Chocolate Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Filling

Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcakes - made June 29, 2012 from Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans

I'm still channeling my fascination for Cupcake Wars and still kibbitzing over my cupcake corer.  Seriously, I love this thing.  If I was still 5 years old, it'd be the equivalent of a new Barbie.  This time I remembered to buy regular cupcake liners so my cupcakes wouldn't be too big and the corer would work as it's supposed to.  And it did - plunge, twist and lift up.  You're left with a perfect round hole in the cupcake and a little cylinder of cupcake in the corer which you could pop out and sample *cough* over and over again *cough* as many times as you have cupcakes.

Besides pastry cream with vanilla cupcakes, my other safe flavor combination is chocolate with caramel.  So I made these chocolate sour cream cupcakes and filled them with salted caramel before frosting with chocolate buttercream. That was the plan anyway.  After I had filled the first 3 cupcakes, I got concerned that the caramel filling would just seep into the cupcake and make it too moist.  I wasn't giving the cupcakes away until the next morning and I didn't know how the cupcakes would fare overnight.  So for the rest of the cupcakes, I ended up mixing the chocolate buttercream frosting with some of the salted caramel and used that as the filling instead.

I also ended up modifying the buttercream recipe to suit my taste.  The original recipe by Elinor Klivans called for 3 sticks of butter.  While I've used that much butter in 1 recipe without blinking, having that much in a frosting recipe did give me pause.  I don't really care for traditional buttercream because the texture always seems a bit greasy to me. So I cut back on the butter, omitted the heavy cream from the original recipe and came up with my own frosting.  Frosting measurements are never that precise because you have to play with the dry and liquid ingredients to get the flavor and consistency you want and there's no one right answer.  Just be sure you let your butter come to room temperature (but not too soft) and let your melted chocolate cool properly before adding it or it'll melt the butter.

Did I mention these cupcakes were to die for?  They're scrumptious on their own, unfilled and unfrosted with the perfect taste and cakey texture that's fluffy, not too dense or too rich.  If you like the bells and whistles on your cupcake, adding the filling and frosting will send you into orbit.  I also sprinkled fleur de sel over the frosting to top off the sweet-salty combination.

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 ¼ cups sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup sour cream

½ cup water

1.     Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line 18 muffins tins with cupcake liners.

2.     Melt the chocolate in the top half of a double boiler set over hot water, stirring until smooth.

3.     Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside.

4.     Cream the butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer until well blended and creamy, about 2 minutes.  Mix in the melted chocolate until incorporated.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition until blended.  Add the vanilla and beat for 1 minute.  Mix in the sour cream until no white streaks remain.  Add half of the dry ingredients and beat on low speed until just incorporated.  Add the water.  Add the remaining dry ingredients, mixing until just incorporated.  Do not overmix.    

5.     Distribute evenly amongst cupcake liners and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of one comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs, about 15-20 minutes.  Cool completely before filling and frosting.

Chocolate Frosting

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped

2 ½ cups powdered sugar

1 ½ tablespoons unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.     Melt the chocolate in the top half of a double boiler set over hot water.  Stir until smooth and set aside to cool slightly.

2.     Beat the butter until creamy.  Sift the powdered sugar and cocoa together into a large mixing bowl.  Add to the butter and, using an electric mixer on low speed, beat until smoothly blended.  Beat in the melted chocolate.  Add the vanilla, mixing to incorporate.

3.     On medium speed, beat the frosting for at least 3 minutes, until it looks smooth and creamy and the color lightens.

 

Coconut Cream Pie

Coconut Cream Pie - made June 24, 2012 from the Culinary Institute of America's Baking & Pastry Arts certification program

I never used to think I would like coconut cream pie, partly because I don't ordinarily like custard-y desserts but mostly because all the coconut cream pies I had seen had mile-high whipped cream topping and I don't do whipped cream, aka flavored air with calories.  Then when I was in culinary school, we made coconut cream pie and once I tasted it, my reaction was "where have you been all my life??"  What helped me get over my unwarranted prejudice is by then I had already gotten hooked on the CIA's pastry cream recipe and this coconut cream pie recipe was very similar in how the pastry cream was made; the main difference was the addition of coconut.  I also tried the pie without whipped cream and I was hooked.

The recipe below is straight from my CIA recipe binder so the directions are sparse and this is enough to make a full-size pie (at least an 8-9" pie).  If you end up with more filling than you need, separate out what you need for the pie before you add the coconut and use the leftover as regular pastry cream.  Or you can do what I did and bake it as mini pies, as many as you have crusts and filling for.

20 ounces milk

2 ounces sugar

1.5 ounces egg (1)

1 ounce egg yolk (2)

5 tablespoons cornstarch

2 ounces sugar

1 ounce butter

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

¾ cup shredded coconut

Unbaked pie crust(s)

1.     Line pie pan(s) with pie dough, prick the bottom, line with parchment paper and beans or pie weights and prebake.  Let cool.

