The Cupcake Thread!

[trishy]

im going to make triple chocolate fudge cuppies today. my sons request...
i will take and post pics when they are done =]

ETA - i put sliced banana inside

 

[Camille]

OMG, I want a smiley Steph!

Please post trishy, looooove bananas too................
Something is really wrong with me today....Jes*s, played with a recipe for the second time today, already ate two...{minis, naked but still}
<~~going out to clean some windows.

 

[trishy]

these are SO SO YUMMY!! im super proud of myself. [i''ve never added a banana before LOL - so this is big for me]

here come the pics

first.... a nekked cuppie

 

[trishy]

frosted and sprinkled...

 

[trishy]

and banana slices in the middle... surprise

*thanks for lookin

 

[Dandi]

Trishy, YUUUUMMMM!! I wanna lick the computer screen!!

They look seriously awesome!

Steph, they are all so adorable!! I LOVE the one with the balloons on it, so effective!!

 

[steph72276]

Thanks, girls. I was trying to find something age appropriate for the girls (they are 12), and I thought these looked fun...hopefully they will like them!

 

[trishy]

i love the smiley one... it reminds me of an emoticon.. as well as the classic have a nice day imagery. with our techno age kids im sure they''ll love it.
and all the rest to. i wish i had half the creativity you do. the best i can do is frosting & sprinkles. i''d take your class too

 

[Camille]

Ditto, the smiley screams eeeaaattttmmmeee

Here''s DH''s Devil''s joy:

 

[Camille]

...

 

[cate]

OMG, this thread is totally evil!

LOL! I am now madly craving cupcakes. Might have to go to the store.

I was thinking of doing tiered cupcakes for my wedding celebration. I''m glad I found this thread. What do you think about using mini-cupcakes for this?

 

[vip0802]

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

sorry i''m so late replying to this!

i melted the Lindt truffles in a bowl over simmering water and let it cool to room temp. i started whipping the cream until it got a little frothy, and then added the white chocolate. it looked ok when it started forming soft peaks, but it curdled right after.

i had the same problem when i tried making a mascarpone/whipped cream frosting for Giada De Laurentiis'' hazelnut crunch cake. i tried doing it several times, and it was horrible having to throw away so much frosting especially when mascarpone isn''t cheap!

i''m pretty finicky about frosting too Lulie. i absolutely cannot stand overly sugary sweet frostings (like the kind you find on cakes from the grocery store), so i''ve always been a fan of whipped cream/Cool Whip frosting. nowadays, i alternate between that and swiss meringue buttercream. i don''t use too much butter in mine and combined with the meringue, it taste lighter. i''ve heard great things about 7-minute frosting...apparently it''s like marshmallow, but i''ve yet to try it.

 

[vip0802]

Date: 8/14/2009 6:46:12 AM
Author: DandiAndi
Trishy, YUUUUMMMM!! I wanna lick the computer screen!!

They look seriously awesome!


Steph, they are all so adorable!! I LOVE the one with the balloons on it, so effective!!

ditto!

Camille - those look heavenly! <-- i just realized that describing devil''s food cake as "heavenly" is a bit of an oxymoron.

 

[Camille]

style="WIDTH: 99%; HEIGHT: 217px">Date: 8/14/2009 10:08:19 PM
Author: vip0802


sorry i''m so late replying to this!

i melted the Lindt truffles in a bowl over simmering water and let it cool to room temp. i started whipping the cream until it got a little frothy, and then added the white chocolate. it looked ok when it started forming soft peaks, but it curdled right after.

i had the same problem when i tried making a mascarpone/whipped cream frosting for Giada De Laurentiis'' hazelnut crunch cake. i tried doing it several times, and it was horrible having to throw away so much frosting especially when mascarpone isn''t cheap!

i''m pretty finicky about frosting too Lulie. i absolutely cannot stand overly sugary sweet frostings (like the kind you find on cakes from the grocery store), so i''ve always been a fan of whipped cream/Cool Whip frosting. nowadays, i alternate between that and swiss meringue buttercream. i don''t use too much butter in mine and combined with the meringue, it taste lighter. i''ve heard great things about 7-minute frosting...apparently it''s like marshmallow, but i''ve yet to try it.

