Sundae Cupcakes

I'm finally posting the cupcakes I made for Cupcake Camp 2010 a few months ago. Aren't they pretty? I chose to make sundae cupcakes since I love making ice cream so much! I'm really looking forward to participate in the competition next year!

I used the devil's food cake recipe from David Lebovitz and the vanilla buttercream recipe below for the cupcakes. I made the Classic Hot Fudge from The Perfect Scoop and drizzled it on top of the frosted cupcakes after it had cooled a bit. Decorate with sprinkles and maraschino cherries!

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Sundae Cupcakes

Makes about 48 frosted cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcakes

Adapted from Annie's Eats, originally from David Lebovitz

18 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

3 cups cake flour

1 tsp salt

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

16 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature

3 cups granulated sugar

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup strong coffee (or water)

1 cup whole or low-fat milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 4 cupcake pans with papers liners. In a medium bowl, sift together the cocoa powder, cake flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Mix in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl between additions.

In a large measuring cup, combine the coffee and milk. Add half of the dry ingredients to the mixer and mix on low speed just until incorporated. Stir in the coffee-milk mixture and mix until combined. Add in the remaining dry ingredients, again mixing until just incorporated. Divide the batter evenly between the cupcake liners, filling the cups not more than 3/4 full. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Vanilla Buttercream

Adapted from Milk and Honey Cafe

1-1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

3-4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp heavy cream

In a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the butter at medium-high speed until smooth, for about 20 seconds. Add half the confectioners' sugar, beat at medium-low speed until most of the sugar is moistened, about 45 seconds. Scrape down the bowl and beat at medium-high speed until mixture is fully combined, about 15 seconds. Add the rest of the confectioners' sugar and mix again. Scrape the bowl, add the vanilla extract and heavy cream, and beat at medium-high speed until incorporated, about 10 seconds. Then increase the speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes, scraping down the bowl once or twice. Add more confectioners' sugar if you find your frosting isn't thick enough, or more heavy cream if you find it too thick.

Rainbow Cake

I am so obsessed with Whisk Kid, Kaitlin's blog! She always makes these truly amazing cakes and cupcakes and has really good photographing skills... like the grapefruit cupcakes she posted recently! I really want to learn how to make those buttercream roses!

Whisk Kid is one of the first blogs I discovered when I entered the food blogging world. Like many others, the famous Super Epic Rainbow Cake is what led me to it! I was so happy for her when she made her appearance on The Martha Stewart Show in June. That means that not only bloggers and people who bake for fun visit food blogs, but bigger companies (like even the Food Network) are constantly searching the web for ideas!

Last Saturday was my boyfriend's and friend's potluck birthday. Their birthday falls on the same date so they celebrate it together every year. I wanted to bring a cake but not just any cake. Not a simple buttercream layered one, but a huge colorful cake with lots of layers!

Making THE cake was pretty long, which is why I don't make cakes often! It is pretty simple if you think about it: make the cake batter, divide it into 6 bowls, put different colors in each, bake, cool, make swiss meringue buttercream and assemble. There was one problem: I only had 2 round cake pans so it made the process longer. And let's not forget all the dishes pilling up non-stop...

I only suggest you serve this cake at room temperature so leave it out for about an hour or so. I served it right out of the fridge and the swiss meringue buttercream tasted really buttery...

I have to admit though, I am quite pleased with the result and so was everyone else. The birthday boys were really surprised when they cut a slice and got to see the rainbow!

For the recipe, you can visit Whisk Kid here where she also put the link for you to watch her appearance on The Martha Stewart Show (I watched it before making the cake, it really helped).

Raspberry-Filled Vanilla Cupcakes with Almond Buttercream

Cupcake Bakeshop is my go-to blog for anything and everything to do with cupcakes. You can tell that the author knows her cupcakes when:

a) her entire site is devoted to them

b) she compares and tests different recipes (flavor, texture, dryness...)

c) she uses ingredients such as fennel, papaya, grapefruit

So I had my eye on these Cherry Vanilla Cupcakes for a while now and decided to make them for a very special occasion: my good friend's baby shower. I chose to make them cause they look cute and sort of girly (she is having a baby girl!). The cupcakes turned out really good and the raspberry filling paired well with the almond buttercream frosting! I would fill the cupcakes a bit more next time though.

