Adventures in . . . Fame!

Adventures in . . . Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes

I tried to capture the essence of "fall" in this photo, but it didn't really work out. Oh well, the cupcake looks good!

Let me start out by saying that I hate everything pumpkin. I hate pumpkin pie, I hate pumpkin seeds, I hate anything with the word pumpkin anywhere near it. And, all of that being true, these are the best cupcakes I've made so far. They are so unbelievably delicious and moist. The pumpkin flavor is subtle and tasty.

I've started writing out recipes in a way that I find much more helpful--since I never measure out ingredients beforehand, this way I don't have to keep looking back to the ingredients list. This recipe is from Country Living, but I found a different frosting to pair with it. It makes A LOT of cupcakes. The recipe didn't say how many, and it made 24 regular size ones and 16 minis. I frosted them with a Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting that was pretty good, and then I grated some bittersweet Scharffen Berger Chocolate on top--I know, excessive.

Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes
Preheat oven to 375. Remove 3 sticks butter, 1 package cream cheese, 5 eggs, and 3/4 C buttermilk from fridge. Line pans.

In large bowl, sift:
2 1/2 C + 2 T flour
1 C + 2 T cocoa
1 T baking powder
1 1/2 t baking soda
2 1/4 t ground cinnamon
3/4 t ground nutmeg

In medium bowl, combine:
3/4 C buttermilk
1 1/2 C pumpkin purée
1 ½ t vanilla

In another large bowl, mix on medium speed:
2 1/4 sticks butter
1 1/2 C dark brown sugar
1 1/2 C sugar

Add 5 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, until mixture is smooth and light.

Alternately add the dry mix and the wet mix, blending well after each addition.

Scoop ¼ C batter into each cup. Bake for 22 minutes.

Here's a close-up:


Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting
In medium bowl, beat together:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 stick + 1 T unsalted butter, softened
2 1/4 C powdered sugar
1/4 t vanilla
1 t ground cinnamon
1/8 t ground nutmeg

Second Adventure in Choco Chai Cupcakes

Today is the day! My Choco Chai Cupcakes débuted at the Motley exactly 46 minutes ago! I am nervous that nobody will buy them. If you bought one and then came on this blog to comment about it, please let me know what you think!

Here's a blurry : ( picture of the cupcakes in their display case.


One of the managers made this fabulous sign:


I altered the recipe a bit from my first "adventure," using a variation on the Magnolia chocolate cupcake recipe instead of Ina Garten's. The Magnolia recipe is richer and yummier, I think because it uses melted chocolate instead of cocoa powder. I also added more eggs.

Here's the recipe I came up with:

Julia's Choco Chai Cupcakes

2 C all-purpose flour
1 t baking soda
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 C sugar
1 C packed light brown sugar
5 large eggs, at room temp
6 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 C buttermilk
1 t vanilla extract
2 t chai spice mix* (see the post below)

Preheat oven to 350. Line muffin tins with cupcake papers. Melt chocolate (I just did this on a burner). In a small bowl, sift flour, baking soda, and chai spice mix. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream butter until smooth. Add the two sugars and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition (I tried to beat for 30 seconds between each egg, but I usually got lazy and stopped after, like, 15 seconds). Add the chocolate, mixing well until incorporated. Then the recipe said to "add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated, but do not overbeat." As usual, I just sort of threw all that stuff in. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended and the batter is smooth. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about 3/4 full (I use an ice-cream scoop for this). Bake for 20-25 minutes (since I was using an oven from, like, 1955, I had to bake for closer to 28 minutes), or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

Let cool and frost with chai frosting, the recipe for which is in the post below. This recipe makes 24 cupcakes. The recipe for the frosting only makes 12, so double it.

Adventures in . . . Choco Chai Cupcakes

Two of my favorite things--cupcakes and the Jesuit Relations!

I made these cupcakes using Ina Garten's recipe for chocolate cupcakes and adding a chai frosting created by Chokylit, who, like, invented cupcake blogs. The choco cupcakes were originally supposed to go with Peanut Butter frosting, but that sounds gross.