2.     Combine eggs, cornstarch, sugar and a little of the milk to make a paste.

3.     Boil the milk with the sugar, temper the starch and bring back to a boil.

4.     Add butter, vanilla and coconut.

5.     Pour custard into pie pans and put into refrigerator.

6.     When cool, decorate with whipped cream and toasted coconut. (Or if you're like me, leave off the whipped cream.)

  

Banana "Napoleons"

Banana "Napoleons" - made June 23, 2012

I can't claim these as real napoleons since they technically only had 1 layer of puff pastry and napoleons are supposed to have multiple layers.  I originally started out with the intention of creating a napoleon with 3 layers of pastry, 2 layers of pastry cream and 2 layers of bananas.  Alas, I didn't take into account the puff pastry, well, puffing up quite so much.  They literally went airborne and it would've been impractical to try to mush them into 3 layers or else I'd end up with a crumbly mess.  Puff pastry doesn't take kindly to being mushed down.  Instead, I cut one piece through the middle, filled it with pastry cream and bananas and called it a dessert.

This is a simple one to make for those summer days when you'd rather be outside than in the kitchen.  It only requires about 15 minutes of baking time and you can prep the pastry cream ahead of time.  I cheated on the puff pastry by buying the ready-made kind by Pepperidge Farm.  I know, I know, I'm supposed to be more snobby than that but in this rare instance, the store-bought version was just fine, especially since I didn't have the time or materials to make puff pastry from scratch.

After you thaw the puff pastry according to the package directions, slice it with a pizza cutter (for straight cuts) in the size you want to make your dessert.  I sliced one sheet into thirds lengthwise, then each strip into thirds again to make rectangles.  Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar to taste and bake according to the package directions.  Bake until golden brown then let cool for about 5 minutes before slicing in half and layering with pastry cream and sliced bananas.  Serve immediately.

The advantage of this type of simple dessert is you only have your oven on for a short period of time, as opposed to longer baking times for cakes or pies or multiple cookie sheets, which may be a factor during hot summer months.  You can also make the pastry cream a day ahead and keep it in your refrigerator until you're ready to use it.

Now, another take on the same dessert is, before baking the puff pastry, you slice it in the size you want for each individual dessert, cover all but the edges with pastry cream, layer sliced bananas on top of the pastry cream and bake until the pastry is golden brown.  Because it's weighed down by the pastry cream and bananas, it won't get the same rise so it's a bit more manageable.  The bananas will also roast for more flavor.  Once they're baked, sprinkle the bananas with granulated sugar, brulee them then top with ice cream.  Serve immediately.  I have to confess, I liked the second way better because of the taste of the baked bananas and the puff pastry being easier to eat without crumbling.

Linked to Sweet Treats Thursday
 

Golden Orange Buttermilk Cake

Golden Orange Buttermilk Cake - made June 23, 2012, recipe adapted from Cakes to Die For by Bev Shaffer

My orange tree is still valiantly trying to grow oranges.  I counted 3 little ones that have made it just barely past the tiny little bud/blossom-I-might-become-an-orange-someday stage.  So I wait with bated breath to see how they play out.  In the meantime, I've got to buy the oranges I eat and use for baking.  Although oranges are available year round (if you're fortunate), I tend to associate them with summer and bake with them more often in the warmer months.

This is another I-have-to-use-up-my-buttermilk baking recipe I dusted off from my "Still Need to Make" recipe folder.  I amass recipes and dump them in that folder on my computer for baking someday. I classify this one under picnic cakes that'll withstand summer temps because it's easy to make in a bundt pan, slice and serve without worrying about a thick frosting melting off of it or it getting stale too quickly.  Overall this was a good basic pound cake.  The cake itself was more of a vanilla butter pound cake than a true orange cake so for more orange flavor, I made some adjustments (modifications below) to the original recipe as to what I would do the next time I make this cake.

I'm still on the lookout for a cakey orange cake with a fluffy texture rather than a dense pound cake texture though.  This wasn't it so the search continues.

3 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into pieces

4 large eggs

¾ cup buttermilk

1 tablespoon freshly grated orange zest (more if desired for more orange flavor)

1 tablespoon fresh orange juice

Orange soaking syrup

1/4 cup - 1/3 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup granulated sugar

Glaze

1 ¼ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

2 teaspoons fresh orange juice, pulp free

1 to 2 tablespoons water or additional fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon orange zest, optional but recommended for more orange flavor

1.     Heat the oven to 325⁰F.  Grease and flour a 10” tube pan or 12-cup Bundt pan, tapping out excess flour.

2.     In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

3.     In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. 

4.     Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until blended.  With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk until well mixed.  Scrape bowl.  Stir in the orange zest and orange juice until combined.

