I Blog What I Bake

Earlier this week I was commissioned  to bake 3 dozen tie-dyed cupcakes for a middle school event. I wasn’t sure if I would blog this, but they turned out so cute and so many of you asked about them I decided to put them up. Having never made a tie-dyed pastry of any sort, figuring out how to do this was a challenge and really fun!

I just got the last of the green food coloring off my skin today.

How to assemble the cupcakes:

• Line a cupcake pan with cupcake liners
• Make your favorite vanilla cupcake recipe. (I use Magnolia Bakery’s)
• Separate the batter into 3 bowls
• Add red dye to one bowl, green to one bowl and yellow to the last bowl
• Add one spoonful of each color to each cupcake liner
• Swirl design in using a toothpick or wooden kitchen skewer
• Bake according you your chosen cupcake recipe
• Allow to cool in cupcake pan for 10 minutes, turn out and let cool completely on wire rack

Frosting:

• 2 sticks of unsalted butter at room temperature
• 4-6 cups confectioners sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoon of whole milk
• Food coloring (whichever color you prefer)
• Beat the butter on the medium speed of an electric mixer until smooth
• Add the sugar alternating with the milk and vanilla
• Add the food coloring of your choice
• Beat until it reaches a spreading consistency

Happy little cupcake army.

One of the best bits of summertime is all of the fresh fruit and not only it’s availability, but it’s cost! I can finally buy a pint of raspberries for under $4.  Yay!

I love raspberries. They are one of my favorite fruits and one of the few raw fruits that my husband is not horribly allergic to.  That being said, I try to get these little berries into as many recipes as I can. This is the first time I tried putting them into cupcakes. Truth be told, they did not turn out as expected in the first go around. I over-beat the batter and turned them into raspberry muffins. Tasty? Yes. Cupcakes? No.  So, a word to the wise, DO NOT put the raspberries into the batter whole. Chop half, puree half and then FOLD them into the batter.

I made two options for the topping to go on these cupcakes because I couldn’t decided which I wanted to use, so I used both. The first is a raspberry cream cheese frosting, the second is chocolate ganache topped with a whole raspberry. One note, if you do the ganache it is best to serve them fairly soon after adding the ganache. I like my ganache a little more liquid than set.

Raspberry Cupcakes Recipe
Basic Vanilla Cupcake Recipe from “Magnolia Bakery”.

1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pint fresh raspberries

Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8oz package of cream cheese, at room temperature
1 stick butter, at room temperature
3 cups confectioners sugar
1 pint fresh raspberries

Chocolate Ganache

8oz semisweet or bittersweet chocoloate
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons unslated butter

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line two muffin tins with cupcake papers.  In a small bowl, combine the flours and set aside.

Chop one half of the raspberries. Set aside. Puree, or just mush with a fork, the remaining raspberries. Set aside.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of hand held mixer, cream the butter until it’s smooth. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy. About 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one a time, beating well after each addition.

Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and the vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over-beat! (unless you want muffins)

Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended.

Fold the chopped and pureed raspberries into the batter

Carefully spoon batter into cupcake liners, filling them about 3 quarters full. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool in the muffin tin for 10 minutes before removing them and placing them on a baking rack to cool completely.

Now, for the cream cheese frosting.

Cream together the cream cheese and the butter. Slowly beat in the confectioners sugar one cup at at time. Beat in 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. Add 1 pint of raspberries and beat until incorporated. Spread, or pipe, over cooled cupcakes.

For the chocolate ganache…

Place chopped chocolate into a heat resistant bowl. Set aside.  Heat cream and butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil. Immediately pour the boiling cream mixture over the chopped chocolate. Allow it to stand for about 5 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Gently spoon ganache over cooled cupcakes and top with a fresh raspberry.

Enjoy!!

Limelight. Once a dark gritty headonistic nightlife mecca , has reivented itself as Limelight Marketplace. The former, church- turned- nightclub, is now a bright, glittery luxury marketplace relpete with specality soap shops, botique lingere stands, clothing alcoves and, of course, lots of cute little dessert stations. My how times have changed.  Once upon a time, I recall stumbling out the door of Limelight after a very long night of…fun. Today I stumbled out the door practically vibrating from the sugar  extravaganza I just indulged in.

I’d heard about all of the dessert stands that had opened up in their “Sweet Room”, paticularly the Cupcake Stop, and figured reviewing them for the blog would be a brilliant excuse to go on a sugar binge. So, with Matt (I Blog What I Eat) as my accomplice, I attacked the “Sweet Room”.  Below, I have listed my conquests in the order assault.

Disclaimer: All but two pictures were taken with my iPhone. I had my camera, alas cameras are of no use without a battery.

THE CUPCAKE STOP

The Cupcake Stop, which usually is just a truck that drives around Manhattan and parks in different locations everyday, has secured a stationary spot in Limelight. And I am sooo glad they did.  I have had cupcakes from dozens of NYC bakeries, they are trendy little confections after all, and I must say these are among the best.  I ordered a Mexican Chocolate cupake and a  Nutella Crunch.  They both had great consistency and smooth frosting. The Mexican Chocolate was the winner of the two. The Nutella Crunch was good, but didn’t have as much flavor. Honestly, if you try these you will never eat a Magnolia Bakery cupake again. Okay, onto the next…

BUTTERFLY BAKESHOP

Isn’t that a pretty little Red Velvet Cake? I thought so too. That’s why I bought it.  It had really nice flavor and a good cream cheese frosting (maybe a bit too sweet), but the consistency was…well…odd. It was like the cake had been soaked in a simple syrup mixture. Yes, the cake was wet.  I’m not sure what the reasoning was here. Maybe to keep it moist past it’s prime? I was a little suspect. I wouldn’t advise to steer clear of the place, maybe just try a alternate selection. It was pretty. I ate the butterfly.

