Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes

It's been a long long time. I didn't intend to be away from this blog for so long. But I had the end of my undergraduate classes, exams, we moved, I've been looking for apartments in Vancouver, I've been keeping up my photography blog which can be quite a task, and I just haven't really been baking much, not least of all because I moved all my baking stuff home. I'm finally here though to talk about my birthday cupcakes… even though my birthday was now over two months ago.


Like most cakes, you begin with the dry ingredients.


And then mix together the wet ingredients, along with the sugar...


and beat it up.


Add the eggs...


and beat it up again, until it becomes fluffy and pale yellow.


Then add some vanilla and mix it gently.


The other liquid this recipe calls for is buttermilk, but you can achieve the same effect as buttermilk by mixing milk with vinegar, which is what I did here. And so you have three bowls of different ingredients.


Add half of each type of wet ingredients and mix.


Mix in the remaining wet ingredients and whisk to smooth out any very large unmixed bits.

Now, of course I forgot to take a photo, but either pour the batter into a greased and floured cake tin, or line a muffin tin with papers and scoop the batter into each cup.


After baking for 15-20 minutes (sorry, I know I made notes on this, but I can't find them!), they come out smelling delicious and looking beautifully golden.


You can frost or decorate them however you want. I chose to make a chocolate and a strawberry buttercream and pipe them together onto the cupcakes.


These are the bessst vanilla cupcakes I've ever found a recipe for. I also used this as a cake once, if you'll remember Anders' 23rd birthday track cake. It's such a tasty, perfect recipe - not dense, not too sweet, soft, and just… delicious! Definitely give it a try next time you're in the market for a vanilla cake!

Recipe
Vanilla Cake

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk, plain yoghurt, or sour cream

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and lightly flour a 9x9/9x13 cake pan. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, beat together melted butter and sugar until completely combined. Add eggs and beat until mixture is smooth and light. Stir in vanilla extract. Add flour mixture in two additions, alternating with buttermilk. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes (cake) or 15-20 minutes (cupcakes), until cake is barely golden and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out with only a few loose crumbs.

Guten Appetit! Continue reading...

Chocolate Orange Marble Cupcakes with Chocolate Orange Ganache

It was my birthday well over a month ago now. On that day, I had one class at 8.30AM. I decided to treat those who actually showed up by bringing in cupcakes. Also, I just like making cupcakes. I modified my vanilla and chocolate marble cake to come up with these lovely cupcakes, so I didn't take step-by-step photos. The recipe is posted below!


Fresh from the oven. I made a recipe and a half and filled the cups quite high, so the domes came out beautifully, I think.


I made a simple chocolate ganache with some orange juice concentrate in it to top them, and decorated them with a few orange star-shaped sprinkles.

Recipes

Chocolate Orange Marble Cupcakes

×××

1 ½ cups + ¼ cup all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup canola oil
1 ¼ cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup plain yogurt
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 to ¼ cup thawed orange juice concentrate

×××

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a muffin tin with papers. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In large bowl, with mixer at low speed, beat oil and sugar until blended. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula. Beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat until smooth, occasionally scraping bowl. Transfer half of batter to medium bowl. Add cocoa to batter in one bowl and orange juice concentrate to the other and beat until blended. If the orange batter is runnier than the chocolate, add the remaining ¼ cup of flour. Alternately spoon orange and chocolate batters into cups. With a knife, cut and swirl through batters to create marbled effect. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean, about 25-35 minutes. Cool cupcakes in tin on a wire rack for ten minutes. Remove from pan to cool completely on rack.

For the ganache, all I did was melt some chocolate, add some cream and then add some of the left over orange juice concentrate. I didn't add very much liquid, as I wanted the ganache to form a thick layer over the dome of the cupcakes. When the cupcakes have cooled completely, dip the domes of the cupcakes into the ganache.

Guten Appetit! Continue reading...

Germany Cupcakes!

Germany cupcakes... what could that possibly mean?! German doesn't have a word for "cupcake." From what I gather, muffins and cupcakes are called the same thing: der Muffin. I also looked "cupcake" up on the Leo translator. It came up with this: kleiner, muffinähnlicher Kuchen. It means "small cake, similar to a muffin." That's a mouthful. But so are cupcakes... which bring me back to the real point of this post...
I made these cupcakes for one of my German classes. As you may (or may not) know, Germans are not terribly, outwardly patriotic, and they haven't been for some time. But shortly before and after (the first) German unification, there was a tremendous amount of national pride and patriotism. We were discussing this period in one of my classes, and to get a better idea of what we were talking about, we did a pretend, "in-character" Rollenspiel (role play), in a Berlin salon. And what do you do in salons other than talk politics and literature, etc.? Why, you eat small sweets! Now, I'm sure they wouldn't have eaten cupcakes in the salons of Berlin back in the day, but I like cupcakes.
This still doesn't explain why the cupcakes are called Germany cupcakes, but if you continue reading, you will find out soon!

