BAKING TIPS

While browsing the internet, I picked up a few baking tricks & tips that I thought were extremely helpful. Anything that makes life a bit easier, even while baking cupcakes, is appreciated.

I rinse/wash my hands probably a million times while baking or cooking. Using a cup or glass while making a well in the center of a bowl of dry ingredients keeps my hands from getting dirty.

I had trouble scooping batter into the cups neatly with a regular kitchen spoon, but I read that using an ice cream scoop makes just the right amount of batter per cup for most cupcakes.

Even though I'm baking cupcakes, I don't like keeping buttermilk on hand. If I do happen to use some for a recipe, it'll be spoiled before I bake another recipe that calls for it. So, I found substitutions for it with ingredients I always have on hand. For each cup of warm milk, add either: 1½ tablespoon of fresh lemon juice, 1 1/3 tablespoon of cider vinegar or 1¾ tablespoon cream of tartar. 

I read a little story about a woman asking if someone had a 3 teaspoon spoon and a guy handed her one. The woman was a-mazed that he had a measuring spoon equaling 3 teaspoons. I chuckled aloud and only got the joke because I had just read the day before that 1 tablespoon equals 3 teaspoons. 

I wish I knew this substitution before I bought myself a bottle of allspice. That could have been a few bucks saved for a pack of smokes or something. Allspice = 2 parts ground cinnamon and 1 part ground cloves.

Same thing goes for punpkin pie spice = ½ tsp ground cinnamon + 1/4 tsp ground ginger + 1/8 tsp ground cloves + 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg.

1 vanilla bean = 2 to 3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract.

WHITE CHOCOLATE MACADAMIA CUPCAKES WITH WHITE CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM

My favorite cookie used to be peanut butter cookies until I had a white chocolate macadamia cookie. In general, I don't like chocolate by itself and I hate white chocolate. In fact, macadamia cookies are the only things I eat with white chocolate in them. It's such a damn shame that macadamia nuts are so fucking expensive. A ½ cup worth was $3.50 and I ended up buying two bags because I plan on making these cupcakes again because.. well, they're white chocolate macadamia cupcakes!

This test batch was the first time I ever made mini cupcakes. I decided to start making my test batches as minis so I could share more and get more opinions. It turned out that mini cupcakes seem to work differently than standard-sized cupcakes. I had to experiment to see how much batter should go into the liners without them having muffin tops. There's nothing wrong with muffin tops, but the cakes look prettier to me when they're even with the liner and there's only a massive swirl of frosting visible. So, I found out that 2 teaspoons worked out for my preference.

The bag of macadamias that I bought where already chopped and since I was making minis, I thought it'd be a decent idea to crush the bastards into smaller pieces. In retrospect, I wish I had actually just left the nuts out of the batter completely and just pushed one chopped nut into a filled cup of batter. I believe I will try that next time.

I tasted a freshly baked mini cupcake without the frosting and noticed that the liner stuck to the cake so bad that it ripped it apart. So, I thought I would spray a small amount of PAM inside the cups before spooning in the batter into the second batch of minis. This fixed the problem fine, so I gotta make a mental note that sticks to start doing that. Even though the standard-sized cakes don't need it, I bet it wouldn't hurt to spray them with PAM either, just to make it and keep it a habit.

I had trouble trying to figure out how long they should bake for. My oven seems to be hotter than most because for recipes that asks to bake standard cakes for 20-something minutes only takes 13 minutes in mine. So, I figured about 8 minutes for the minis. It turned out that 6-7 minutes was close to perfect for my minis.

I also burnt the chocolate while I was trying to melt them in the microwave. I was expecting a smooth and creamy consistency, something that looked like melted marshmallows, but when my microwave burnt out and I started to stir the chocolate - I noticed that the chocolate was chalky in consistency & turned a toasty color underneath the creamy white chocolate. Apparently, white chocolate overheats much more quickly and easily than milk or dark chocolate. From now on, I'm going to have to melt white chocolate slowly with a pot of boiling water instead of a microwave so I'm forced to stand over it and babysit. I tasted the chocolate and thought it tasted fine and poured it into the frosting anyway, so I didn't get my snow-white frosting that I love so much, but oh well. That's what test batches are for, right?

