Mintly Twisted

Hello everyone!

I am so very sorry that it has been so long since I blogged last. I have been very busy at school and I've also been a wee bit sick the past couple of weeks. Since I moved into my beautiful yellow house, I have made many different cupcakes. Cappuccino, Margarita, Snickerdoodle, Strawberry's and Cream, and Blueberry. I can't think of anymore off the top of my head but I could ask my sous chef, Sherilyn. I love living with a bunch of girls that actually enjoy my cupcake addiction. They actually WANT me to make cupcakes! Over the summer, I have a feeling my parents got a tad bit annoyed with the oven always going and cupcakes shoved into their faces.

Yesterday I decided to make chocolate cupcakes with a hint of mint. I actually decided on these because my roommates birthday was about a month ago and she asked for these cupcakes and I just never got around to it. Therefore when I made these cupcakes, I made sure she knew that they were specifically for her. She ended up loving them and saying they were the best ones I've ever made. (Of course that put a huge smile on my face) Anyway, you remember the last time I blogged about my dog stealing cupcakes EVERYTIME I make them? Little theif did it again. Poor Kerry lost 5 cupcakes and Charlie (my chocolate lab) ate the chocolate cupcakes with the paper and everything! He knew he was bad, he ran to his kennel with his tail in between his legs.

I hope everything is going well with my lovely readers. Anyone getting excited about Halloween yet? I have already picked out my costume and it is ADORABLE! Did you expect me to get a chef costume? I guess so, but it is so perfect! Let me know what you're going to be for Halloween! I want to know what my fabulous readers are going to dress up as.

As always, Tootles!

Be Patient Connoisseur's!

Hey everyone, I just wanted to say a few quick words of apology. I have recently moved back to school and didn't realize that my classes were going to completely control my every move. I promise to blog soon and show you some more YUMMY cupcakes. Be patient, and you shall be rewarded ;)

Tootles!

A Toast To Myself

Good news everyone!! I'm all moved in and the house looks great! I am living with two of my sorority sisters, Sheriyln and Julia and my suitemate, Kerry. These girls are all super sweet and they arn't too upset about me being obsessed with making cupcakes(teehee). I have made 3 different cupcakes since I moved in, but the first one I am going to tell you about is the one I made for my birthday party.

My housemates and I decided to have a birthday/housewarming party the first week after we were all moved in. Guess what guys, I'M 21!!!!! (Thanks to my mother and Ken, I got a pink KitchenAid). WOOOHOOO!!! (Thanks!) But, back to the party, we went shopping for snacks to have at the party and then it hit me, I'll make margarita cupcakes! I"ve never made these before but I've heard from a chili friend that they are superb (Thanks Becky)! I also got a new cupcake book for my birthday from my Aunt and there it lay, a recipe for Margarita Cupcakes. They sounded phenomenal and they looked so pretty. So I started making the cupcakes and ended up having to make another batch because we figured 12 cupcakes wouldn't be enough. After the two batches of Margarita cupcakes were all cooled off, I started with the icing. Lime Juice, powdered sugar, and that "other stuff" you put in margaritas. I had a lot of icing left and my housemates definently took advantage of the yummy icing, they all poured it into mugs and drank it straight like a real Margarita! After the icing was put on top of the cupcake, I sprinkled it with edible glitter and sugar and stuck a straw in it. Perfecto!

I also made Snickerdoodle upcakes because everyone LOVES those! I ended up with over 50 cupcakes and even got to use my new Wilson cupcake stand! I made regular size snickerdoodles and also mini, some people don't like sweets so I thought the mini would give people a good alternative.

The party turned out really good and everyone LOVED the cupcakes. Tootles!

Another Cupcake Competition: White Chocolate

This will probably be my last post for a while because I am currently moving to a STUNNING house in Georgetown with 3 of my best friends. So remember in my last post how I explained about my Chocolate Lab stealing my cupcakes? Well, I caught him this time!



Little Thief!! He couldn't help it this time, my White Chocolate Pistachio cupcake was HEAVENLY!!!! This is The Sweetest Kitchen's second month at doing the Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge and last month was a HUGE hit. The secret ingredient was Tea, and I made a Chai/Matcha cupcake that turned out okay, but I wasn't very impressed. This month, when I found out the secret ingredient was White Chocolate, I couldn't resist using Pistachio's! I love this little nut and believe it or not, they are phenomenal in cupcakes! And, Charlie agrees!