Ina's Chocolate Cupcakes:
12 T unsalted butter, at room temp
2/3 C granulated sugar
2/3 C light brown sugar, packed
2 extra-large eggs, at room temp
2 t vanilla extract
1 C buttermilk, shaken, at room temp
1/2 C sour cream, at room temp
2 T brewed coffee
1 3/4 C all-purpose flour
1 C good unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350. Line cupcake pans with liners. Cream butter and 2 sugars on high speed until light and fluffy, approx. 5 min. Lower speed to medium, add eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla and mix well. In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, sour cream, and coffee. In another bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. On low speed, add the buttermilk mixture and the flour mixture alternately in thirds to the mixer bowl, beginning with the buttermilk mixture and ending with the flour mixture (I wasn't sure what this meant, so I just threw it all in together.). Mix only until blended. Fold the batter with a rubber spatula to be sure it's completely blended.
Divide the batter among the pans and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Chokylit's Chai Frosting (slightly modified)
1/2 C butter
2 1/2 C powdered sugar, sifted
1/8 C milk
1 1/2 t chai spice mix*
1 t minced fresh ginger (I omitted this due to laziness)

Beat butter until creamy. Scrape bowl. Add 2 C sifted powdered sugar, milk, spice mix, and ginger. Beat until combined. Add more powdered sugar as needed to get piping consistency.

* Chokylit's Chai Spice Mix (again, modified, and this is way more than you could possibly use in the frosting, but I am going to keep it and just look at it):
1 t fennel seeds, (I spent valuable hours of my life grinding up fennel seeds by hand)
1 t cloves, ground
1 1/2 t cardamom, ground
1 t cinnamon, ground
1 t ginger, ground

Mix it all together.

Adventures In . . . Choco Banana Cupcakes

I made these by combining two recipes: a banana cupcake recipe I found on-line and the recipe for Sprinkles (the LA cupcake chain) Bittersweet Chocolate Frosting. They were delish although I think that the chocolate frosting could have been sweeter. The secret ingredient for both the cupcakes and the frosting is sour cream (ick!); I don't know why.

Banana Cupcakes:
2 bananas, mashed
1 stick butter
1 C sugar
2 eggs
2 C flour, sifted
1 t baking soda
1/2 C sour cream
1 t vanilla

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and keep mixing. Add sour cream, flour, and baking soda and mix a little. Add vanilla and bananas and mix just a teeny bit. Bake 20 minutes at 350.

Sprinkles Bittersweet Dark Chocolate Frosting (Warning: Like the Chai frosting, this makes almost twice as much as you'd want to use for the banana cupcake recipe):
5 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 lb. butter
3/4 lb. powdered sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 t vanilla
1/4 C sour cream

Melt and cool chocolate (until just slightly warm). Beat butter until light and fluffy. With mixer on low speed, gradually add powdered sugar. Add salt, vanilla, and sour cream, and mix until very smooth. Add chocolate and mix until just incorporated.

Adventures In . . . Maple Walnut Cupcakes

Yesterday I made these Maple Walnut Cupcakes, which are from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. I found the recipe on-line at "Culinary in the Country," which is a blog where this guy (multiple people?) posts about what he cooks each day. Here's the link to the recipe: http://desertculinary.blogspot.com/2005/05/maple-walnut-cupcakes-with-candied.html

It is a very impressive site. The cupcakes, I must say, were not. They were very "Martha"--light, pretty, but generally lacking in flavor. The frosting (which was just maple syrup, butter, and eggs) was light and fluffy but quite bland. I didn't bother making caramelized walnuts because I wasn't too thrilled with the recipe. The one nice thing about the cupcakes was their texture--there are toasted walnuts baked into the fluffy cupcakes, which really worked out well. I think that cupcakes should be sweet--this was more of a cross between a muffin and cupcake, and although the cupcakes tasted fine, they're not my favorite.