Carrie & Martha - Streusel Cupcakes

These cupcakes are exactly what Martha says to introduce them: "all the features of a traditional coffee cake - tender cake base, crumbly streusel top, and simple milk-and-sugar glaze."

They came out pretty yummy. I believe I over baked them just a tiny bit due to the fact that it is a bit difficult to tell by their tops if they are done. Be sure to use a cake tester to see if they are done in the middle.

They are incredibly crumbly, which means messy. Very messy. Keep your dustbuster handy while eating them!

My big suggestion on these cupcakes is for the streusel topping. Although it was my first attempt at making these cupcakes and I haven't perfected them yet, I would suggest adding a little bit of extra butter to the streusel topping, possibly 1 or 2 Tbs. I felt that even after some crazy usage of my pastry blender (first time use!) and some finger squishing of the topping, I blended it properly with a correct amount of crumbliness. However, even after coming out of the oven, the topping simply looked like brown sugar clumps hanging out on top of the cupcakes. The butter seemed to have very little baking effect and didn't brown the brown sugar to my liking. I believe that it would help to make the streusel less crumbly and more baked to add a little more butter.

Streusel Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. coarse salt
• 1/2 cup plus 2 Tbs. (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp. pure vanille extract
• 1 1/4 cups sour cream
• Streusel Topping (recipe follows)
• Milk Glaze (recipe follows)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder,and salt.
   
2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scarping down sides of bowl as needed. Stir in vanilla by hand. Add flour mixture and sour cream; stir until just combined.
3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups. Sprinkle half the topping over cupcakes, gently pressing it into the batter. Sprinkle evenly with remaining topping. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes.
4. To finish, place cupcakes on a wire rack set over a baking sheet; drizzle evenly with milk glaze. Glazed cupcakes can be stored up to 3 days at room temperature in airtight containers.

Streusel Topping
(makes enough for 24 cupcakes)

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup packed dark-brown sugar
• 2 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp. coarse salt
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tsp. (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
  

Whisk together flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt; cut in the utter using a pastry blender, your fingertips, or two table knives until combined but still crumbly. Regrigerate30 minutes before using.

Milk Glaze

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 3 Tbs. milk

Whisk together ingredients until smooth. Use immediately.

Carrie & Martha - Blueberries-and-Cream Cupcakes

Dear Martha Stewart,

I love your new Cupcake Cookbook. I have to admit though that I noticed that only half of the recipes were actual cupcake recipes. The other half were muffins. That’s okay. I forgive you for leading one astray with the misleading name.

In an effort to bake more, I have decided to attempt a Julie & Julia move and begin to bake each of your recipes from both the Cupcake Cookbook and the Cookie Cookbook. I began by making the Blueberry & Cream Muffins.

I followed the recipe to a "t" minus the part where I was on the phone with my mother and I completely forgot to add the 2 tsp. of vanilla to the recipe. Not so good. Also, after I realized that the homemade cream would only last about 3 hours, I chose to just buy some canned whipped cream. I know that’s blasphemy, but I wouldn’t be serving the muffins within three hours.

So, even with the vanilla missing, the muffins turned out quite good. I would think that with the addition of the vanilla, they would even be fabulous. My fresh blueberries were incredibly delicious and fresh, even for being the dead of winter.

Overall, I would give this recipe a big fat A and will definitely make it again, this time with the homemade whipped cream. Mostly because I would be making it as a breakfast muffin and serve it immediately after baking it. The blueberries were so amazing all warm and yummy right out of the oven.

Thanks for being so great, Martha.

Sincerely,

Carrie Ann

Blueberries-and-Cream Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising), sifted
• 1 Tbs. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups milk, room temperature
• 2 cups fresh blueberries, plus more for garnish
• Whipped Cream (recipe add end of post)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line standard or mini muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together both flours, baking powder, and salt.
2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each in incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla.
3. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk, and beating until combined after each. Fold in blueberries by hand.
4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until pale golden, about 25 minutes for standard and 15 for mini. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored up to 3 days at room temperature in airtight containers.
5. To finish, dollop cupcakes with whipped cream, and garnish with berries. Serve immediately.

Sorry, I completely forgot to take pictures of these!

"Freedom Fries" (and burgers)

Well, there's been much about which to post, but little time in which to do it lately. Let's start with something relatively easy.

A few weeks ago, the remarkable Bakerella astounded me once again with yet another beautifully-photographed, unbearably-cute new take on the cupcake.

(If you didn't follow the link, here's a quick rundown: yellow cupcakes split in half for the "buns", brownies cut into circles for the "patties", and skinny sugar cookies sprinkled with sugar for the "fries".) Incredible, yes? I mean, the cupcakeburger on its own is cute, but pair it with sugar-cookie fries and put it in a handmade paper tray, and it becomes irresistable. Literally irresistable - as in, I was still in remission from my last insane cake-decorating project (post to follow), but still couldn't keep myself from making these for our little 4th of July party.