R grading (B):  I think my cupcakes are getting to boo because he ate many of them back-to-back, but maybe it had something to do with them being minis?..

B grading (A): She also loved them. The only comment she really made about them was that she thought the frosting was a bit too sweet. I wonder if me burning the chocolate for the frosting had anything to do with it's sweetness?? I doubt it, but it's a thought.

WHITE RUSSIAN CUPCAKES

My alcoholic beverage of choice is the white russian. So much so that I was THE DUDE (or The Dudette, really) for more than one Halloween and even just for fun while drinking them around the apartment. I remember the first time I ever drank one: I was 13 years old (sorry, my loving parents) was at a buddy's house. Her parents had made a HUGE pitcher of white russians for a party they were either going to attend or had just attended. I honestly thought it was a pitcher of chocolate milk and grabbed myself a glass. When I drank it and told my buddy that whatever it was, was not chocolate milk, she looked at the glass and then looked at me with an annoyed look on her face, "that would be a white russian, ya dumbass."

Since we were the devious trouble makers any 13 year old should be, we kept on drinking. Between the two of us, we nearly finished the entire pitcher full. I don't know if my buddy got in trouble or not, but I doubt it. She could get away with murder (hence, me being there all the time. Hell, we could smoke in her house!). And I don't even remember getting stupid drunk, but knowing me now when I'm drunk - I probably fell asleep peacefully before it could knock me on my ass.

So, when I saw a recipe for white russian cupcakes, I definately had to make them. I was pleased to see that I had everything on hand, so I made them immediately. I accidentally skipped a step in the recipe where you soak the baked cakes in Kahlua because I got a bit anxious, but they were still delicious. Even though, I wish I had soaked the cakes because I wanted a little bit more of that white russian flavor because it "tastes gooooood" (Patton Oswald in BALLS OF FURY).

The original recipe called for a whipped cream frosting and since I had a slight issue with the Bailey's whipped cream frosting for mudslide cupcakes because I lack a whisk attachment, I made a cream cheese frosting instead. And I love me some cream cheese frostings. I just used a simple & basic recipe for a cream cheese frosting as a template and replaced the lemon juice with Kahlua. I know it's no big change and a monkey could have figured it out, but I thought of myself as being innovative and gave myself some kudos.

I garnished my cakes with shaved chocolate, again. I actually tried using a vegetable peeler to make chocolate curls, but got shavings instead. Whomp whomp.

R grading (A): He ate two back-to-back immediately and more the next day. Out of the cupcakes I have made so far, these were his favorite.

B grading (A): All she really said about these were "tasty!". I love her to death, she's like a sister to me, but damn girl! You gonna have to give me a little bit more to work with. I have faith though. I'm gonna have you testing so many cupcakes, you're going to be a cupcake connoisseur and one day I'm gonna eat those words.

HARVEST PUMPKIN CUPCAKES WITH ORANGE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

It's tradition in my family to have pumpkin roll as a dessert during the holiday season dinners and my mother's pumpkin roll was perfect every year. I always bitched about her only making one roll, since there were six of us in one household, one pumpkin roll was gone within hours and having just one slice wasn't enough. Now we're all older and our family has grown with the addition of three sister-in-laws. With good intentions, they took over the Thanksgiving & Christmas dinners so my mother can take a compete load off.

One year the sister-in-laws made a menu that.. was good, but too untraditional for the likes of my brothers & father. They got a slap on the wrisor replacing mashed potatoes with some potato balls, cranberry sauce with brussel sprouts & removing pumpkin roll. I'm more open to change and trying new food than the rest of my family so it was no big deal to me. I thought the brussel sprouts was a refreshing change, but probably because I hate cranberry sauce or anything gelatin-like. I defended the girls for not knowing about pumpkin roll because they never had it. So, at Thanksgiving dinner, I was employed by the girls to be in charge of the revered pumpkin roll. 