Wow Vip, add me to the club, love to work with frostings but can''t eat them. Sorry your WC didn''t work

Mascarpone is one of my fave foods, after lemons. When I took a class with DiFrancesco we had to whip, whip and whip some more by hand

talk about pressure. I''d suggest buying near exparation WC at your $tore or Costco [not the best tasting btw] for a lot les$ and practice 1 C at a time. After a carton or two you''ll know what to look for, it only takes a sec to go yuck. Never understood why books/recipes ever bother to type Gelatin? Gel? {kosher is not an excuse} how about gum? starch? for piping WC

rant over.

 

[Mara]

personally i'm not a fan of the way WC tastes so i tend to not make any frostings with it...unfortunately i am no help VIP but if you figure it out let us know!! though i have used it in a frosting before but just to turn a basic buttercream into WC frosting, so that was easy.

speaking of 7 min frosting, that is what i used on the s'mores cupcakes last time, it whips beautifully and pipes even better, it's seriously the best looking frosting in terms of beauty and silky smoothness. BUT it's extremely sticky (greg HATES cleaning up my bowls after 7 min frosting!) and it can be finicky if you don't make the recipe exactly just so...and don't refrigerate it or it will lose structure and melt all over your cuppies. it's a room temperature frosting only. but people tend to love it.

so last nite i started my fleur del sel cupcakes for the MSC cupcake blogging club. they came out perfect so far. today i'll do the caramel and the frosting. i also have 2 orders to make tonite for tomorrow morning so we'll stay in tonite and have a movie night. i am excited about baking actually, esp given we don't have 500 things to do this wkd. we are just getting ready for spain next weekend and running errands. i also have 4 supremely overripe bananas that i need to turn into a cake today for US. we love banana cake with cream cheese.

speaking of banana cake..does anyone here have expertise with making it very light and fluffy??? my baking friend does an amazing banana cake but it's a bit more dense, as typical of many things you add banana to. and we all know we love banana bread. but i have had a cake at a local bakery that is amazing, banana but very light and fluffy. i am thinking they use another method like potentially the creaming of the egg and sugar first OR making it kind of like an angel food to start, with the egg whites then adding the heavier banana in? most recipes online are for a more dense version, you can tell how they mix it.

anyway, i am really intrigued by this...i am going to make an experiment today where i mix white cake mix (non branded from S&F, it is good for not adding taste) with the bananas and adapt it with eggs, oil, and milk and see if that gives me a lighter texture. if it does then i will know it has something to do with the cake mix itself and i have somewhere to start. if it doesn't then it is definitely the method, not the ingredients.

oh and speaking of marscapone frostings, i love doing a marscapone cream cheese for things like lemon, SO yummy. anyway, TJ's has it for i think $2.29. not cheap necessarily but everywhere else it's $3-4 so a big diff. and if you are doing a lot of baking with it, get it at S&F...they have a monster tub for like $8 or something.

 

[Camille]

No expert here but separating eggs is a good idea, making sure whites aren't dry, this one is DH's fave:

1/2 C unsalted butter, room temp
1 1/2 C sugar
3 eggs, room temp separated
1 C mashed bananas [3 med]
1/2 C buttermilk
2 C AP flour
1 ts Bsoda
1 Ts Bpowder
3/4 ts salt
Cream cheese frosting & Banana Cream Filling

Preheat oven to 350^
Grease two 9" pans [when not making layers] or your choice.
Sift together flour, salt, soda & bpowder over a piece of wax paper, set aside.
In the KA beat the butter and slowly add the sugar, beat until smooth. Add the yolks let htem fluffthen mashed banana and buttermilk
mixing well. Sprinkle the flour mixture and mix on low JUST to absorb moisture and blend.
In a separate bowl, beat egg whites to soft peaks but STILL moist. Add half of the beaten whites on top of the batter and fold gently w/large spatula, add the second half and fold again, DO not beat with spatula, just fold, it should resemble Cool Whip, if a heavier batter is achieved, it's pound cake [gluten] adding 1ts vanilla and 1 C walnuts may be due.
Spread evenly in prepared pans and bake for 30-35 minutes or until tester comes out clean, let cool in the pans for 5 minutes then turn out on a rack to cool completely. Fill with Banana Cream filling if you wish and frost with Cream Cheese Frosting.

