The Cupcake Thread!

[Mara]

vip those will be ELECTRIC. hahaha.

for chocolate mocha, i have used instant coffee powder because for the life of me i can''t find instant espresso, i am like hello i live in a metropolitan area, what the heck. but so for my coffee recipes i just use the instant coffee powder. make sure to add more water to combat the dry particles (or you can make the coffee extremely strong and then pour it in), and you need to add a fair amt to get the coffee flavor, because otherwise a bit of coffee just ''enhances'' the choco flavor.

then in the frosting i have used ground up espresso beans to mix into my buttercream and people love it. they also have ''coffee'' flavorings like in the same bottle as vanilla extract but i have only seen it at baking stores, i use this in my frosting too.

 

[Camille]

Date: 8/9/2009 5:43:55 AM
Author: vip0802

basically i'm going to use my chocolate cake recipe and add some instant espresso powder to it, and make white chocolate whipped cream as the frosting. my question is though, have any of you ladies used instant espresso in baking before? i know it's supposed to bring out enhance the flavor of chocolate, but i've never tried it before. i'm curious as to if i should just put the powder directly into the batter, or mix it with water and then add to the batter. i'm worried if just use the powder, the flavor might not be as strong as i would like. however, i feel if i mix it with water, it might be too much liquid.

Yep, depending on the brand. VIA [Starbucks] make the espresso as directed, add to recipe instead of water. Medaglia D'Oro [TJ] I use 1.5 ts per C warm water, Bustelo [walmart] 2ts per Cup of water. If cake is not as strong as you wished for after baking, still can add 1/2 ts of espresso to simple syrup and brush cooled cupcakes tops, they will be moist & deep OR since you are using whipped cream, cream can be infused with espresso beans or instant. Yum in advance

My DD would love dig in to those cupcakes Dandi

 

[vip0802]

Date: 8/9/2009 8:29:46 AM
Author: DandiAndi

Date: 8/9/2009 5:28:15 AM

Author: vip0802


they look amazing and i love those colors! what flavors will you be using?

Hehe thanks!! It''s a bit much colour for my liking, but I''m not the one who has to like it!

I was just going to do all chocolate mudcake with vanilla cream cheese or buttercream frosting and colour it. Then I thought about making the orange icing orange flavour, and the pink strawberry, but not eveyone might be into that on top of rich mudcake. What do you think?

chocolate mudcake?!

wow...that sounds soooo good! i personally like the flavor of orange/strawberry with chocolate, but like you said, not everyone is a fan. maybe you can do just a few of them with those flavors. please post pics whenever you''re done with them. i can''t wait to see how they''ll turn out!

 

[vip0802]

DandiAndi, Mara and Camille - thank you so much for the tips!

i got Medaglia D'oro instant espresso powder and i ended up substituting a bit of water for the espresso & water mixture. after tasting it though, it didn't have enough flavor, so i added a few teaspoons of extra powder. i think it turned out pretty good!

my white chocolate whipped cream was disastrous however. i used Lindt's white chocolate truffles since i couldn't find just regular white chocolate, and after whipping, it curdled on me.

i think it had to do with the truffle filling, since i don't believe i over-whipped. i was pressed for time and out of white chocolate, so i ran to another grocery store and actually found a Ghirardelli white choco bar to use. score! so instead of attempting to make the whipped cream again, i tried to do a white chocolate buttercream. however, i forgot how humid it was today and since i always make Swiss buttercream, it never came together.

i was out of options and panicked, but luckily i remembered i had a tub of Cool Whip and ended piping it straight onto the cuppies. i shaved some white chocolate and milk chocolate on top and ran out the door!

it didn't turn out exactly how i envisioned it, but they were pretty tasty!

 

[vip0802]

oh, did i mention the hostess made mini-cannolis?