I started with two bowls with ingredients for vanilla cake in one and chocolate in the other.

The cake ingredients at this point are flour, sugar and baking soda, and cocoa for the chocolate cake.

I made the chocolate batter first: to the above mentioned ingredients I added some oil, water (it's supposed to be coffee, but we don't drink it!) and vanilla.


And I whisked it all up!


To the dry vanilla ingredients, I added oil, milk and vanilla.


And whisked it all up!


Next, I split the vanilla batter in two bowls and got out my trusty gel colouring...

Does anyone see where this is going yet?





I dyed one bowl yellow, and one bowl red (well, neon pink...:\)!


I layered the batters in my muffin tin, starting with chocolate.


And ending with yellow.

I realised afterward I should have done it the other way, since the black is actually on top and yellow on the bottom. Whoops!

After baking, they came out with cute little domes!




While they had been baking, I worked on some buttercream, which I also dyed schwarzrotgold (black red gold). I had never piped with more than one colour in the bag, so three was quite an ordeal! I also have a very small piping bag, so for many of the cupcakes, two colours came out fabulously, but the third was kind of lost.

In any event, I thought they looked pretty cute in the end! Which is why I took 23409834 photos...













Of course it rained the day I had to take them to class, and when it rains in Kingston, it rains horizontally. So this is how I ended up getting my hard work to class. In a Rubbermaid dishpan, which I then put in a garbage bag.

The cupcakes were enjoyed by one and all in my class! And what did I think? Well, something happened to my tried and true chocolate cupcakes. I must have messed something up in the ingredients, because they stuck like crazy to the paper. The vanilla turned out very well, considering it's an adaptation of the chocolate recipe (total current number of variations of that recipe: 3)!
But they were tasty and really cute. I just wish I had gotten some extra credit for it! ;]

I really want to post a recipe for this, but unfortunately, I typed it up in Notepad, and printed it to use while baking. Now it's attached to my fridge with a magnet... in Kingston. And I'm in Hamilton. So what I'll do is post the vanilla recipe when I get my hands on it, and if you're looking for the chocolate recipe, you can find it here!

Up next: chicken pot pie and blueberry cheesecake squares. And after that, stay tuned for some Christmas baking, as well as a ridiculously decadent cake which I'm planning to make for my mum's 60th birthday (on the 26th)!

Guten Appetit!

PS - apparently I have three make that FOUR followers! Rock on! Your patronage is much appreciated! :] Continue reading...

Marble Cupcakes

It has certainly been a while. I have been baking a little, and the semester ended on Friday, so I actually have time make some updates. The first one is marble cupcakes.
This is a recipe my sister used a couple of times a few years ago. The recipe is actually for a loaf cake, but... well I don't know, I like cupcakes.

It all started with the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder and soda, and salt.


Next I creamed together the butter and sugar...




until it was smooth.


And then added eggs and vanilla (not pictured).


This cake is interesting because it has sour cream in it.


But it's added in alternately with the flour mixture, which comes first.




When it was all smooth, I separated it into two bowls.


And added some cocoa to one bowl.




Then I scooped it in layers into my prepared tin.




Right out of the oven, the cupcakes had cute little domes.


But as they cooled it shrunk. Probably due to too little time in the oven.


But damn, they were still delicious.



These cupcakes were moist and the flavour was great. The chooclate was super chocolatey, but the vanilla was strong enough to not be overpowered by it! I didn't frost them; I think it would have masked the nice flavours in the cake. They stayed fresh for days, as well. I was very very pleased with the way they turned out. So if you're looking for a moist flavourful marble cake, this is it! I think it could also be fantastic to flavour the vanilla portion, perhaps with orange or mint. Mmm.

The recipe below is for the original loaf cake, but to make cupcakes is simple enough. I must have been distracted while I was making these, because I didn't note the baking time for the cupcakes. However, I think it would be safe to give them 15 minutes before checking on them (since they are so moist) and going from there. This could also be made into a round or square cake quite easily.

