I'm moving

I already have a couple blogs at wordpress and I just figured it would be a lot easier for me to make everything all work over there. So follow me to my new home at http://butterfingercupcakes.wordpress.com I'm re-posting all of the recipes I've tried so far and hopefully will be posting some new stuff in the future.

Thanks blogger, it's been fun <3

French Toast Maple Bacon Cupcakes

Last month I got my first official cupcake order from my best friend, it still counts right? She wanted some cupcakes for her boyfriends birthday. He doesn't like chocolate so we decided on "french toast maple bacon cupcakes" cause bacon is manly. I made enough for a batch of 12 plus 12 mini's which I brought to work to entice co-workers with. The Office Manager had to have her arm twisted into eating one and then proceeded to have a foodgasam!

I think they turned out pretty good, the only thing I wasn't happy with is the lame liners I had. I think I'm going to try to score some unbleached liners somewhere. You can't really go wrong with the basics.


The Internet is rife with this recipe but I found that I had to scour around for a perfect mix of cake, icing and garnish for me to be happy with it. Anyways, on with the recipe!!


French Toast Cupcakes (from Life is Better With Cake!)

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour, sifted
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup milk, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature, separated

Directions:

1. Place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees F. Line a muffin pan with paper liners.


2. Combine the butter and sugar and mix on low until just incorporated. Raise the speed to high and mix until light and fluffy, about 10 minutes. (Occasionally scrape the sides down with a spatula)


3. 3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk and vanilla, and also set aside.


4. Add the egg yolks to the creamed butter one at a time, waiting for each one to be fully incorporated before adding the next.


5. Reduce the speed of the mixer to low, Alternately, add the flour mixture in 3 additions and the milk in 2 additions, waiting for each to be fully incorporated before adding the next (scrape the bowl down occasionally). raise the speed to medium and mix briefly until a smooth batter is formed. Transfer the batter to a large bowl.


6. Clean the bowl of the mixer and put the egg whites inside. Whip the egg whites in high speed, using the whisk attachment, until stiff peaks are formed.


7. Working in 3 batches, using a rubber spatula, fold the egg whites into the batter, until just incorporated. Fill the liners 3/4 full. Bake, rotating the pan once, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, approximately 30 minutes.


8. Remove the cupcakes from the oven and cool completely.

I didn't do the 3 batch fold in thing, i just did it all in one shot. I doubt it made much of a difference.

Maple Frosting (taken from Country Living)

• 1 cup unsalted butter (softened)
• 3 ounces cream cheese (softened)
• 2/3 cups dark-brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup maple syrup
• 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions:

1. Beat the butter, cream cheese, brown sugar, and salt in a medum bowl with a mixer set on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.


2. contine beating, and add the maple syrup and vanilla.


3. Gradually add the confectioner's sugar, increase the speed to high, and beat until light and fluffy, about 1 minute.


4. Chill for 1 hour before using

Using 3/4 tsp of vanilla is bull shit! I've never seen a 3/4 tsp, just use a whole tsp. More vanilla has never been a bad thing. Chilling icing for an hour is also bull shit, just keep adding icing sugar till you get a consitency you can work with, I think I added another 2 cups. I also used demerara sugar and found it a really nice substitution for regular brown sugar, it gave the icing a really nice colour and a little bit of crunch.

Candied Bacon (taken from Closet Cooking)

• 1 lb thick cut bacon
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (or maple syrup)

Directions:

1. line a baking sheet with foil and set a cooling rack in it


2. Spread the bacon out over the cooling rack


3. rub the brown sugar onto the bacon


4. bake in a preheated 350F oven until the bacon reaches the desired crispness, about 15-20 minutes


5. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes and then enjoy

There are a lot of different, harder ways to make candied bacon. This was the simplest one I could find that seems pretty much idiot proof, which is perfect for me (I am a total klutz so I could just see me starting a grease fire doing it any other way). I dredged the bacon in demerara sugar before putting it on the rack to ensure both sides were coated. Baked it and then cut it into 2 inch strips which I then curled into cone shapes, put them between the rack grates and cooked for a bit longer.

Happy Humpday/St. Patrick's Day

"Hump me I'm Irish"

No cupcakes in this post but I just wanted to say, I hope you all have a fantastic day as everyone is considered Irish on St. Patties! Because this is a day everyone generally get's shitfaced I've written some sage advice for you in the form of a limerick:

A pickle's a cure for a hangover
Eat one when bowls are aquiver
I know it seems lewd
But I'm telling you dude
It really is good for your liver

Trust me, this is going to save you tomorrow morning.

