Hello Cupcakes!! 

On my other blogs, I focused on the cupcakes and frosting designs. However, this time, I decided to make homemade vanilla buttercream frosting. Making frosting is much more simple than I thought it would be. Anyways, thanks to page 227 from the book Hello Cupcakes by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson I got a recipe for the frosting. 

The ingredients you'll need are ;

1 container (16 ounces) Marshmallow Fluff

3 sticks unsalted butter, softened and cut into 1-inch pieces

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

1/2 cup confectioners sugar, plus addition if needed

I actually didn't have marshmallow fluff at home, so all I did was add an extra 2 cups of powdered sugar into the recipe, and I added a tablespoon of milk. The steps to making the frosting were pretty simple. Page 227 tells us "Spoon the Marshmallow Fluff into a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on low. Gradually add the butter pieces, beating well after each addition, until smooth. Add vanilla extract and the 1/2 cup confectioners sugar. Scrape the bowl well to incorporate. Add more confectioners sugar, if necessary, to adjust the texture." 

When I mixed the sugar and butter together, it was very clumpy and I thought I messed it up, so if that happens dont worry about it because once i added some milk, it turned out smooth and creamy. Just keep on mixing it until it's not clumpy. If your frosting is too thick, add some milk, but if it's too thin then add more powdered sugar. At the end I added a pinch of salt to cut out the sweetness. 

Here is the finished frosting, it was very smooth and it was 100% times better than store-bought frosting because it didn't have that cloying sweetness, and it just tasted better. If you ever make cupcakes and you have all of these ingredients at home, you should make frosting because it's much more delicious. 

Hopefully your frosting looked like this as your finished product. 

To go along with the frosting I decided to bake a cake, after it was done I spread the frosting on top and cut up some strawberries. It doesn't look as good as a cake from the store but it sure did taste better. 

Thank you for reading my blog posts, it was a fun ride, and it made me expand on my creativity. I hope you learned something from my posts. Thank you!

What's your favorite type of frosting? Do you think you'll make your own sometime? 

Richardson, Alan, and Karen Tack. Hello, Cupcake! Houghton Mifflin, 2009. 

Frosting Cupcake Techniques

Frosting the Cupcake

There are many different ways to frost a cupcake, and I know known. I have always loved the way people put art onto food, and it is time that I too become a food artist. On the side bar of page 211, in the book "The Williams-Sonoma Baking Book:Essential Recipes for Today's Home Baker", it gives you some tips on how to ice a cupcake with the frosting recipe in the page next to it (tried out the recipe earlier). 

What I first did was I filled up a pastry bag with the frosting and made sure to twist the top of the bag so none of the frosting would leak out as I was squeezing the bag. There are many different types of the pointers that direct the frosting

on the cupcake. On the first cupcake, I did a typical swirl and made little flowers/dots of frosting with the pointers.

I used two different sizes of the same shaped pointer, as shown on the left. On the right we can see the difference between both outcomes. Even though you can cover much more surface using the larger sized hole, I believe the smaller one gives you more control, as said in the book, for more control and smaller chance of a mistake,  use the smaller sized pointer (p 211). I also decided to have more fun with the frosting, and added some food coloring into the frosting and squeezed on a fresh cupcake. The first one turned out okay, but I love the second one I made (bottom
 left). The color mixed very well with the white frosting and made the color softer. I decided to make more designs on the other cupcakes with the white frosting and found the cupcakes more appealing, but I do need much more practice on frosting cupcakes, or making designs on them. 

 Have you ever thought about the skill that goes into the appearance of food? Do you think you will ever make some designs the next time you frost some cupcakes? 

Making the Frosting

Vanilla Frosting

Frosting is a key element to cupcakes and other baked good like cupcakes. I am most comfortable using store bought frosting, one reason because its much easier than whipping some up. But on my journey through the baking world, I have realized how important frosting really is, so I decided to use a recipe and make some homemade frosting. The recipe, on the side bar of page 210 in the book "The Williams-Sonoma Baking Book, the Essential Recipe Collection for Today's Home Baker", requires:

• 1 cup of milk
• 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

I whisked the milk into the flour in a small bowl until it turned smooth, so that it'll thicken. While I was doing this, I missed a key step. "Heat and stir until it boils and thickens" (210). Because of this, my frosting did not turn out as intended, but I continued on. I beat the butter and added in the milk mixture and continued to beat it in. This is when my mistake is clearly represented. I was not able to reach my goal and my outcome showed it. Because the milk was not mixing in with the butter mixture, I drained it and added 6 tbsp of flour and sugar, and managed to get it to stick together. 