Now, pumpkin roll is a PAIN IN THE ASS to make. It's tricky as hell to roll up a soft sponge cake without it cracking or breaking. I don't know how my mother pulled it off so flawlessly. Nevertheless, I served the ugly cake I made at Christmas and even though it tasted just as good, it was the perfectionist in me that was totally unhappy with the pumpkin roll. So, I came up with an idea to turn pumpkin roll into a cake or.. a CUPCAKE!!

My test batch of the harvest pumpkin cupcakes came out perfect. I couldn't be happier with the flavor of the cake. I saw that the recipe was close enough to pumpkin roll and therefore, the cake tasted just like pumpkin roll. The orange cream cheese frosting got me interested. The roll recipe my mother uses just your basic cream cheese frosting, but the orange flavor added into the new recipe sounded like it would be delicious combo so I went ahead with the recipe I found. I thought maybe the orange would be too overwhelming with the pumpkin, but the flavor was more subdued than imagined and was a perfect compliment.

I know my family isn't more open to change, but I think the fact that pumpkin roll won't be a roll won't bother them. I'm sure it's the taste that they crave. I'm going to serve these cupcakes for Thanksgiving 2011, half with the original cream cheese frosting and the other half with the orange cream cheese and see which they'll like better.

R grading (B+): My boo actually doesn't have a sweet tooth. One or two cookies will satisfy his sugar craving for MONTHS and he doesn't even care too much for cupcakes because they're too sweet for him. So, when I noticed him eating more than one within the two days they were in my kitchen, it made me happy. But it shouldn't have been a surprise because I introduced him to the decadent pumpkin roll and he loves the mess out of some pumpkin roll.  

B grading (A+): When I told her they were pumpkin cupcakes, she said with a smirk on her face, "I don't like pumpkin anything, but I'll try them." After eating them, all she could say was "these are soooo yummy!" And for me, it was all I needed to hear.

A NEWFOUND HOBBY. AND SLIGHT OBSESSION.

Alright. So. To make a long story short, I've always been a sugar hound. ALWAYS. And I've always loved to bake and cook. This past Christmas I was given a SILPAT, a big ass cast iron skillet for paella, and a cupcake pan. The cupcake pan opened a door, somehow. Before baking with it, I purchased cupcake liners (standard & mini), a mini cupcake pan, a cupcake corer, a FROSTING DECORATOR PRESS, cute CUPCAKE GIFT BOXES, & the ULTIMATE CITRUS TOOL with a gift card (another awesome gift).

The first batch of cupcakes I made were harvest pumpkin cupcakes, which were delectable for the following week of Christmas. There has always been something about pure white frosting swirls that tickles my fancy. The recipe I found made two dozen cakes, which I boxed one dozen to share. I had my boyfriend bring them to work with him and his co-workers ate them up. It gave me that old sense of pride to hear that people couldn't stop eating them. When I went to pick Ryan up from work for lunch, one woman said she had eaten four and gave one away to a customer, who she said exclaimed how delicious they were too.

And so, there it was. A motive to go cupcake cah-razy! I've been compiling recipes upon recipes of cakes and buttercreams galore. I went out and bought a notebook with an even-now growing list of recipes that I am DETERMINED to fill up and create. I wanted to do a new cupcake every week, but because of my atypical schedule and limited income, I could only promise myself at least one new test batch a month. As I was searching the internet for a tiramisu cupcake recipe (because my father is a newfound tiramisu addict), I also came upon a recipe for a Kahlua Mudslide cupcake. The whole idea of cupcakes being adapted from mixed drinks tickled my fancy as well and so I started to collect these booze cakes for my recipe book. I don't know if it's because of the fact that I'm a bartender by night that attracted me to these cakes so much or what, but I collected a TON of these recipes.

As a side note: I came across the word CRUNKcakes during my booze cake recipe hunting & the word  just stuck with me.

And in this endeavor to a cupcake overdose, I am compelled to document the process because I'm already such a scribe & also because I simply just can't stop thinking about cupcakes! This will be kind of like a release for me.