MARIEBELLE CHOCOLATES

Please forgive my wacky formatting with the images. It’s late and I have had some wine.

Anyway, Mariebelle’s Chocolates. This shop was a little challenging to find, even though you can see it as soon as you walk into the Marketplace (they also have a cart on the first floor). It’s in a space that is sort of between floors. I should add that Limelight Markeplace is a bit of maze and you feel like Alice in Wonderland trying to navigate the place. There are little half staircases that lead to dead ends and various nooks and cranies that can have you very turned around. What made the nightclub version so interesting , can make a shopping trip feel like falling down a rabbit hole. After we found Mariebelle’s, I was excited to try their off-beat artisan chocolates. Of all all the flavors, I selected Saffron and Whiskey. At first I wasn’t so sure about the Saffron chocolate, but it grew on me and I am now determined to use Saffron in one of my recipes. The Whiskey flavor did not dissapoint. It was like taking a chocolate shot of Jack Daniels. I will certainly make a return trip to try flavors like Cardamon, Earl Grey and Passion Fruit. Oh, and a quick note, they serve real food. You can sit down at one of the little tables and order lunch. Cute.

WANNAHAVACOOKIE

Wannahavacookie? More like Wannahavadevildog.  I wouldn’t really classify this as a cookie. Round does not a cookie make.  This is a round Devil Dog. They call it a Whoopie Pie and offer different flavor variations. I choose the Chocolate Mint variety. It’s light, fluffy and had a good mint flavor but it’s just not a cookie. Their website www.wannahavacookie.com does have actual cookies, but Whoopie Pies are their main business.  If you are a fan of Devil Dogs, this is your product.

By this point a was on sugar overload and had to call it a day. There is a Gelato stand I will have to go back and visit and some other food stops, like the cheese shop and bread baker that are a must try. In the next few months the restaurants and wine bars will also be open and that will certainly warrant a return trip. Overall, it was a great trip and I really enjoyed trying all the different offerings. I am still skeptical about the non-food based shops and I am curious to see the sustainability of the marketplace as whole. If you are in the neighborhood (6th Ave & 20th in NYC), I would highly recommend stopping by.  That’s it for now, below are a few pictures I took of the interior.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Aimez-vous le champagne ? Aimez-vous le chocolat ? If so, this is your cupcake baby. Rich dark chocolate cake and light fluffy frosting both spiked with champagne transform an ordinary cupcake into a dessert that is simultaneously indulgent and playful.

The inspiration for the recipe came from a few places. I had seen a few Champagne Cakes and was curious, my friend Leo suggested that I make the cupcakes dark chocolate and the base of the frosting recipe came from Give Me Some Oven. I also played with some decorative frosting . I usually don’t get along well with pastry bags, I need lessons, but I think these turned out pretty well and I didn’t make too much of a mess! Which is surprising, because by the time I got around to frosting the cupcakes I had helped myself to a bit of the champagne. I know, I broke one of my own rules. Don’t drink and bake.  I avoided disaster this time.

My fear was that, once complete, these wouldn’t taste anything like champagne. Admittedly, the cupcakes did not really taste like champagne, but the addition of the champagne made them incredibly light and moist.  The real champagne flavor came in the icing. It has the perfect little punch. SO good. On that note… onto the recipe.

Dark Chocolate Champagne Cupcakes

2 cups white granulated sugar
1 3/4 cups of unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 cups unsweetened dark cocoa powder (I use Hershey’s Special Dark)
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
2 large eggs (room temperature)
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup champagne (I used a semi-sweet champagne, not brut)

Pink Champagne Frosting

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3 1/4 cups confectioners sugar
7 tablespoons of champagne
2 drops pink food coloring
Sugar crystals for decoration (because champagne sparkles!)

Assemble your ingredients, pour yourself a glass of champagne and pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. What?

Line two cupcake pans with the liners of your choice. I was feeling playful when I made these, so I used black liners with gold swirls. Seemed appropriate. You can buy all kinds of decorative cupcake liners. Looking for an online shop? Go to Bake It Pretty. Fun stuff… some is a little to cutesy for me, but overall they have creative choices.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt together in a lage bowl.

Add the eggs, vanilla, oil and milk and beat until well combined on the medium speed of an electric mixer. Add champagne. Beat on low until completely combined. Next, using a wooden spoon, STIR the boiling water into the batter.  Carefully fill each cupcake liner with the batter. Use just under a 1/4 cup per cupcake. Anything more will produce a mess and your cupcakes will overflow the rim when they bake. Don’t ask how I know this.

Bake for 15 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Allow the cupcakes to cool in the pans for about 10 minutes. Carefully pluck each cupcake out of the pan and place them on a baking rack to cool completely.

For the frosting cream together the sugar, butter. Beat in the vanilla. Beat in each tablespoon of champagne one at at at time. Add the two drops of food coloring and beat until the color is even.

You can either frost the cupcakes the old fashioned way, with a knife or small offset spatula, or you can get fancy and do any array of pipping.  Once frosted sprinkle the crystalized sugar over the top.

Last but not least, grab your glass of champagne and enjoy!!