Good luck to all the competitors, and here are the sponsers this month:

The winner of August’s Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge will receive prizes from:

• Bake It Pretty; $5 electronic gift card


• Beanilla; 3 Indian + 3 Tahitian vanilla beans & a jar of Ground Vanilla


• CT2Designs; a cupcake ring


• Miss Kitty Creations; a cupcake charm of your choice


• Sweet Cuppin Cakes; a prize pack worth $25

Thank you times a million to all of our prize sponsers!

For more information on the competition go here: http://www.sweetestkitchen.com/mysterybox/

Cupcake Hero August!

Hello y'all!

I didn't win last month but I came in 2nd, so I'm giving it another go!Congradulations to (vegan) CUPCAKES and Other Culinary Creations! My oven has been broken so I haven't been able to make many cupcakes but I was able to make a cupcake for the August edition of Cupcake Hero! I had many different cupcakes that included raspberries so picking which cupcake I would make for August was pretty difficult. I made one cupcake that had a full cup of squished raspberries in the batter and that cupcake came out WAY to dense. The fresh whipped cream was also not the right choice for the icing. So that cupcake was easy to mark off the list. The second cupcake that was a close runner up was my raspberry vodka cupcake that I have previously posted about, but I don't like the idea of putting alcohol in my Cupcake Hero contender incase the host for the month doesn't drink alcohol (Yes I'm thinking about you CUPCAKES and Other Culinary Creations)! So I ex'd that one out pretty quickly as well. And then I had a lightbulb moment and BAM the PERFECT cupcake was born. Introducing the Lip-Smacking Raspberry Cupcake:




Ingredients:

3/4 cup raspberries
12 paper liners
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large egg whites
3/4 cup milk, at room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place paper liners in one 12-cup cupcake tin.
2.) Whisk flour, baking powder, and ssalt together in a small bowl to combine; set aside.
3.) Whisk egg whites and milk together in a small bowl to combine; set aside
4.) In a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter until creamy. Add sugar gradually, beating until light and fluffy, scraping down the bowl once or twice.
5.) Beat in vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture in 4 additions, alternating the egg and milk mixture. Begin and end with the flour mixture, make sure everything is combined.
6.) Fold 3/4 cup raspberries into the batter.
7.) Divide batter evenly using an ice cream scoop or two spoons.
8.) Bake for 20-23 minutes or until golden brown. You can also test them by touching the tops of the cupcakes, if they spring to the touch then they are ready!

Raspberry buttercream:

1 stick butter
3/4 cup raspberries
4 cups icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.) In a large bowl, cream the butter until light and fluffy
2.) Add the icing sugar and beat on the lowest setting until fully combined.
3.) Add vanilla extract and beat on medium-high until it is a light brown color
4.) If the icing is too thick, add 1 tablespoon of milk
5.) If it is too runny for your liking, add more icing sugar
6.) Add the raspberries to the mixer. Adding the raspberries in the mixer will make the icing turn a pretty pink and you will see the loverly raspberry seeds.

Put in a icing bag with your favorite tip and pipe on this beautiful icing onto your cooled cupcake.

Eat and ENJOY! (I sure did!)

TOOTLES!

Cupcake Cupcake Hero!

So, for this months Cupcake Hero, the secret ingredient is COCONUT!!!! One of my all time favorite ingredients to use in cupcakes. I previously posted a coconut cupcake that didn't turn out superb, but I will probably make some changes to the recipe and then do another entry with that cupcake as well. For this entry, I decided to make a Homemade Snowball (Cupcake, of course)! This cupcake was so much fun, but a bit tricky. The recipe is all my own, and I am very very proud of it! To start, you have to make the chocolate cupcake:

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
2 sticks butter (cut into pieces)
12 ounces unsweetened chocolate (finely chopped)
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla

Method:

-Preheat over to 350 degrees
-In a mixing bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt
-Heat Butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water
-Remove from heat when melted and then add sugar
-With an electric mixer on medium high, add eggs one at a time until completely mixed
-Add vanilla and beat for three minutes
-Reduce speed to low and add 2/3 of the flour mix. Beat until just combined
-Remove from the electric mixer and fold in the rest of the flour mixture
-Fill cupcake cups 2/3 full
-Once cupcakes have cooled, remove cupcake liners and place aside

For the YUMMY cream filling:

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup icing sugar

Method:

-whisk heavy cream until soft peaks form
-add icing sugar, whisking until combined

Once you have made the cream filling, put it in a pastry bag with a tip that has a wide hole ad the end. Take the largest tip you have and cut out a hole from the top of the cupcake.