Recipe

Marble Loaf Cake

×××

1 ½ cups all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter/margarine
1 ¼ cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup sour cream or plain yogurt
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

×××

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 9" by 5" glass or metal loaf pan. In small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In large bowl, with mixer at low speed, beat butter and sugar until blended. Increase speed to high; beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Reduce speed to low; add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula. Beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat until smooth, occasionally scraping bowl. Transfer half of batter to medium bowl. Add cocoa to batter remaining in large bowl and beat until blended. Alternately spoon vanilla and chocolate batters into pan. With a knife, cut and swirl through batters to create marbled effect. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Run knife around cake to loosen from sides of pan. Remove from pan to cool completely on rack.

Guten Appetit! Continue reading...

Peach Cupcakes with Peach Buttercream

I bet you didn't think I'd be back this soon. Well, you were wrong! Booyah!
I had planned to do great things yesterday. I wanted to get all my homework done, or at least started so that I can relax on Sunday, when I'll be trying out for the Queen's Equestrian Team, and when Anders gets back from his race. Instead, I spent most of the afternoon in front of my computer and then I decided to bake cupcakes and then I spent five hours at the front desk of a residence building keeping my best friend, who works there, company. What this means, though, is that you get another entry and recipe! AND, before I sat down to write this, I did do most of my German homework. So not all is lost.
Let's get started though, yes? So, do you remember how I said my chocolate cake recipe is very versatile? And then how I took that recipe and made it into lemon cake? Well, yesterday, I realised that the peaches Anders bought on Tuesday were quickly growing soft and I decided to take that recipe and change it again, to include peaches!

It started with the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda.


Once I'd measured that all out, I washed some peaches and cut them up into the blender.

This blender rocks. It belongs to Anders' brother, so we're only lucky enough to have it until he comes back to Canada. But I really do love it.

Then I pushed a series of buttons because this blender is super high tech, and the peaches were more of less instantly turned to liquid.


Next, I strained the liquefied peaches.




The other liquid ingredients consisted of oil and vanilla.


I threw everything together in a big bowl, and mixed it up.

I ended up having to add some water, because the peach puree was a bit too thick. Also, right before I poured it into the muffin tin, I added some vinegar to activate the baking soda.

And then I poured the batter into my lined muffin tin.


Twenty minutes later, I pulled them out and they looked and smelled excellent!


While they were cooling (on a windowsill, no less!), I got to work on making some peach buttercream. I started by whipping some room temperature butter.


To that, I added a whole bunch of confectioner's sugar.


Finally, I added some vanilla and peach puree for flavour.


I also added a bit of red and yellow gel food colouring to give it a nicer colour and whipped it up again until it looked like this:

Mmm.

When the cakes were cool, I used a large star tip in my piping bag and piped on the buttercream.


From here on out, it's just food porn:








Did I mention how much I love my chocolate cake recipe, and how I can pretty much make it into whatever I want?
These cupcakes turned out really well. They're extremely moist inside, and while the peach flavour is pretty subtle, they taste great. I also love this buttercream icing. It's nice because you can always just omit the cream that it calls for, and use some flavoured liquid instead, which is what I did in this case. The only problem, of course, is that it's very rich, and there's no way to make it even remotely healthy.
All in all, though, a nice treat... especially if you have over-ripe peaches sitting around!

Recipe

Peach Cupcakes with Peach Buttercream

Cupcakes
2-2 ½ cups unbleached white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup sugar
1 cup fresh peach puree
½ cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2/3 cup water
2 tablespoons vinegar

Buttercream
¾ cup butter, at room temperature
1 ½ cups confectioner’s sugar
¼ cup peach puree
Vanilla, to taste


×××

Cake
Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a muffin tin, or lightly grease and flour a 9-inch round or 8-inch square cake pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sugar into a bowl. In a measuring cup, mix together the peach puree, oil and vanilla. Add the peach mixture to the dry ingredients and whisk together until combined. At this point, you may want to add some yellow and food colouring to achieve a peachier colour. When the batter is smooth, add the vinegar and stir quickly. The batter will foam slightly where the baking soda and vinegar are reacting. Stir just until the vinegar is evenly distributed throughout the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 20 minutes if making cupcakes, or 25 to 30 minutes it making cake. Allow to cool before glazing or frosting.

Peach Buttercream
Whip the butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat until well combined. Add peach puree and vanilla and beat again until smooth. You may want to add some yellow and red food colouring to achieve a peachier colour.
Can be piped or spread onto cakes.

Guten Appetit! Continue reading...