Pandora

Have you heard of Pandora? It's this cute charm jewelry company. You get a base piece and just start adding charms to it. I recently bought a bracelet for a friend of mine's birthday and saw the cupcake charm while I was there. Adorable!!

Flour Girls

A cupcake bakeshop called Flour Girls opened up in my quaint little suburb a couple years ago and I was pretty excited to sample their wares. I even braved a snowstorm to try them out on their opening day.

I was mega disappointed. The cake was a little on the dry side and the meringue buttercream icing tasted like chemicals to me. Maybe my tastebuds are fucked up cause they assure me that the cupcakes are made from all natural ingredients. So I thought maybe they were just having an off day, or maybe I was just having an off day. So I gave them a second chance and bought a 6 pack of various flavours.

They were all pretty much the same as the first one I'd tired with one exception. Their carrot cupcake called "Pass the Carrots Please" is awesome (cream cheese icing FTW!). I've also heard their red velvet cupcake called "Seeing Red" is tastey.

If you are ever in the neighbourhood (which I doubt cause we're on the outskirts of subrbia to the point of being subparburbia) I highly recomend picking up a six pack of those two, leave everything else and pretend it dosen't exist

(pictures borrowed from My Happy Cupcake Co.)

First Birthday Cupcakes

So, I have two kids now (which partially explains the long absence) and my youngest is already a year and a half old. But for her first birthday I made some scrummy vanilla cupcakes with organic raspberry buttercream frosting. I was seriously surprised at how PINK the icing came out with just using raspberries.

She liked them so much she had two

The Cupcake Courier

I got a cupcake courier with the intention of, well I'm not too sure really since I have little time to bake large quantities of anything these days. I've wanted one for awhile now though and thought I'd have to order it online. But I came across one in Winners and it just follwed me home.

I promise I'll use you one day cupcake courier!!

http://www.cupcakecourier.com/

Image from - http://www.cakejournal.com/archives/the-cupcake-courier

The peanut butter banana cupcake

The peanut butter banana cupcake started out as a muffin but it looked so cold and naked that I had to clothe it with icing. What goes better with bananas then peanut butter? NOTHING, that's what!! Sorry if you have a peanut allergy, or an aversion to bananas (OMG penor fruit!) but you're missing out!

Banana Muffin

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp mayo
• 6 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line muffin tins.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter & sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Stir the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the mayo & bananas. Stir together the flour, salt, baking powder & baking soda.
4. Blend the flour mixture into the banana mixture. Stir just enough to evenly combine.
5. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes come out clean, about 16 minutes.
   

Peanut Butter Buttercream Icing

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp milk or cream

1. Cream peanut butter and butter together
2. Add in powdered sugar and mix on high for about 1 minute
3. add vanilla, mix again
4. add the milk or cream and mix on high for about 3 minutes

The ATTACK of the pink globules!

Well it indeed has been forever since my previous post and I do have a few things that I should have posted on here! I'll start with the most recent cupcake encounter... cupcakes from the grocery store bakery *shudder*. Now kids are not usually picky when it comes to treats and my kids are no exception! They ate those globs of disgusting icing nestled on top of the teeniest of "cakes" with utter abandon. Like "OmNomNom" style! Which of course made me think of this video, it fills me with a sense of happiness :D



Now I can forgive them for the cake itself, it wasn't half bad, I can even forgive them for the horrible "buttercream" icing. What I can't forgive is the crazy food colouring!!! That shit got everywhere and my kids faces are still stained pink 2 days later. What the hell? I personally vow to try my very best to never use the stuff now that I've gone through a half bottle of stain remover.




With Valentines Day coming up I was thinking of making some cookies so we'll see how I do with that. I'm thinking of adding some raspberry jam to the icing to make it pink-ish and avoid this whole food colouring situation again. We'll see how that experiment goes.

What does one do with a bare naked cupcake?

Ok I know it's been forever since I posted in here but I had to go back to work. I'm on mat leave again and it's #1's 2nd birthday this weekend so of course it's cupcake making time again.

I figured I would try frosting them with a spatula this time so I found this video on you tube of one of the people at Magnolia's Bakery and decided that maybe I don't have the skills to pull that off just yet.




Then I found this other video on filling cupcakes with sweet sweet innards. So easy, I can do that!




and then I found this video on making skully cupcake toppers, something to keep in mind for next month perhaps (so cute)




Anyhoo, I'm off to finish off these cupcakes. I'll post an update post party.

Her birthday came and went and I went with a classic double chocolate with m&m's on top. You can't really go wrong with that...nobody was really around to help me eat most of them though and I ate WAY more of them then I should have (uuuugh, my tummy!). I should really start baking half batches when I know I don't have people closeby to give some to. LOL, who am I kidding??