Once you've done that, fill the hole with the yummy cream you've just made. I could eat this stuff like ice cream!



After you've filled the cupcake with the fluffing, it's time to make the marshmallow icing! This is pretty tricky but super fun (it's like making dough).

Ingredients:

8 ounce bag of marshmallows
2 pounds of powdered sugar (1 normal bag)
2 tablespoons of water
1 small can of crisco

Method:

-put the marshmallows and water in a microwave-safe bowl for two minutes
-stir thoroughly until smooth
-add about 1 1/2 pounds of the powdered sugar and stir with a well greased spoon (use the Crisco)
-Thoroughly grease your hands and work surface with the Crisco and knead the icing until it isn’t sticky anymore. If it’s sticky, add more sugar. If it’s dry and tearing, add a teaspoon or two of water and knead it in. The icing is finished when the dough is pliable and stretchy without tearing



After the icing is ready, take a golf ball size amount and flatten it out so it it a large enough circle to cover the entire cupcake (besides the bottom). Once you have a large enough flattened piece of icing, place it on top of the cupcake and press lightly around the bottom edges of the cupcake. Then, cut the excess icing off of the cupcake and gently press the icing under the bottom.





Now it's time for the fun part! I took a bag of sweetened coconut and another bag of unsweetened coconut and mixed it together. I put the coconut mixture on a piece of parchment paper and got ready to have fun! I realized when I was trying to put the coconut on,that it wasn't sticking quite right. I lightly greased the top of the icing with a sliver of butter (you could use water to make the icing sticky again) and then put the coconut all over the icing.



I then had a chance to step back and take a look at my masterpiece :)


And then I got to taste my masterpiece, and boy was it a beautiful symphony of ingredients!



Thanks for this great opportunity Small Town Oven! If I make it to the finals, (fingers crossed) instead of cutting a hole in the top and inserting the icing that way, cut off the top of the cupcake and scoop some cream into the middle, then put the top of the cupcake back on. The marshmallow icing will hold the whole cupcake together. I love coconut and I promise you wil love this yummy yummy homemade snowball!

Make sure you check out the flickr account for Cupcake Hero! You can follow this link: http://flickr.com/groups/cupcakehero!

Creme De La Creme

Happy 4th of July everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful Sunday that was full of family and fun. While my parents were at a Chili cookoff in Fredricksburg, I stayed home and took care of the Chocolate Mess (my chocolate lab). His name is Charlie Brown but he has a few other nicknames including Buddha, and Cupcake. Somehow, Charlie always finds the freshly cooked cupcakes. I usually take the cupcakes into the dining room so I can get some good light while I'm piping or decorating. I have recently forgotten to move the cupcakes and he puts his huge paws up on the table and digs in! He is very smooth though, he never leaves a crumb! I would never know that he did anything wrong except for the fact that he runs to his kennel with his tail in between his legs. Therefore, his new nickname is cupcake and I think he is rather fond of it!

The picture above is of my newest creation (Charlie didn't get to try these)! These actually took a few hours to make, which I wasn't expecting. I made them for the fourth, to take to my Grandma's house. After they chilled in the fridge for 2 hours, I made the frosting, which consists of vanilla beans, heavy creme, milk, 8 egg yolks, and 5 tablespoons of corn flour. After whipping up the custard, I froze them for about an hour. After tasting them, I have decided to make a few changes. NO corn flour! The corn flour makes the cupcake taste a bit like a corn tortilla. YUCK!!! Who wants to taste a tortilla in their cupcake? Not me (although I'm sure Cupcake wouldn't mind). I have also decided to make the actual cupcake part a little thinner, it was a bit too thick. These would probably be better as a mini cupcake as well. I was super excited about using my hand held torch, and luckily I only burned down half of the kitchen ;) I only burned a few cupcake liners, but that's about it!

As I said before, I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend! Tootles!