Cupcakes — Page 13

Coconut Cream Cupcakes and Week 3- Wilton Decorating Class

February 11, 2011 by Jenn

1M Swirls and Pompom Flower

What do you do with leftover coconut milk? Well, of course you make CUPCAKES! From the domestic goddess her self- Martha Stewart‘s Cupcakes book!

I got this book for Christmas (thanks G) and I have been waiting for the opportunity to bake something from it. Finally, the opportunity presented itself in form of Coconut Cream Cupcakes!

Poinsettia, Shaggy Mums

For my Wilton Decorating class week 3, we were to bring in one dozen cupcakes to “learn” how to decorate.

1M Swirl with pompom flower topping

The first way to decorate was the base coat . . . which is usually my complete topping for my cupcakes . . . 1M tip, swirled. But, that is not the “Wilton Way” (more on that later)! On top of the 1M swirl goes the pompom flower. Since I knew I was going to be giving these cupcakes to my staff, and some people don’t like icing (they are criminally insane), I didn’t put the swirl on some of the cupcakes.

Pompom Flower

For these pompom flowers, start with a small mound of icing for the flower base, in the middle of the cupcake (the top of the 1M swirl works as a base if you have piped the swirl). Using tip 16, make the top of the flower in a darker shade of colour, simply squeeze, and pull up and away.

For the petals, using tip 18, start at the bottom of the base, and pipe petals around the base of the flower, move up a layer, alternating between bottom petals, fill in spaces, move up the base again. Wilton actually has a good tutorial for this flower on their website: Pompom Flower. Add leaves (with any leaf tip) when you are finished piping the petals.

Avec leaves

Shaggy Mums

To make a shaggy mum flower, you need your tip 233. Start with piping the leaves around the swirl (again, not shown . . . but truth be told, it wasn’t that I was thinking of others, I had simply run out of base icing! I think people that don’t like icing are crazy, so why would I help them out by not putting TONS on my cupcakes!?) With your 233 tip, you start at the outside, and squeeze and pull away! Super easy. Work your way to the inside, by squeezing and pulling these “petals”. The messier, the better!

There they are . . . all on display! 1M swirls, shaggy mums, poinsettia, and pompom flowers! Super easy and quick cupcake decorating ideas!

**Edited to Add . . . the recipe! I forgot it!

Coconut Cream Cupcakes

(adapted from Martha Stewart)

Makes 2 dozen

3 cups cake flour (not self-rising)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup coconut milk

8 large egg whites

1 1/4 cups shredded sweetened coconut

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two standard 12-cup muffin pans with paper liners; set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, scraping down sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the milk and beginning and ending with the flour; beat until just combined. Transfer mixture to a large bowl; set aside.
In the clean bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg whites on low speed until foamy. With mixer running, gradually add remaining 1/4 cup sugar; beat on high speed until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 4 minutes. Do not overbeat. Gently fold a third of the egg-white mixture into the butter-flour mixture until combined. Gently fold in remaining egg-white mixture; stir in shredded coconut.
Divide batter evenly among the muffin cups, filling each with a heaping 1/4 cup batter. Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until the cupcakes are golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer pans to a wire rack. Invert cupcakes onto rack; then reinvert and let cool completely, top sides up. Frost cupcakes with seven minute frosting, swirling to cover. Cupcakes may be stored in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Garnish with fresh coconut just before serving.

Jenn’s Custom Cakery Business Card Debut

February 3, 2011 by Jenn

This has been a busy week for me, and I haven’t had time to put my posts together. I promise that I will be getting to them soon. Stored away in the depths of my iPhoto storage, I have pictures for my Wilton Classes from Week Two and Three, Angel Food Cookies (yes, cookies), and Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Crackers. Both are simple and delicious, so watch for them soon.

Again, I apologize . . . BUT it’s not like I’ve been sitting around twiddling my thumbs . . . I have actually been 100% focused on Jenn’s Custom Cakery! Here are the business cards that Paul designed for me . . . he is so talented . . . as he took my jumbled/rambling thoughts and made them come to life exactly how I wanted them too.

If you are interested in him designing one for you, send me an email and I will hook you up with him . . . in a business sense. I’m not like that.

