Black & White Cupcakery

Here's a simple yet very light and delicious chocolate cupcake recipe. I used the recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery cook book but I think I would experiment with other recipes next time. I like my chocolate desserts to be very chocolatey and rich so for chocolate cupcakes I wouldn't mind a denser or moister recipe. But if it's lightness you're going for, this is the perfect recipe.

The icing is a rich chocolate butter cream for half the cupcakes and a smooth vanilla buttercream for the other half, just to make things a little more interesting. With plain vanilla and chocolate cupcakes, you can really make any flavor/color icing you like. Raspberry is always a nice combination with chocolate but be creative and try anything really.

Chocolate Cupcakes (makes 12)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

a pinch of salt

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup whole milk

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Optional: 100 grams of bittersweet milk, or dark chocolate, chopped (if you want the cupcakes to be richer and a little

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325F

Put the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter in a bowl and mix with a handheld electric mixer (or in a free standing electric mixer if you have one) until a sandy consistency and everything is combined

Whisk the milk, egg and vanilla together and slowly pour about half the mixture into the flour mixture, beat to combine, and turn the mixer up to high speed to get rid of any lumps.

Turn the mixer down to a slower speed and slowly pour in the remaining milk mixture (scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula). Continue mixing for a couple more minutes until the batter is smooth but do not over mix.

Optional: If you are going to use the extra chocolate, at this stage gently fold in the chopped chocolate.

Spoon the batter into the paper cupcake cases until two-thirds full and bake int he preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the cake bounces back when touched. A wooden toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean. Let the cupcakes cook for five minutes in the pan and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Chocolate and Vanilla Buttercream Icing (my own icing recipe, not taken from the Hummingbird Bakery cook book)

Ingredients:

7 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tablespoons whole milk or cream

a few drops pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Beat the butter, 1 tablespoon milk or cream and half the confectioners sugar together. Once well combined, add the rest of the sugar, the milk and the pure vanilla extract. Beat until light and fluffy. The longer you beat the icing, the fluffier it will become.

Take half the icing and put in a separate bowl. Add the 1/4 cocoa powder and beat until light and fluffy again. If the icing becomes to dry or hard to mix, add a few drops of milk or cream until you reach the correct, spreadable consistency. Now you have both vanilla and chocolate buttercream icing for your chocolate cupcakes.

Ice the cupcakes once completely cooled. Eat and Enjoy!

Bursting With Blueberries

Today was one of those sunny, warm days that makes every act of procrastination justifiable. With the windows wide open and the curtains lightly swaying in the warm breeze I decided to put off my thesis research and make fresh blueberry cupcakes instead. Though it takes me only an hour to make and ice the cupcakes, today was not the day to sit inside for hours on end researching. After a nice long walk in the park, food shopping that took way longer than it should have, and finally, reading my favorite travel magazine (AFAR) front to back in one sitting, I made my blueberry cupcakes. Today, as I bite into a perfectly light cupcake laden with warm succulent blueberries and topped with delicate velvety icing, I can still justify my act of defiance. Tomorrow however, will be another story.

Like with the raspberry and peach cupcakes, I used the vanilla cupcake recipe and just added fresh blueberries. For the icing I used a vanilla buttercream with a few tablespoons of cream cheese for a touch of tartness. I honestly can't say which of the two berry cupcakes I like better because they are both so good and so perfect for a summer dessert. So you're gonna have to try them both yourselves.

Vanilla cupcake recipe with fresh Blueberries:

Ingredients: (Makes 24 cupcakes)

3 cups cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks or 6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) buttermilk
2-2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries, tossed in flour

Preheat the oven to 350°F(or 177°C). Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

Directions:

Sift together the flour, baking soda and baking powder in a bowl and set aside. With a standing or hand-held electric mixer, cream the butter then add the sugar and beat until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time. Between each egg scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the vanilla extract. Gently mix in the buttermilk. Stir in the dry ingredients (by hand, not with the mixer). Fold in the blueberries.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared cupcake liners using a 1/4 measuring cup for each one. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until golden and a tester (I use a wooden toothpick) inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean. Let the cupcakes cool for 5 minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Vanilla Buttercream and Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients:

10 tablespoons butter, softened

6 tablespoons
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
2-3 tablespoon whole milk (if the icing is too thick just keep adding milk until you reach the right, spreadable consistency)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract



Directions:

Cream butter and cream cheese in a bowl. Slowly add half of the confectioners' sugar and half of the milk. Beat until well combined. Add the rest of the sugar, the rest of the milk, and the vanilla extract. Whip until light and smooth. Ice the cupcakes once they have cooled entirely. and garnish with blueberries.