I chose raspberries instead of cherries for the filling since cherries are out of season now and I couldn't find them anywhere (not even frozen!). Also I completely omitted the salt for the vanilla cupcakes. I once put the amount of salt written on a recipe and my cookies had turned out really salty so I usually leave it out or use very very little.

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Raspberry-Filled Vanilla Cupcakes with Almond Buttercream

Adapted and slightly modified from Cupcake Bakeshop

Makes 24 frosted cupcakes

Vanilla Cupcakes

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup whole milk

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter on high for about 30 seconds until soft. Add the sugar and beat on high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time and beat 30 seconds between each.

Sift flour and baking powder in a bowl and whisk together. Add to mixer bowl and when well combined, add the milk and vanilla.

Scoop into cupcake papers about half to two-thirds full since they rise a bit. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until cake tester comes out clean. (I baked them for 20 minutes.)

Raspberry Filling

2 cups raspberries, fresh or frozen

1/2 cup water

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup sugar

2 tbsp cornstarch

Add raspberries, water and vanilla to a pot. Cook for 10 minutes over medium-high heat. Stir from time to time.

Stir together sugar and cornstarch and then add to the pot with raspberries. Cook until thick, for about 20 minutes. Make sure nothing sticks to the bottom of the pot by stirring occasionally and not overcooking.

Using the cone method mentioned on Baking Bites, fill the cupcakes with raspberry filling when both the filling and the cupcakes have cooled completely.

Almond Buttercream Frosting

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

6-8 cups sifted powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp almond extract

1/4 cup milk

Beat butter at medium-high speed until creamy. Add half of the sifted powdered sugar, the almond extract and the milk. Beat until combined. Gradually add powdered sugar until desired consistency and sweetness.

Frost filled cupcakes and top with maraschino cherries that have been rinsed and well dried.

Allergen-Free Chocolate Cupcakes

I want to like Martha. I really do. I mean I do own her "Martha Stewart Cupcakes" and "Martha Stewart Cookies" books. But it's really hard to like her when it's 10pm and the swiss meringue buttercream is curdled. It even says so in the book that the mixture might appear to curdle after adding the butter and to keep on beating. So I kept beating and what was I left with? Some sort of mixture that tastes like butter. How will I frost the cupcakes with this? So I sort of turned the swiss meringue buttercream into a buttercream simply by adding sifted powdered sugar until I got the consistency I wanted. And it tasted better too! I don't know if you would call it a buttercream though because it had egg whites in it too.. But I really want to get that swiss meringue buttercream right! It looks really nice on the pictures, I would try it again another time. Has anyone ever tried it and succeeded? I'm sure I'm doing something wrong!

Anyways so I made these cupcakes for the daycare my mom is working at and anything brought there for the children must not contain any nuts. So I figured I can't go wrong with this recipe! I had my doubts with the cupcakes when I ended up with a very liquid batter and they did turn out a bit dense, but they tasted good. I don't know if I would remake them again though, I like my cupcakes moist and cakey!

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Allergen-Free Chocolate Cupcakes

Adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

Makes 12

1 1/2 cups cake flour

3/4 cups granulated sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp distilled white vinegar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin tin with paper liners. Sift together cake flour, granulated sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

With electric mixer on medium-high speed, mix together oil, vinegar, vanilla and water until well combined. Add flour mixture and mix until smooth (batter will be very thin).

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each 3/4 full. Bake, rotating tin halfway through, until a toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Place cupcakes onto wire rack until cooled completely.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

Makes about 5 cups

5 large egg whites

1 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar

pinch salt

4 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Combine egg whites, sugar and salt in heatproof bowl of a standing mixer set over a pan of simmering water. Whisk constantly by hand until mixture is warm to the touch and sugar has dissolved.

Attach bowl to mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Starting on low and slowly increasing to medium-high speed, whisk until stiff (but not dry) peaks form. Continue mixing until the mixture is fluffy and glossy and completely cool, about 10 minutes.

With mixer on medium-low speed, add the butter a few tablespoons at a time, mixing well after each addition. Once all butter had been added, whisk in vanilla (I used lemon extract). Switch to paddle attachment and continue beating on low speed until all air bubbles are eliminated, about 2 minutes. This is when I added the sifted powdered sugar. Add gel-paste food color, a drop at a time (I use toothpick to add a dab at a time).