 

[Mara]

lol vip i love your industrious nature!!! both the cuppies and cannolis look yummy. and thank god for the CW. it is fab in a pinch (and good in things like banana trifle or as a sub for heavy cream in frozen mousses!). i have mixed results with SMBC and it''s finicky, so i tend to laze out and not make it very often. also a lot of times i feel like it''s too ''buttery'' tasting.

for my espresso cuppies in the past i have typically made the easy buttercream, butter, milk, conf sugar and shaved espresso beans with the coffee flavor. people luv it. it''s funny how i can make things SOOO difficult with recipes or my imagination tends to be all elaborate with ideas, but in the end people just want stuff to taste good!

 

[vip0802]

Date: 8/10/2009 1:32:17 AM
Author: Mara
lol vip i love your industrious nature!!! both the cuppies and cannolis look yummy. and thank god for the CW. it is fab in a pinch (and good in things like banana trifle or as a sub for heavy cream in frozen mousses!). i have mixed results with SMBC and it's finicky, so i tend to laze out and not make it very often. also a lot of times i feel like it's too 'buttery' tasting.


for my espresso cuppies in the past i have typically made the easy buttercream, butter, milk, conf sugar and shaved espresso beans with the coffee flavor. people luv it. it's funny how i can make things SOOO difficult with recipes or my imagination tends to be all elaborate with ideas, but in the end people just want stuff to taste good!

i couldn't agree with you more! these cuppies were way too messy and "rushed" looking IMHO. i love decorating and am a bit anal-retentive about it so i wasn't so enthused over the results. i had imagined and planned on making fancy chocolate decorations and dusting them with some cocoa powder, but of course that didn't happen. even though i was like, "they're not really that great looking but i hope they taste alright" and telling them how i originally wanted them to be like, all my girlfriends were like "whatever. ooooo....chocolate!" and dug right.

i will definitely have to try your frosting sometime...it sounds delicious and much easier than SMBC!

 

[steph72276]

Okay girls....so I''m doing some volunteer work with some girl scouts on a project. They want a very basic cupcake decorating class and I was wondering if you guys could give me any additional ideas. I was a teacher before I was a SAHM, so the teaching part should be okay, but was wondering if this sounds like a good plan. They are 12 and 13 year olds, so I was going to teach them a basic buttercream frosting recipe. Then show them how to pipe swirls. Then I was going to show them how to tint it with food coloring. Then I was thinking about showing them how to do candy molds and how to do basic fondant rolling it out and cutting out shapes. And finally I was going to finish with us decorating 2 or 3 themed cupcakes. I found some really cute ladybug ones and balloon ones that you use candy to decorate. What do you think? Anything I need to add or take out? Thanks!

 

[Mara]

Steph that sounds like a good class schedule... the one thing I would ask is how long is the class? And just make sure you have enough time to teach them all that with some question time for each subject and some hands on time for each subject without rushing too much. You could also hand out some basic cupcake recipes for them to take home as well as make sure to print out the basic buttercream for them too.

If you had to nix one thing for time, I would say fondant cutouts because while I love doing that stuff, to me it''s not necessarily the most basic of decorating. Candy molds would be great because not many places show that as part of it (and amazingly enough melting chocolates and making sure to have the right types etc is harder than one thinks).

 

[steph72276]

Mara, thanks for the tips! Yeah, I was thinking of printing out some basic recipes so they could try them at home. The leader said she wanted the class to last between 1 and 2 hours, so we''ll see how far we get. I think you''re right about the fondant. I think I will save it for last and see if there is time (or if I''m worn out by then!) Thanks!

 

[Lulie]

Date: 8/10/2009 1:12:59 AM
Author: vip0802
DandiAndi, Mara and Camille - thank you so much for the tips!

my white chocolate whipped cream was disastrous however.
i was out of options and panicked, but luckily i remembered i had a tub of Cool Whip and ended piping it straight onto the cuppies. i shaved some white chocolate and milk chocolate on top and ran out the door!

it didn't turn out exactly how i envisioned it, but they were pretty tasty!