Here's the result:

I'll readily admit this isn't nearly as perfectly-cute as Bakerella's version, but they (I made 8) were cute enough to bring smiles to my nieces' faces which, after all, was the object all along. Depending on how you define "easy", this is a pretty easy project - not too messy, not too technically demanding. The issue isn't ease, however; it's time. Because cute as they are, these cupcakeburgers are a complete, time-consuming pain to make. Consider the steps involved:

1) Make the cupcakes.

2) Make the chocolate cake (or brownies).

3) Make the cookies.

4) Print the little trays.

5) Cut out the little trays.

6) Assemble the little trays.

7) Design the stupid little french fry holders.

8) Print the stupid little french fry holders.

9) Cut out the stupid little french fry holders.

10) Assemble the stupid little french fry holders.

11) Tint 3 colors of frosting.

12) AND, assemble everything (which of course includes splitting the cupcakes, cutting out chocolate cake-rounds, etc.).

Hey! It's a 12-step process!

Anyway, at least that 12th step is pretty gratifying, as you're left with amazingly cute & sugary little fast-food meals.

I chose to make my life slightly more difficult (but make the project more rewarding) by making everything - cupcakes, chocolate cake, cookies - vegan so that my little 4-y-o niece could for once fully participate in the fun dessert. Not that at 4 my niece is already making life-choices about her eating habits. She's just still (hopefully) growing out of several food allergies that prevent her from having any dairy or egg products. Meat, she's OK with, but unfortunately most cupcake recipes don't involve ground beef (not even for cupcakeburgers!), so it's hard to take advantage of this.

Fortunately - both for my niece and in this case for myself - the world we live in is fairly replete with nondairy options. For the "patties" I made what has become one of my niece's dessert stand-bys: Crazy Cake, a quick-and-easy chocolate cake recipe with none of the offending allergens:

Crazy Cake*

Mix together:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

3 Tab. cocoa powder

Add:

2 tsp. white vinegar

1 tsp. vanilla

5 Tab. oil

1 cup cold water

Mix well and pour into greased pan (8" or 9" - or whatever works for what you're doing).

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.

I made this in a 9x13 baking pan so it wouldn't come out too thick and, when it had cooled, inverted it onto a cutting board and used one of my nifty Ateco circle cutters to make my cupcakeburger patties. (Helpful tip: Don't forget to grease the pan. I somehow neglected to do this the first time around and had to scrape the entire cake into the garbage and start over. Argh.) I ended up splitting each "patty" to make it thinner - otherwise they were too thick relative to the "buns".

For the "buns" I used a Cherrybrook Kitchen yellow cake mix that I picked up at Whole Foods. The cupcakes came out more like muffins than cupcakes in my opinion - both in appearance and in sweetness - but that's a minor issue, I guess. I tinted a Pillsbury vanilla frosting - which contains no dairy products (though you should always read the label just in case) - for my ketchup, mustard, and lettuce (along with a LOT of red food coloring for the ketchup). And finally, I googled "vegan sugar cookies" and came up with a plethora of recipe options for my "fries". (I went with this one because it only involved one obscure ingredient - vegan maragine - whereas others also involved tofu or soymilk or somesuch. (OK, I guess they all also involve egg replacer, but I have that on-hand anyway, so I don't consider it obscure.))

Bakerella very kindly posted a pdf with templates for the tray, french fry holder, and liner paper. (I skipped the personalized liner paper since I was unable to find vellum.) Of course, her little faux fast food meal was made in honor of Father's Day, whereas mine was for Independence Day. Thus, I did a quickie 4th of July design on the blank french fry holder template that she helpfully provides.

Finally, I couldn't resist putting little American flag toothpicks into the burgers. Since I had none of these on hand, and couldn't think of a nearby store that was likely to sell them, I did a Google image search for the US flag, scaled it to about 3/4" high, made a horizontally-flipped version of it, and printed as many would fit on a sheet of 8 1/2"x11" paper - cut them out with an Olfa knife and used double-sided tape to wrap them around plain toothpicks. The extra step of making the flag-picks sounds like a pain, but it went pretty quickly (in comparison to, say, making the food trays) and added a really cute touch.

And there you have it - Fourth of July Burgers and Freedom Fries for the sweet-tooths (sweet-teeth?) among us. Don't worry, Father's Day and Independence Day may be behind us, but it's not too late to make these for Labor Day or any other summer get-togethers you have coming up. Just be prepared to spend some time, or find a helper to make all the paper products!

Oh, and, belatedly...

*My recipe, copied from the original in my Mom's cookbook which was given to her by a former neighbor, spells it "Crazy Kake". OK then, but why not go ahead and make it "Krazy Kake" and at least be consistent? Though that reminds me of the old "Kleen Kar" carwash next to my old elementary school, which even as a first grader used to drive me crazy. (Or did it drive me krazy?)