As my first endeavour into this cakery, I decided it was perfect timing to offer a Valentine’s Day assortment of chocolate and vanilla cuppies. Boy, did I ever TAKE OFF!!! I currently have 15 DOZEN orders. 15! I am so happy! I’m going to be a little stressed while making all of them, but it is so amazing. I KNEW I had an untapped market in this city. Knock on wood.

Watch out cupcake world . . . here I come!

Filed Under: Cupcakes, Randomness

My New Bakery!

January 30, 2011 by Jenn

Hear ye, hear ye! I’m pleased to be announcing the official opening of my unofficial bakery! Jenn’s Custom Cakery is ready for official orders, tasters and reviewers. First up . . . Valentine’s Day!

Looking to order Valentine’s Day Cupcakes? I am offering Valentine’s Day themed assortment of chocolate and vanilla mini and regular sized cupcakes with buttercream icing. $15 for 12 mini’s or 6 regular, $25 for 12 regular.

Please email me if you would like to place an order in the Cranbrook area: jenn@cookiescupcakesandcardio.co

If you would like to join my mailing list, please give me a shout, and I will be able to let you know about upcoming treats!

Filed Under: Cakes, Cupcakes, Other Baked Goodies, Randomness Tagged With: Jenn's Custom Cakery

Giant Filled Birthday Cupcake

January 23, 2011 by Jenn

Homemade Funfetti Giant Cupcake, filled with Raspberry and Raspberry Cream Icing

. . . . wow that’s a mouthful! Perhaps I should start working on naming my creations 🙂

My cake that I got asked to do this week, is my favourite shape to bake. I think it’s because it turns out so cute, and who wouldn’t LOVE a GIANT cupcake.

This was for a 7 year old Lauren’s birthday, and it was pretty much bigger than her head! Her request was “Funfetti, with raspberry cream icing, and some blue”. Uh, it’s sort of hard to tint bright pink naturally coloured icing blue, so I had to improvise.

I also made it more exciting for me, since the only flavour of cake I have made in the last week was funfetti (funfetti recipe here) and I filled the centre of the cupcake with raspberry jam. Mmmmmm, it looked so good. I LOVE how colourful the confetti makes the batter. Before you start icing, remember to level the tops of the two cake pieces as they come out slightly rounded from the pan.

To make the “wrapper” I used chocolate icing and tip # 31. It is pretty much essential that you decorate the bottom of the cupcake first, as the top will get in the way if you put it on first. I iced from the bottom, up to the top.

Here, I added rosettes in between crevices . . . just to add interest (not that you aren’t on the edge of your seat when you look at one of my creations). At this point, fill the top over with icing, and place the lid of the cupcake on top, being careful to line up the sides.

I iced the top with Raspberry Buttercream (recipe here), using tip 1M. You want a stiff icing to keep its shape. Go easy on the liquid. If you are following my recipe, I omitted all of the milk.

And how did I incorporate the request for blue . . . on a pink cake? I went with marshmallow flowers! I was intending to use fondant cut outs, but making flowers from marshmallows is something that I’ve been wanting to try for a while. I didn’t have any small ones (which I recommend that you use), so I made them with large. Cut the marshmallows with clean scissors, and dip into blue sprinkles. I let mine dry overnight, in order for them to stay together on the cake.

I love making this cake! There are so many possibilities of ways to decorate a giant cupcake. Despite my own skepticism and doubt on being able to pull off the blue flowers, I think it turned out well.

Candles are little bit much for my decorating style, but when you’re 7, it’s all about the candles. Happy birthday, Lauren!

What is your favourite shape cake to bake? I’d love to hear from you.

Filed Under: Cupcakes Tagged With: birthday, giant cupcake, marshmallow flowers, raspberry cream icing

Birthday Princess Cupcakes

January 19, 2011 by Jenn

Hasn’t every girl dreamed that she would one day be a princess?

This week, I had the pleasure of opening up my fondant again to jump head first into the land of fairy tales! Princess, princes, magic wands, castles, and magic. What more could a four year old girl want for her fourth birthday? It was up to me to make it happen (boy, does that ever make me sound important). When I actually realized what I had signed on for, a little panic ripped through me . . . not going to lie about that one! After hours of searching Flickr (check out CCC profile out here), I finally had enough inspiration to get started.