Add me to the club VIP

I ended going to the store to get some cake flour after work, so glad I did. The cupcakes were divine omg......but I messed up with the cream decor big time, the tip delivered huge amounts of cream it was too soft and frankly didn't know what to do about it LOL, talk about panic. They were all eaten in 5 minutes yay

Wondering if you have to melt the chocolate separate before adding it to the cream? Just curious.
Steph, I have a girl scout, even though I have no prof tips for you, I can swear those girls just want to decorate and eat in that minute, so I'd keep it verrrrryyyyy simple.

 

[Mara]

Not sure what kind of frosting you made Lulie but I would def melt chocolate separately before adding it to cream. Cream is not very stable, in fact I hate working with whipping cream frostings and try to never do it. I would melt the chocolate, let it cool down and then try it, but I am not sure what your recipe was.

 

[Mandarine]

wow, you guys are so talented! everything looks delish!

Note to self: Don''t even visit this thread again while pregnant...

 

[Lulie]

Date: 8/10/2009 12:25:07 PM
Author: Mara
Not sure what kind of frosting you made Lulie but I would def melt chocolate separately before adding it to cream. Cream is not very stable, in fact I hate working with whipping cream frostings and try to never do it. I would melt the chocolate, let it cool down and then try it, but I am not sure what your recipe was.

I didn''t use any chocolate [Vip did] I was curious about her chocolate into the whipping cream mara

since my gang won''t eat buttercreams I''m always looking for tips.
I used just vanilla whipping cream for the marbles, I guess it wasn''t whipped long enough. The true panic was the size of the tip (847)

kept piling up to high then going flat

 

[Mara]

Date: 8/10/2009 3:16:33 PM
Author: Lulie

Date: 8/10/2009 12:25:07 PM
Author: Mara
Not sure what kind of frosting you made Lulie but I would def melt chocolate separately before adding it to cream. Cream is not very stable, in fact I hate working with whipping cream frostings and try to never do it. I would melt the chocolate, let it cool down and then try it, but I am not sure what your recipe was.

I didn't use any chocolate [Vip did] I was curious about her chocolate into the whipping cream mara

since my gang won't eat buttercreams I'm always looking for tips.
I used just vanilla whipping cream for the marbles, I guess it wasn't whipped long enough. The true panic was the size of the tip (847)

kept piling up to high then going flat

Gotcha... I thought you added chocolate as well and was like WOW all these chocolate cream frostings!! Did you try stabilizing whipping cream with some conf sugar and/or the cream of tartar? Also there is this other thing you can get at some stores, it's a stabilizer, I can't recall the name but it's from Germany I want to say? I have used it to stabilize gelatins also and it's great.

Oh random other tip on whipping cream, supposedly heavy whipping cream is what you should be using, not regular whipping. Whipping regular won't get as stiff as heavy. There is also manufacturing cream, which you can find at local warehouse stores which is supposed to be the best for heavy stiff creams but I have not gotten around to trying it yet. I am famous for OVERWHIPPING my creams!

 

[Lulie]

I''m not sure if you could use cream of tartar with heavy C, I''ve been using clear gelatin but hate the smell of that

this time I used Oetker for the second time [1st was great] it looked perfect for abut 30 min then disaster

Tried Pastry Pride from Smart and Final

major yuck.......I honestly think I underwhipped mine, seriously LOL

 

[Mara]

ha ha i think you are right, i was thinking of whipping egg whites. but i have put that stabilizing stuff into it, maybe it''s the oekter you mention, it''s a foreign name and comes in a flat packet?

pastry pride is NASTY. we have this bakery here that uses it on their amazing banana cake and it totally ruins it. i wish they would move to a diff frosting....weird because their cupcakes come with cream cheese. i would even prefer they use cool whip to PP.

 

[Camille]

Thanks for the kind comment Jas12

Vip, those cannolis look yummo, congrats on your cupcakes, they look fine to me!

Lulie, glad you liked the batter as for the 847, is a wonderful tip for drop flowers and, you can def go over the top if you pipe more than twice on cuppies. My guess: collapsing because either you went more than once with 847 or Dr. Oetker was expired

big Ditto with the gelatin smell, adding the flavoring to the gelatin along with the water may help a ''little'' with that.
Any cream higher than 30% [pref 35-6%] fat will whip beautifly.