Eat and enjoy!

Red Velvet Revolution

I have to say, Red Velvet cupcakes are by far my favorite. Not only are they a stunningly beautiful deep red, they taste as good as they look. Until I actually made my own red velvet cupcakes, I didn't know where the deep red color came from. I knew it wasn't food coloring alone. In fact, it's very simple. The mixture of the red food coloring with the coco powder is the secret to the incredibly beautiful color. It's a lot of food coloring though, so be prepared for red fingers and a red tongue (if you're like me and constantly lick your fingers). And wear an apron for this one.

Over the course of a few days, and many mishaps, I finally decided on the red velvet cupcake recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery baking book that I bought a little while ago. I like this recipe for two reasons. One, it is the perfect color - not all recipes call for the same amount of food coloring so some are pinker and lighter than others. And two, the actual cupcake itself is not too sweet which helps balance out the sweetness of the icing. The sweetness factor is key in making great cupcakes. I have had many a cupcake that has left me feeling a little woozy from the overdose of sugar and I have, admittedly, a very strong sweet tooth so you can only imagine how sweet they must have been. You don't want to make people sick from the sweetness of your cupcakes because you really want them coming back for more.

I'm always very thankful to my roommates for inexhaustibly offering up their tasting skills because by the time I'm finished baking and icing, I've usually licked an entire cupcake's worth of batter and icing off my fingers and I can't imagine having to eat another one just yet. Frenchie, the self-proclaimed "sssugar boy" is probably my most accurate sweetness meter. Though I love my sugar, he may love it even more, which means, if it's too sweet for him, it's way too sweet for everyone else. Between the moist deep red cupcake and the creamy white icing, these red velvet cupcakes are quite the indulgence.

Hummingbird Bakery Red Velvet Cupcakes (makes 12)

Ingredients: (preheat oven to 325)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

2 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened coco powder

3 tablespoons red food coloring

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 buttermilk (you can buy buttermilk almost anywhere but you can also make your own. Simply add 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar to 1 cup whole milk and let sit for at least one hour)

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar

Directions:

With a handheld electric mixer, or a freestanding electric mixer, cream the butter and the sugar until white and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until well combined. Scrap down the sides of the bowl.

In a separate small bowl, combine the coco powder, red food coloring and vanilla extract to make a thick paste. Add to the butter and sugar mixture and beat thoroughly. Scrap down the sides of the bowl once more.

On low speed, slowly add half the buttermilk. Beat until well combined and then add half the flour beating again until everything is well incorporated. Repeat this process until both the buttermilk and flour have been added. Scrape down the sides of the bowl then turn the mixer on high and beat until smooth and even.

Turn the mixer down to low and add the baking soda and vinegar. Beat on low until well combined then turn up to high speed and beat for a couple more minutes. Spoon batter into the cupcakes paper cases until three-quarters full and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the cake bounces back when touched. A toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean.

Let cool in cupcake tin for five minutes then turn out onto wire rack to cool completely.

Vanilla buttercream icing (with a little cream cheese for tartness)

For the icing I used a very light cream cheese icing, not the icing from the Hummingbird Bakery recipe. It's a personal preference merely. I just don't like the taste of too much cream cheese on my cupcakes so I only put a meager two tablespoons of cream cheese in my normal vanilla buttercream icing instead of 4oz. If you like the cream cheese icing feel free to use the full 4oz.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons cream cheese, chilled

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

2 cups confectioners' sugar

1 tablespoon milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Cream the butter and cream cheese in a bowl, slowly adding 1 cup of the confectioners' sugar and 1 tablespoon of milk. Beat until well combined, starting on the lowest speed possible and gradually increasing, otherwise you will end up as I always do, covered in powdered sugar. After fully combined, add the 2nd cup of confectioners' sugar and the vanilla extract. Whip until fluffy.

Ice the cupcakes once completely cooled. Eat and enjoy!

Raspberry Takes The Cupcake

Once I settled on a vanilla cupcake recipe, adding the fruit of choice was easy. Today I decided on raspberry and as my French roommate keenly observed before demolishing four in a row with hardly a breath in between, "zeez are zee best ones yet!!" This recipe make 24, however, keeping my roommates-turned-tasters in mind, and remembering my first attempt at rhubarb cupcakes - little geen unidentifiable blobs dispersed randomly throughout the cupcake are not as beautiful as I had imagined rhubarb would be - I only made half the recipe in case they turned out to be another miss. After having witnessed "Frenchie", whom I now think is the world's fastest cupcake eater, down nearly half the cupcakes in one sitting, I realized that I could have made 24 and still only have been left with two for myself.