5.     Spread batter into prepared pan.  Bake for 50 to 66 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  While the cake is baking, heat the ingredients for the soaking syrup, stirring constantly until the sugar has dissolved completely.

6.     Cool cake in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.  Then run a small spatula around the inside edge of the pan and carefully remove the cake by inverting on a wire rack lined with wax paper.  Brush with the soaking syrup until all syrup has been absorbed.  Cool completely.

7.     For the glaze: in a medium bowl, whisk together the confectioners’ sugar, orange juice, orange zest and just enough water or additional orange juice until the desired consistency is reached.  Drizzle over cooled cake.  Serves 12-14.

  

Vanilla Cupcakes for Vanilla King

Yellow Butter Cake - made June 22, 2012, recipe adapted from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook and made into cupcakes

One of my favorite shows on TV is Cupcake Wars on Food Network.  Every Sunday night, you can find me in front of my TV, stressing out with the cupcake bakers on how to pass the taste challenge (Round 1), the taste and presentation challenge (Round 2) and creating a display and baking 1000 cupcakes in 2 hours (Round 3) with 4 baking assistants and a bearded carpenter clad in plaid.  When I first started watching the show, it stressed me out so much I almost couldn't watch it.  It reminded me too much of culinary school and the daily stress of making desserts in time for the lunch deadline (you don't sit down and eat lunch until the desserts are done, plated, on display and your station is clean).  I've since gotten used to the show so now I can actually distance myself enough to enjoy the cupcakes they're making rather than cringing in empathic sympathy for what the contestants are going through.

What fascinates me about the show is all the flavor combinations they put together.  My idea of the perfect cupcake is a well-made, moist, plain (i.e. non-filled) cupcake topped with the thinnest layer of frosting and no decorations that I would otherwise only pluck off and never eat.  Cupcake Wars goes to the opposite end of the spectrum and the most exotic (or sometimes just plain weird) flavors are baked into the cupcakes, they're filled with "stuff", thickly topped with frosting and decorated in all sorts of ways.  Most of them are probably cupcakes I wouldn't eat but some of them sure look pretty.  And some do put together flavor combinations I would probably like.

The cupcake corer

Despite my aversion to fillings in cupcakes, I decided I'd try it out - namely because I found a cool new baking gadget to play with - the cupcake corer.  Granted, a small knife or the large-enough end of a decorating tip could accomplish the same thing: making a hole in the cupcake, extracting the bit of cupcake and leaving a hole or well in the center to be filled with filling.  But for $4.99, no tax and free shipping, I felt I could indulge in a new baking gadget.

I was meeting my cousin and her son, Vanilla King, for dinner and I needed something befitting his moniker - I gave it to him, after all, since he's the only kid I know who not only prefers vanilla but actually doesn't like chocolate.  Doesn't like chocolate.  Had to repeat that because my brain can't comprehend it. In any case, what better cupcake for Vanilla King than a vanilla cupcake filled with vanilla pastry cream and topped with vanilla icing?  I used Martha Stewart's recipe for Yellow Butter Cake and made a half recipe into cupcakes.  Turns out I didn't have regular cupcake liners on hand so I used the mini panettone molds instead.  They made for a bigger, taller cupcake than I intended but oh well.

Filled with pastry cream

The cupcake corer actually worked but because of the size of my cupcakes, it couldn't make a very deep hole before the lip of the corer ran into the top of the cupcake.  I thought it would be okay without my enlarging the holes manually with a knife but it turns out I should have because there ended up not being very much filling in the cupcakes.  With regular cupcake liners, I think it would've been okay.  I used the CIA recipe for pastry cream because it's my favorite.  If you're only making 1 batch of cupcakes, a half recipe of the pastry cream would be more than enough.

The recipe for the cake was pretty good.  I still have an underbaking problem so they probably turned out a little heavier than Martha intended but the taste was nice and buttery.  Next time I would bake it a minute or two longer and use more filling.  Good thing there's no possibility of my appearing on Cupcake Wars any time soon.  Or ever.

Because Vanilla King is 7 years old, I had to add sprinkles to his cupcakes

Needs more filling

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ cups cake flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 ¾ cups sugar

4 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 ¼ cups milk

1.       Preheat oven to 350°F.  Butter two 9” round cake pans; line the bottoms with parchment paper.

2.       In a medium bowl, sift together flours, baking powder and salt; set aside.

3.       In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.  Beat in eggs, one at a time, then beat in the vanilla.  With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the milk and beginning and ending with the flour mixture.  Beat until combined after each addition.