In the end, I learned that patience and attention is a key factor in baking, because of the severe consequences it could lead to if you miss a single step. 

Have you ever missed a step while cooking and ended up with a bad outcome? What approach did you take to solve it, or did you start over? 

Hello Cupcakes! 

Today, I did an experiment to see if the tips in the book really make a difference. On page 9 of Hello Cupcakes by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, they give us helpful steps to filling up the cupcake pans correctly with Ziploc bags saying, "Put the cut opening in the center of a cupcake liner, squeeze gently, and fill the cup two-thirds full. As the batter approaches that level, stop applying pressure and remove the tip from the cup." 

I thought, "how difficult could it be to just fill up the cupcake pans with a spoon, like I usually do?" So, in one of the pans I poured the batter with a spoon, in the other cupcake pan I used a Ziploc bag and followed the steps in order to fill the cupcake cups correctly. And here are the results. 

The plate at the top contains the cupcakes that were filled with the Ziploc (book method). 

The plate at the bottom contains the cupcakes that were filled with a spoon (my method). 

Book method: 

Using a Ziploc bag to fill in the cupcake pans with batter was much neater, and quicker, all you had to do was just squeeze the bag until the cup was filled. And as you can tell by the picture, the cupcakes turned out more similar in sizes, and were more consistent. 

My method: 

It was the easiest method for me before, all I had to do was scoop the batter with a spoon but it was messy and took a long time. 

Overall, the tips that the book gave me were very helpful and I'll continue using that method of filling cupcake cups because it took less time and it wasn't as messy as using a spoon, like I used to do previously. 

How have you filled cupcake pans before? Do you think you'll use this method now? 

Richardson, Alan, and Karen Tack. Hello, Cupcake! Houghton Mifflin, 2009.

Orange you glad I said chocolate?

 Chocolate-Orange Cupcakes

I remember seeing oranges made of chocolate, and tasted a lot like oranges as well. That's what i thought of when I saw this recipe, on page 173, in the book "The Williams-Sonoma Baking Book, the Essential Recipe Collection for Today's Home Baker". The recipe calls for which makes 12 cupcakes:

• 3 tbsp dutch-process cocoa powder (or just regular cocoa powder)
• 1/4 cup hot water
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose (plain) flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 orange
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled at room temperature

Frosting Recipe:

• 6 oz bittersweet chocolate
• 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups confectioners' (icing) sugar

I first mixed the cocoa into the hot water until it dissolved and set it aside, and sifted the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl. I then used the fine rasps of a handheld grater and grated the zest into the bowl. 
In another bowl, i whisked together the eggs and the granulated sugar until it was well combined, and whisked in the vanilla extract and buttermilk. After that, I poured in the dissolved cocoa from before.

Once the melted butter was cooled, i poured it into the egg mixture and then added in the flour mixture. 

I then poured the batter into the cupcake tins and popped that into the oven for 15-20 minutes and let them cool for 5 minutes before I started on the frosting. The recipe calls for melted chocolate, but instead of melting the chocolate I cooked it. Since i didn't have anymore chocolate to melt, nor the patience, so I substituted the melted chocolate with chocolate syrup. Once I       mixed all the ingredients with the chocolate 
syrup, I put it into the pastry bag and piped it on the cupcakes. The butter didn't mix well with the chocolate syrup, but the frosting still worked out.  

The cupcake was pretty dry, and the zest particles were too big, so I would recommend to use a finer handheld grater. But with the chocolate syrup instead of the melted chocolate, the frosting was much better with the dry cupcake. In the end, I wouldn't recommend this recipe unless you love orange flavored chocolate. 

Do any of you guys like chocolate flavored with something else, such as orange flavored chocolate? And would any of you guys try out this recipe? 

Hello cupcakes!

It is a couple days after Christmas, and no matter how much food I ate over the holidays, I am still always hungry for cupcakes. When my family got together on Christmas Eve, there were lots of sweets like cakes, and pastries, and candies, but I was still longing the taste of cupcakes because they are my favorite comfort dessert. To fulfill my craving for cupcakes I baked some delicious, chocolate ones.