 

[Mara]

Here are my fleur del sel cupcakes... what a process! The MSC cupcake was easy, one bowl chocolate. The caramel was from scratch... it was pretty easy to make actually! Just takes a while to cool. The frosting was a dark chocolate with both cocoa and melted chocolate and it took way too many steps for my taste....and adding conf. sugar after the chocolate curdled it slightly. We haven't eaten them yet but tasting them piecemeal as we made them was really yummy...I hear they are ridiculously rich!

Thanks Camille for the recipe, I will try it next time I have bananas. The one I made today was very yummy and a bit lighter, but I still want it to be lighter...more experimentation!

 

[Camille]

Oh they look great Mara

I'd dig into them NOW as Those puppies can't be refrigerated, love, love sea salts

....when I saw the recipe I went

my husband can/WILL eat those in one seating, he loves chocolate! I honestly think the frosting is a keeper [ little Confectioners'] maybe beating at low speed throughout may help w/curdling, still it's a winner.... KUDOS!!!!

 

[DiamanteBlu]

Manchester [NH] baker makes world''s biggest cupcake . . . hmmm . . . doesn''t look too appetizing!

 

[DiamanteBlu]

Here''s the pic:

 

[AsscherGirl]

Date: 8/15/2009 10:44:36 AM
Author: Mara


speaking of banana cake..does anyone here have expertise with making it very light and fluffy??? my baking friend does an amazing banana cake but it''s a bit more dense, as typical of many things you add banana to. and we all know we love banana bread. but i have had a cake at a local bakery that is amazing, banana but very light and fluffy. i am thinking they use another method like potentially the creaming of the egg and sugar first OR making it kind of like an angel food to start, with the egg whites then adding the heavier banana in? most recipes online are for a more dense version, you can tell how they mix it.

anyway, i am really intrigued by this...i am going to make an experiment today where i mix white cake mix (non branded from S&F, it is good for not adding taste) with the bananas and adapt it with eggs, oil, and milk and see if that gives me a lighter texture. if it does then i will know it has something to do with the cake mix itself and i have somewhere to start. if it doesn''t then it is definitely the method, not the ingredients.

Mara - I recently made the Baked Banana Chocolate Chip Espresso Muffins (the recipe is on a bunch of food blogs but I took it off howtoeatacupcake), and they were super light and fluffy and delicious. I''d be curious to see what happens if you make it in a cake/loaf form instead of cupcakes, but it was reallllllly good. You can completely omit the espresso as they really didn''t add to the flavor at all. It was a very liquidy batter - I believe had a cup of milk in it (I can''t remember off the top of my head!), so maybe that helps keep it light??? Or you could make muffins and just top them with cream cheese .

 

[AsscherGirl]

Date: 8/15/2009 12:09:15 AM
Author: Camille

style="WIDTH: 99%; HEIGHT: 217px">Date: 8/14/2009 10:08:19 PM
Author: vip0802


sorry i''m so late replying to this!

i melted the Lindt truffles in a bowl over simmering water and let it cool to room temp. i started whipping the cream until it got a little frothy, and then added the white chocolate. it looked ok when it started forming soft peaks, but it curdled right after.

i had the same problem when i tried making a mascarpone/whipped cream frosting for Giada De Laurentiis'' hazelnut crunch cake. i tried doing it several times, and it was horrible having to throw away so much frosting especially when mascarpone isn''t cheap!

i''m pretty finicky about frosting too Lulie. i absolutely cannot stand overly sugary sweet frostings (like the kind you find on cakes from the grocery store), so i''ve always been a fan of whipped cream/Cool Whip frosting. nowadays, i alternate between that and swiss meringue buttercream. i don''t use too much butter in mine and combined with the meringue, it taste lighter. i''ve heard great things about 7-minute frosting...apparently it''s like marshmallow, but i''ve yet to try it.