I''m sure others using chocolate in their WC have great tips here, I do melt 4oz chocolate with 1/4C cream in a double boiler and allow to sit at room temp prior to whipping. There''s a couple tings from your pantry you could use as stabilizing insurance, most piped Stabilized WC keep their shape for days [refrigerated] and up to 3-4 hours in heat. To keep my post short, I''ll go ahead and send you an email [from the DiBistro purchase] if you don''t mind, the chart is kind of long for me to re-type. C

 

[Lulie]

Yes mara, got mine from a vitamin place locally for three dollars, my little box was indeed expired

Got the long email Ccamille, can''t wait to play with cream flavors thank you

 

[trishy]

Date: 3/18/2008 6:31:11 PM
Author: Mara
mrs salvo...do you use regular sugar for the frosting because every recipe i have seen uses confectioners sugar. i didn''t know you could use regular sugar.

lol neatfreak i love making minis for myself...the big ones are WAY too much committment. actually typically i do about 20 regular cupcakes for giving away or an ''event'' and then do like 10 minis with the rest of the batter and the minis are what we keep at home...because it''s so much better to have those around than huge cupcakes!''

TIP for baking minis which i learned the hard way the first time. they only take about 1/2 the baking time of large ones. so if the large ones take about 18-20, the minis will take about 9-10 (depending on your oven)...and be sure to use an oven thermometer because my oven was FIFTY degrees off when i finally measured it. i always thought it was like 10-15...but 50! crazy. and now finally stuff is baking right.

i have the hardest time getting my frosting stiff enough to pipe super well because i hate how sweet it gets with all the sugars you have to add. i am not a fan of buttercream frosting for that reason. i made an amazing whipped buttercream last time which had heavy cream and buttercream combined and it was great...much less sickly sweet. but a few of the blog gals swear by something called swiss merengue buttercream which is basically you start with an egg white merengue whipped til stiff and then add in the buttercream elements. supposedly good for piping but not super sweet. i might try it when i feel egg-white brave...mine never get quite to be as fab as i want.

here are some vahlrona dark chocolate cupcakes i made with mint buttercream frosting...yummy.

mara, i have 2 mini cupcake pans, that i''ve wanted to use so badly... where can i find the mini cupcake holders? i am in the bay area, cali too... so i can get to where ever you get them.

 

[steph72276]

Trishy, I''m not Mara, but I make minis all the time and I have found the holders at any cake decorating store (Michaels, JoAnns, etc), Target, Walmart, and even the regular grocery stores.

 

[trishy]

Date: 8/12/2009 9:18:16 AM
Author: steph72276
Trishy, I''m not Mara, but I make minis all the time and I have found the holders at any cake decorating store (Michaels, JoAnns, etc), Target, Walmart, and even the regular grocery stores.

thanks that helps alot. i only looked at safeway...

 

[trishy]

its a horrible pic... taken from my cell phone...
but i made cupcakes, for my hubby''s birthday... and it worked out nicely to not pass germs around with my son''s swine flu...
lol, then i found this thread, now i am totally wanting to make pretty cuppies
from scratch..
[the ones i made pictured are from the box] they were french vanilla cake, with fudge chocolate chip frosting
and different color sprinkles... rainbow, purple and yellow, blue and orange... i love the swirly candles,
altho they dripped all over the cuppies when they were lit

i am totally inspired here

 

[Camille]

Yum! I''m not knon to be a chocolate lover but boy, those cupcakes give me the itch trishy

 

[Mara]

i love chocolate frosting,...honestly i haven''t tasted too many from scratch i love as much as the betty crocker can. horrible i know!! i can eat it out of the tub!!! that looks great trishy. and yes you can get mini liners at michaels or diddams....i don''t think i have seen them at target and i haven''t been to walmart so not sure. but def michaels.

 

[steph72276]

I made a few samples of some of the cupcakes I am going to be decorating with the girl scouts this Saturday. They were actually not that hard to do, so I hope it goes smoothly!

 

[steph72276]

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