In my last blog, I did a simple frosting coating on the cupcakes with a spatula. This time, I decided to actually pipe the frosting on. Now, here's a life hack; since we all have Ziploc bags at home instead of piping bags with frosting tips, we can use them to pipe the frosting on. Luckily, the book Hello Cupcake! by Karen Tack & Alan Richardson gave me tips for this life hack method. On page 13, they tell us how to properly fill a Ziploc bag in order to be able to frost cupcakes, "To fill the ziplock, hold the bottom of the bag inside out over your hand. Using a spatula, fill the area of the bag inside your hand. Lift the edges of the bag up and around the frosting, press out the excess air, and seal the bag. Grasp the bag by the zippered edge and squeeze the frosting down to one corner." I used these helpful hints and then I cut a hole in the corner with scissors to create a frosting tip.

And then, I used this Ziploc piping bag to pipe the frosting on my cupcakes. This life hack was so helpful because I don't have piping bags with different frosting tips, but I love baking cupcakes and I want to make them look good, so using a Ziploc bag instead is very useful. 

I did a basic design on my cupcakes, but we're just getting started! Just wait until my next blog post, I'll be using frosting to make decorations and designs on cupcakes, stay tuned! 

What was the most useful life hack you've used? And do you think you will try this one out? 

Richardson, Alan, and Karen Tack. Hello, Cupcake! Houghton Mifflin, 2009.

Hello Cupcakes!

I love to bake when I have free time so I made some cupcakes. Baking is a fun hobby because you have fun making the food and then you feel proud of yourself for actually making it. However, my favorite part of baking is getting to decorate the food. For my first blog I wanted to start of easy and bake simple vanilla cupcakes and on them I used vanilla frosting, gel icing, sprinkles and paper decorations. I let my siblings decorate most of them since they're younger and it's more fun for them.

Now, you may think that icing a cupcake is easy, but it isn't! In order to get the frosting to look pretty, you have to use lots of techniques. The book Hello Cupcakes by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson has lots of tips for spreading frosting, it says, "Creating  a perfectly smooth or nicely swirled top is a cinch. Your aim is to spread the frosting up to but not over the edge of the paper liner and to glue down the crumbs in the process. Hold the cupcake by its paper base in one hand and grasp the spatula in the other. Spread the frosting with a clockwise motion, while turning the cupcake counterclockwise." (Tack, Richardson, 10) This helped me a lot because I would usually just use a spoon and spread the frosting but because of the book i realized what i was supposed to do and my frosting abilities improved.

They tasted delicious! This time the cupcakes were fun and silly but don’t worry, next time the cupcakes are going to be more serious and creative. :) 

Have you ever baked cupcakes before? And how did they turn out?

Richardson, Alan, and Karen Tack. Hello, Cupcake! Houghton Mifflin, 2009.

Classic Birthday Cake Cupackes

Classic Birthday Cake Cupcakes

With my last cupcake, I went the chocolate route, but today I decided that I'll go on the other end of the spectrum and go with the vanilla. This recipe is used for cakes, but I used the batter to instead make some sing serve cupcakes. On page 206 of the book "The Williams-Sonoma Baking Book, the Essential Recipe Collection for Today's Home Baker", the recipe calls for:

• 2 3/4 cups of all-purpose (plain) flour
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• Vanilla frosting

Recipe for Vanilla frosting:

• 1 cup room-temperature unsalted butter
• 4 cups confectioners' (icing) sugar
• 1/3 cup heavy (double) cream
• 2 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt

Flour Mixture

Firstly, I whisked together the flour, baking powder, and salt until well blended. In another bowl, I used an electrical mixer to beat the butter until smooth, but I over beat the butter which caused the cupcakes to turn out spongy in the end, so a piece of advice is to make sure you beat on medium speed and stop sooner rather than later. I then slowly added in the sugar and continue beating until well blended 

Batter

and fluffy. After, I added the eggs one at a time and beat well after each egg. I then beat in the vanilla followed by the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with buttermilk in two additions, and beat on low speed. 

Cupcakes baking

After I beat the mixture well, I poured 
the batter in the cupcake tins and pop
them into the oven for about 15-20, or until the toothpick I put in the 
cupcake comes out clean. I let them cool for 5 minutes before I started making the vanilla frosting. 