Wow Vip, add me to the club, love to work with frostings but can''t eat them. Sorry your WC didn''t work

Mascarpone is one of my fave foods, after lemons. When I took a class with DiFrancesco we had to whip, whip and whip some more by hand

talk about pressure. I''d suggest buying near exparation WC at your $tore or Costco [not the best tasting btw] for a lot les$ and practice 1 C at a time. After a carton or two you''ll know what to look for, it only takes a sec to go yuck. Never understood why books/recipes ever bother to type Gelatin? Gel? {kosher is not an excuse} how about gum? starch? for piping WC

rant over.

I notoriously overwhip my whipped cream frostings, but when I make marscapone whipped cream, I beat the cream in the stand mixer until it''s still smooth looking, but firm. If it kinda starts to really keep it''s shape after the beaters go through, it''s definitely gone too far. I whisk the marcapone cheese in a separate container with whatever sugar/vanilla I''m going to add so it''s semi-loosened up. then I''ll stir about 1/3 of the marscapone into the whipped cream, and then fold the rest of the marscapone into the whipped cream. I can''t imagine with this frosting I''d be able to pipe it very well, but it tastes yummy!

SMBC is my personal fave - with chocolate flavored & peanut butter flavored being my absolute favorites.

Cream cheese frosting is also yum yum yum!

 

[Lulie]

Date: 8/14/2009 10:08:19 PM
Author: vip0802

sorry i''m so late replying to this!

i melted the Lindt truffles in a bowl over simmering water and let it cool to room temp. i started whipping the cream until it got a little frothy, and then added the white chocolate. it looked ok when it started forming soft peaks, but it curdled right after.

i had the same problem when i tried making a mascarpone/whipped cream frosting for Giada De Laurentiis'' hazelnut crunch cake. i tried doing it several times, and it was horrible having to throw away so much frosting especially when mascarpone isn''t cheap!

i''m pretty finicky about frosting too Lulie. i absolutely cannot stand overly sugary sweet frostings (like the kind you find on cakes from the grocery store), so i''ve always been a fan of whipped cream/Cool Whip frosting. nowadays, i alternate between that and swiss meringue buttercream. i don''t use too much butter in mine and combined with the meringue, it taste lighter. i''ve heard great things about 7-minute frosting...apparently it''s like marshmallow, but i''ve yet to try it.

No worries VIP, the older I get the less I like buttercream, funny....don''t mind mousse though LOL
I have plans for marshmallow type of frostings after whipping cream. Currently have some in the fridge that was simmered with coconut to replicate Camille''s devils coconut whipping cream for piping. I know she uses impecable clean cold bowls and beats the cream to soft peaks with sugar, the cheese and flavor goes right before it changes color or something like that.
Danielle, cream cheese, peanut butter oh my......I have so much baking homework to do!

 

[Eva17]

Since this is a diamond forum, I thought some of the bakers out there might enjoy these!

 

[Dandi]

Eva, how cute!!!!! Thanks for posting those, they''re adorable!

Ack, I''ve got so many cupcake projects coming up! All different themes and colours, my head is spinning!!

 

[Camille]

Too yummy cute!
Same boat here, my beloved signed me up for her class bake sale booth

 

[Dandi]

Random question, but has anyone made magenta frosting?? A party I''m cupcaking for on the weekend has bright red, yellow, blue, green and magenta balloons. The first four are easy, but what''s magenta comprise of?? Is that purple with more red than blue?

 

[Camille]

Light blue and red. I''d tint white frosting light blue first then add red in tiny increments. Good luck

 

[Dandi]

Thankyou Camille!! I read somewhere that it''s 2 parts red to 1 part blue, but that scares me a bit

I prefer your method! Thanks again!!

 

[steph72276]

I have a question for all you experts....I am making cupcakes for a shower this Sat. and I decided to try fondant for the first time for toppers. They turned out really cute, but they are not really drying out well. I made them 2 days ago and put them in tupperware dishes with airtight lids. How long do they normally take to dry? I''m worried they won''t be ready for Sat. Also, putting them in the fridge is a no no, right? Thanks!