verifiable mentions of a red-colored cake comes from The Perry Home Cook Book, published by the ladies of Perry, Kansas in 1920. A recipe for Philadelphia Red Cake calls for squares of chocolate to be dissolved in boiling water and soda, now known as baking soda, before being added to a batter that contained sour milk and egg whites. The difference between this recipe and those for Devil’s Food cake are negligible, and is identical to recipes for Red Devil’s Food cake.

Although no food coloring was added in this red cake, a recipe for pink and white layer cake found within the same book calls for a teaspoon of pink food coloring to be added to a standard white cake batter, supporting the notion that colored cakes were created purely for their novel appearance.

Some have hypothesized that red colored cakes gained popularity during WWII, when homemakers may have substituted beets to replace white sugar, which was being rationed. However sugar beets are white, not heavily pigmented like red beets, and wartime recipes for beet-cake are not nearly as prominent as one would expect if this were the case.

Role of Cocoa Powder and Buttermilk in Early Red Colored Cakes

Prominent food writers, including James Beard and Harold McGee, have described how early cakes incorporating cocoa powder and buttermilk may have had a reddish hue due to the reaction of the cocoa pigments with the acid present in soured milk. Unprocessed cocoa contains anthocyanin, a food pigment like that found in red cabbage, which reacts with acidic and alkaline ingredients. In the presence of acid, anthocyanin reddens, theoretically giving the baked product a pinkish hue.

But as home bakers who have attempted to recreate these naturally dyed red velvet cakes will attest, this is more science theory than kitchen fact. Shanini & Naczk, in their text Phenolics in Food and Nutraceuticals, describe how during the fermentation and dying of cacao beans anthocyanins disappear and the formerly purplish red hue of the cocoa turns a decidedly brown color. Dutch-processed cocoa, a readily available alkalized cocoa powder, has basic properties which interfere with the anthocyanin-acid reaction.

Popularity and Prominence of Red Velvet Cakes

By the 1960’s, recipes for red velvet cake were appearing across the nation in newspapers such as The Washington Post and Spokesman-Review with names such as “Red Carpet Cake.” Red food coloring now featured as a prominent, and essential, ingredient along such other basics as buttermilk, cocoa powder and vinegar.
While red velvet cake has always been popular throughout the southern United States, it enjoyed renewed popularity across the nation in 1989, following an appearance in the popular movie Steel Magnolia’s where it was shaped like an armadillo groom’s cake. More recently, in 2002, it was selected by singer Jessica Simpson to serve as the flavor of her five-tiered cake served at her wedding to Nick Lachey. Since then it has been featured in cupcake form topped with mountainous dollops of cream-cheese frosting at bakeries nationwide.

This article has been posted with written permission by the author Stephanie Jolly, the original article can be found at the link below.

http://baking-decorating-cakes.suite101.com/article.cfm/origins_of_red_velvet_cake

I have been testing cupcake recipes for the past three weeks – the one that I have posted below is by far my favorite – moist, light and airy. Enjoy!

Cupcake Recipe

Ingredients for the Cupcakes

•2 1/3 cups sifted cake flour
•3 tablespoons natural cocoa powder
•1 teaspoon baking soda
•1 teaspoon salt
•1 ½ cups sugar
•1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
•2 large eggs (room temp)
•1 cup buttermilk (room temp)
•2 tablespoons red food coloring
•1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
•1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•¼ cup water

Ingredients for the Frosting

•1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
•½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter softened
•1 pound box confectioners’ sugar
•1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 350◦ degrees F. Line 2 (12-cup) muffin pans with cupcake papers.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In a large bowl gently beat together the sugar, butter and eggs. When smooth add the buttermilk, food coloring, vinegar, vanilla and water. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet and mix until smooth and thoroughly combined.
Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake tins about 2/3 filled. Bake in oven for about 20 minutes, turning the pans once, half way through. Test the cupcakes with a toothpick for doneness. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.

Frosting

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until smooth. Add the sugar and on low speed, beat until incorporated. Increase the speed to high and mix until very light and fluffy.

Have fun making your Red Velvet Cupcakes!

Cupcakery – What is it?

This section of my blog is 100% dedicated to Cupcakes! Each month I will announce a flavor of the month – sharing information about a particular flavor, its origin and recipe as well as cupcake fabrics and cupcake-related trinkets. Be sure to check back each month to find out what delicious goodies we have baked up for your consumption!