Cupcakes out of the oven

Frosting

I put all the ingredients in a bowl and beat it until well mixed and fluffy. I put the frosting into a pastry bag and piped the frosting onto the cupcakes. 

Piping out frosting onto
cupcake

 In the end, I think           there was too much   butter needed, so I advise if you are   making these cupcakes, you use less   butter than required. These cupcakes   were good, as are any cupcake, but I   would not use this recipe again or retry after I have more experience baking. 

If you have ever made any cupcakes, have you ever made any mistakes during the process? Or if you haven't baked any cupcakes yet, do you plan to? What flavor? 

Devil's Food Cake into Cupcakes



Devil's Food Cake Cupcakes

This recipe is used to make a cake, but I just poured the batter into some cupcake liners and popped them into the oven to make some yummy chocolate cupcakes. The recipe comes from the book, "The Williams-Sonoma Baking Book, the Essential Recipe Collection for Today's Home Baker" published in 2010. On page 152, the recipe requires:

• 2 1/3 cups of all purpose (plain) flour
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk, at room temperature

For the frosting (I just used frosting bought from the store):

• 12 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1 3/4 cups heavy (double) cream
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• Pinch of salt

Flour, cocoa, baking powder,

baking soda, and salt mixture



First, I sifted together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in one bowl and set it aside. In another large bowl, I used an electric mixer on medium speed and beat the butter until smooth. I gradually added the brown sugar into the butter and continued beating it until it turned smooth.





Butter with brown sugar

Adding in the flour mixture

I then beat in the vanilla extract and added the eggs one at a time, making sure to beat well after each addition. After I beat in the last egg, I added the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk in two additions. I mixed them in on low speed. When I was done mixing the batter, I poured

Finished batter

Cupcakes in the oven

the batter into the cupcake tins and popped them into the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, or until when you poke a fork into the cupcake it comes clean. When the cupcakes were done, I took them out and let them cool for 5 minutes before I frosted them (a mixture of vanilla and chocolate frosting for the right amount of sweetness).

This baking experience has made me more knowledgeable on baking cupcakes, and it made me realize I need a lot more practice before I can master the art of making cupcakes. The cupcakes in the end turned out great, and I'm looking forward to making more favorable cupcakes.

What is your favorite flavor of cupcake/cake  flavor and would you guys ever dabble in the baking world?



 

Cookies n' Cream Cupcakes

I remembered my mom baking these for my birthday when I was in elementary school, and I also remembered loving them because they were so delicious and creamy. I was really excited when I found this recipe in this cookbook.

Cupcake batter

While I was making these cupcakes I discovered just how hard it is to split an Oreo cookie. According to the cookbook you were supposed to "Count out 12 Oreos and separate the top and bottom wafers. Make sure each has some of the icing on it" (Byrn, page 136). I found it very difficult to get half of the creamy filling on each wafer half. While attempting this I ended up breaking several of the wafer halves because I was trying to put the icing on the half. In the end I swapped out the broken wafers for whole ones since I knew that I had to crush Oreos later on. My solution to getting the cream on each wafer was to spread the cream with a knife on the empty half.

Frosting the cupcakes

Buttercream frosting ingredients

This time when I made these cupcakes I waited a day before frosting them. I did this in part because it was late when I finished baking them but also because I didn't want to clean the mixing bowl that night so I could make the frosting. I didn't want to wait for the cupcakes to cool off before placing them in a container to insure that they stayed moist so I looked to Anne Byrn for advice. She suggests "If you are not going to frost the cupcakes within an hour, drape a clean, light kitchen towel (linen and cotton are best) over the cupcakes so they don't dry out" (Byrn, page 14). Draping the towel over the top of the cupcakes worked really well because they were still really moist the next day when I frosted them. After I had finished frosting the cupcakes I started putting the crushed Oreos on top of the cupcakes.

Finished product!

The cupcakes turned out great! I was especially excited that these turned out so well because I brought some to school to celebrate my friend's birthday. My friends loved them so much one of them asked me to bring them another one the day after! Another friend liked the cupcake I gave her so much she asked me to give her the recipe. I am so glad that all of my friends and family loved these cupcakes just as much as I did.

Question: What kind of topping do you like on your cupcake? What would you have done to keep your cupcakes moist?