The reason why raspberry works so well in cupcakes is because it's a fruit that's not as dense and juicy as, say, peaches and nectarines (especially the canned ones) therefore it doesn't release its juice into the batter upon being baked which makes it hard for the batter to rise, leaving a very dense, moist cupcake. Also, raspberries are a bit tart which is a nice contrast to the sweetness of the icing.

Vanilla cupcake recipe with fresh raspberries:

Ingredients: (Makes 24 cupcakes)

3 cups cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks or 6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) buttermilk
2 cups fresh raspberries, tossed in flour

Preheat the oven to 350°F(or 177°C). Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

Directions:

Sift together the flour, baking soda and baking powder in a bowl and set aside. With a standing or hand-held electric mixer, cream the butter then add the sugar and beat until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time. Between each egg scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the vanilla extract. Gently mix in the buttermilk. Stir in the dry ingredients (by hand, not with the mixer). Fold in the raspberries.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared cupcake liners using a 1/4 measuring cup for each one. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until golden and a tester (I use a wooden toothpick) inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean. Let the cupcakes cool for 5 minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

White Chocolate Icing:

200 grams white chocolate, chopped

6 tablespoons heavy cream

1 batch of vanilla buttercream icing

Vanilla Butter Cream:

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

4 cups confectioners' sugar

3-4 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

First, roughly chop the white chocolate into chunks (or simply buy white chocolate chips) and place in a heatproof bowl over a small pot of boiling water. Be very careful not to let any water/steam touch the chocolate and do not overheat or burn it because it will seize and become unworkable. You can also melt the chocolate in a microwave for about 15 seconds, however, you have to watch it carefully so that it doesn't burn. Once melted, stir until smooth and creamy then set aside to cool.

Next, make the vanilla butter cream. Cream the butter in a separate bowl, slowly adding half of the confectioners' sugar and half of milk. Beat until well combined, starting on the lowest speed possible and gradually increasing, otherwise you will end up as I often do, covered in powdered sugar. After fully combined, add the rest of confectioners' sugar, the rest of the milk and the vanilla extract. Whip until fluffy.

Lastly, combine the melted white chocolate and the heavy cream together stirring until smooth. Pour the white chocolate mixture into the vanilla buttercream and beat once more until fluffy.

Ice the cupcakes once completely cool and garnish with some fresh raspberries!

Peach Perfection

It took me quite a few tries to get this recipe down (my poor roommates had a tough time of eating all my mishaps) but once I got it right, we were all in peach heaven. My first recipe called for too many peaches (canned peaches which are much wetter than fresh peaches) to dry ingredients therefore the cupcakes kept sinking and turning out too moist and flat. The recipe also said to line the bottom of each cupcake holder with the peach puree which made it virtually impossible for the batter to rise. So I decided to switch recipes and I found that part of the problem came from the vanilla cupcake recipe that I was using and not just from the amount and type of peaches. So, once I changed my cupcake recipe a little, reduced the the amount of peaches and diced them instead of mashing them, my cupcakes were able to rise just above the cupcake holder's lip into a perfect little golden dome. Also, I found that by tossing the diced peaches in some flour before hand, the peaches remained evenly spread throughout the batter instead of sinking to the bottom. When the season is right, I will try fresh peaches instead of canned peaches.

Here's my final cupcake recipe, after quite a lot of tinkering:

Ingredients: (Makes 24 cupcakes)

3 cups cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks or 6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) buttermilk
2 cups canned peaches, diced (or 4 large fresh peaches, peeled, cored, and diced)

Preheat the oven to 350°F(or 177°C). Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

Directions:

Sift together the flour, baking powder and baking soda and in a bowl and set aside. With a standing or handheld electric mixer, cream the butter, then add the sugar and beat until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time. Between each egg scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the vanilla. Gently mix in the buttermilk (on lowest speed). Stir in the dry ingredients (by hand, not with mixer) and fold in the diced and floured peaches.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared cupcake liners using a 1/4 measuring cup for each cupcake holder. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until golden and a tester (I use a wooden tooth pick) inserted into the center of cupcakes comes out clean. Let the cupcakes cool for five minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.


The icing for these cupcakes is the basic vanilla buttercream icing only I've added the remaining canned peaches that I crushed with a fork

Ingredients:

10 tablespoons butter, softened
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoon whole milk
3 tablespoons pureed peach (canned)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract



Directions:

Cream butter in a bowl. Slowly add half of the confectioners' sugar and half of the milk. After totally combined, add the rest of the sugar and milk, the peach puree and the vanilla extract. Whip until fluffy. Ice the cupcakes once they have cooled entirely.

Eat and Enjoy!