4.       Divide the batter evenly between the cake pans and smooth with an offset metal spatula.  Bake, rotating the pans halfway through, until cakes are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the centers come out clean, 30 to 35 minutes (20-25 minutes or less if you’re baking as cupcakes).  Transfer pans to a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes.  Invert cakes onto rack, peel off parchment and reinvert.  Let cool completely before frosting.

Vanilla Frosting

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 pound confectioners’ sugar, sifted (more or less, depending on the consistency you want your frosting)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1-2 tablespoons milk, adjust with confectioners’ sugar for desired consistency

1.       With an electric mixer, beat butter on medium high speed until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes.

2.       Reduce speed to medium.  Add the confectioners’ sugar, ½ cup at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl as needed; after every two additions, raise speed to high and beat 10 seconds to aerate frosting, then return to medium. 

3.       Add vanilla and milk, and beat until frosting is smooth.  If not using immediately, frosting can be refrigerated up to 10 days in an airtight container.  Before using, bring to room temperature and beat on low speed until smooth again, about 5 minutes.

Cocoa Fudge Cake with Chocolate Nutella Frosting

Cocoa Fudge Cake with Chocolate Nutella Frosting - made June 17, 2012 from Yummy Healthy Easy blog

I was in the mood for chocolate last weekend and although it was sweltering hot, I sucked it up to make this easy chocolate cake recipe.  I knew just from looking at the ingredients with its high proportion of liquid ingredients that the batter would be thin and the cake would be moist.  And I was right.  As advertised on the original blog, (click on the recipe title to get the cake recipe), this cake was very moist and deliciously fudgy.  Don't underbake it as it'll turn out too gummy but bake until the toothpick comes out clean or with a few moist (but not wet) crumbs.  The quality of the taste however will largely depend on the quality of your cocoa so use the good stuff (do I still need to say that?).  A dark cocoa works best to give it full flavor.

I skipped the icing recipe though to do my usual fast, no-fail frosting.  I melted some chocolate chips with nutella, blended smooth and spread on the cake.  I didn't measure how much of each but you can play with it according to taste and texture preference.  If you want the frosting to remain somewhat soft and fluid, use more nutella.  If you want it to set slightly, almost like a soft fudge, use more chocolate chips.  There's really no getting it wrong.  However, given how moist this cake is, it's best not to slice it until you're ready to serve or else wrap completely in plastic, preferably directly wrapping the cake in plastic so there's no air trapped between plastic and cake.  Otherwise the cut ends will dry out faster and you'll lose the goodness of the moist texture.

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1 cup hot water

Icing
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Combine cocoa, sugar, salt, flour and soda. 
2. Add the oil, buttermilk and eggs. Mix well, then add the water. 
3. Pour into a greased and floured Bundt pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes. Remove cake from pan while warm, not hot.
4. For the icing: boil the sugar, cocoa, milk and butter in a saucepan on the stove for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the vanilla. Stir until cool or thick enough to adhere to the cake. Pour quickly before it sets.

Brown Butter Coconut Dessert Shells

Banana Split in a Brown Butter Coconut Dessert Shell - made June 17, 2012, recipe adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

I adapted this coconut dessert shell from a Dorie Greenspan recipe.  It was 100 degrees last weekend and I don't fare well in sweltering temperatures so I wanted a no-bake option, something I rarely do because I like baking.  But I also like not sweating buckets while I'm in the kitchen so I tried this out.  The original recipe called for making the coconut crust in a pie pan, blending some pureed bananas with chocolate ice cream and using that as the filling for the "pie".  I was not up to being that grandiose about it since I was just looking for an excuse to eat ice cream and justify it as "I need a new post for my blog".  So I went with dessert shells.

Set of 4 shells

Close up

I have to admit though, this didn't turn out as well as I wanted.  While I'm a rabid fan of coconut, this was too much coconut and dominated the crust.  Taste-wise I still liked it but I think it would've been better to have more of a coconut cookie crust rather than an almost pure coconut crust.  Less is more.  Next time I'd make coconut wafer-type cookies, pulverize them into crumbs, add some melted butter and form them into the shells.  Or else still use this recipe, let it cool and set, then crumble and use as a topping instead. Oh well, at least I got to eat some ice cream.

1 stick (1/2 cup, 4 ounces) butter
2 cups coconut
1/2 cup crushed butter cookie crumbs (I used Pepperidge Farm Chessman cookies)

1. Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until the butter browns and emits a nutty aroma.  Don't let it burn - you want browned flecks at the bottom, not black.  Add coconut and cook, stirring over low heat, for 1 minute.  
2. Remove from heat and add cookie crumbs.  Pat into dessert shell pan or shape as shells in a muffin tin.  Let cool completely.
3. Slice a firm ripe banana and place in the bottom of the shells.  Top with ice cream and drizzle with hot fudge or caramel sauce.  Garnish with toasted chopped peanuts or almonds.