Devil's Food Cupcakes with Marshmallow Filling

Something you should know about me: I'm a cupcake fanatic.

There. The first step is admitting you have a problem, right? Anyway, with this cupcake fanaticism that I suffer from comes the need to bake cupcakes and eat cupcakes anytime I can, regardless of worries of weight gain or unhealthiness. It doesn't matter. Cupcakes are the sacred dessert to me.

I usually try to bake a cake for everyone in the office when it is their birthday. It gives me an outlet for baking and a reason to bake, without the guilt of having to eat the goods all by myself. I can practice recipes and know that they are going to a good cause: the bellies of my coworkers. For some reason, I find it interesting that as of late I associate cakes with the men and cupcakes with the women. Is a cupcake really more feminine than a cake? Doubtful, but they are daintier, just like women (usually). Hence, cupcakes for a female's birthday this week.

Now, I have to admit that as usual, I didn't make this recipe up myself. I got a little help from Sunset magazine (Okay. A lot of help.). But I have made it so many times that it has nearly become my signature in cupcake baking.

Cupcake baking:

I was lacking in time when I baked these tasty little cakes, so I chose to go the route of the cake mix. Don't sue me! Cake mix can be very handy when dealing with cupcakes. I would NEVER use a cake mix for a normal cake (unless it was a decorating practice cake). However, these cupcakes are all about presentation and what's in the middle that counts, so I used a cake mix. I believe I went for the Pillsbury Devil's Food mix. Most cake mixes contain pudding so they will almost always be moist, unless you TOTALLY forget them in the oven. Not good. Never, under any circumstances, leave a cake alone for the last 10 - 20 minutes of its baking time. Most of the time, it will bake much more quickly than the time states it will. Cookies are okay if overbaked. Cakes and cupcakes are just down right raunchy.

So never overbake your cakes....even if from a cake mix.

I have used the recipe from the Sunset site, but didn't love it. I would suggest finding a good Devil's Food recipe to use if you don't want to use the Sunset one or a cake mix, but make sure to make Devil's Food.

Let those little cupcake guys cool before moving on to the next step.Cupcake filling:
Your first step should now be to cut a cone out of the center of each cupcake. Be sure not to dig too deep or near the sides or you will bust out the sides. Not so good if you don't want sticky fingers. The Sunset magazine says to cut a 3/4" cylinder out. I say try a cupcake out and see how much you want to cut and go for it. Practice makes perfect, right?
After the tops are cut off you are left with a hollow cupcake. Now the fun part!
Take a plastic decorator's bag or even a Ziploc bag and scoop your marshmallow creme into the bag, cutting a small hole at the end to allow it to come out. DO NOT attempt to use a spoon to scoop marshmallow creme into the cupcakes. It won't work and you'll just be left with a big, sticky mess.
Squeeze the marshmallow creme into each hollowed out center, allowing a little room on the top for the top of the cupcake to sit upon.
Don't forget to have a little snack of marshmallow creme before tossing the bag.Taking the tops you cut out recently, cut off the excess cake with a knife, leaving only a thin shell to go back onto the top of the cupcake.

Cupcakes after putting the top back on shown below.Cupcake Icing:

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

8 ounces cream cheese - room temperature
1/2 stick butter - room temperature
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
6 Tbs. unsweetened cocoa

In a stand mixer (or hand mixer) on low speed, cream together the butter and cream cheese until well blended. Slowly add the cocoa to the mix, then the powdered sugar until well blended. Crank that baby on high and make it fluffy and smooth...usually about 2 minutes.

Now, the Sunset recipe tells you to sift your cocoa and powdered sugar together. Fine. But that's just a lot of work you don't need to do. For one thing, if you buy a 10X sifted powdered sugar, like Domino, your sugar has already been sifted 10 times (hence the 10x). It's pretty darn fluffy.Also, the recipe called for 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar. Dudes. Have you EVER measured powder sugar? No. Because it's too fluffy and there's too much air in it. Basically, one 1 pound box of Domino 10x powdered sugar contains 4 cups. I used the whole box because I like my cream cheese frosting to be a little sweeter and more dense. However, I add it slowly in order to make sure it does not become hard to work with. You will have to do a little fine tuning with your frosting recipe to come to a similar (or different) conclusion. Don't worry...it's nearly impossible to mess up as long as you use the right ingredients!

For this batch of cupcakes, I chose to spoon the frosting into a decorator's bag and use a star tip instead of the normal spreading of the frosting. It all looks good. And they will eat it. I added chocolate jimmies this time to give it a little spark. Everyone was very impressed with the star tip frosting and it only took me an additional 15 minutes (if that).
Presentation is key.