The birthday girl requested Funfetti with Raspberry Cream Icing . . . mmmm . . . too bad one wasn’t for me 🙁

Here is the recipe for the Homemade Funfetti.

I used a different type of sprinkles for these cupcakes than I did in the original recipe that I made. I would stick with the long oblong sprinkles, over these small little ball sprinkles, as these ones coloured the batter. Also, I think they might have made the cupcake a little bit crunchier than necessary . . . I’ll have to ask the birthday girl to figure that one out!

The princess' age

I got started in the morning, working with the fondant shapes that I wanted for this design.

The princess' castles

The princess' wands

No princess is complete with out her crown!

The princess' crowns

Like my improvising with the spice bottles? Can you tell that I’m new and don’t have all the tools yet? Thank goodness I’m resourceful. I needed something to shape the crown. If you’re a fondant expert, please let me know how you’re REALLY supposed to do this!

On to the icing . . .

Raspberry Cream Icing

1/2 cup of butter

1/2 cup of raspberries (fresh or frozen) If using frozen, make sure they are thawed.

4 cups of icing sugar

1 tsp of vanilla

1-2 tbsp milk (if needed)

Cream butter and raspberries in a stand mixture. Add one cup of icing at a time. Mixing in-between cup additions. Add vanilla, and mix. If the icing is too thick at this point, add one to two tablespoons of milk to thin.

Time to add the fondant! Abracadabra!

Filed Under: Cupcakes Tagged With: birthday, cupcakes, girls birthday, princess, princess cupcakes, raspberry, raspberry cream icing

Cosmopolitan Cupcakes

January 17, 2011 by Jenn

Cosmopolicakes, if you like. I love.

The name. And the cupcake. And the drink.

I’m also calling it Ode to My SITC Friends. For those of you who aren’t familiar with SITC. It stands for Sex. In. The. City. Greatest show of all time.

Yes, I’m saying GREATEST!

Ummm, along with The Office, Dateline, Criminal Minds, Modern Family, The Middle, Dexter, What Not To Wear . . . need I continue? Perhaps I should just have another drink. Make it a Cosmo bar keep!

Cosmopolitan Cupcakes

(adapted and inspired from MyBakingdom)

FOR THE CUPCAKES
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup apple sauce
1 teaspoon finely grated lime zest (lemon is an okay substitution)
1/2 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
2 tablespoons cranberry juice cocktail
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons triple sec (orange juice for non-alcoholic)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk, at room temperature
Food coloring (optional)

To make the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.

In a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the apple sauce then stir in the lime and orange zests. Add the cranberry juice, lime juice, triple sec and vanilla, and stir until combined.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Sprinkle half of the flour mixture over the batter and beat until just combined. Stir in half of the milk, then add the remaining flour, and mix again until just combined. Finally, stir in the remaining milk and beat until thoroughly combined, but don’t over mix.

Place 2 tablespoons of batter in each cupcake liner and bake for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

FOR THE FROSTING
1/4 cup butter
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon cranberry juice cocktail
1 tablespoon vodka (optional)
2 1/2 teaspoons lime juice
2 teaspoons triple sec (orange juice for non-alcoholic)
2 tablespoons milk
Food coloring (optional)

To make the frosting: In a large bowl, cream the butter until smooth. Add one cup of sugar and beat until combined. Stir in the cranberry juice until just combined, then add another cup of sugar and mix until combined. Stir in the vodka, if using, and the lime juice until combined. Add another cup of sugar and mix well. Finally stir in the triple sec (or orange juice), then add the remaining cup of sugar and beat until well combined and light and fluffy. If the frosting is too thick, stir in the milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, until the desired consistency is reached.

Another successful theme dinner! It is so much fun to gather with friends, have good eats, drinks and laughs. Thanks to everyone who came and ate 🙂 We’re getting pretty good at this!

Next month, we’re thinking we might do a Breakfast for Dinner theme. Tell me, do you and your friends do anything like this?

Filed Under: Cupcakes Tagged With: cosmopolitan, cosmopolitan cupcakes, cupcakes

Baby Shower Cupcakes and Cookies

January 10, 2011 by Jenn

This project has been in the works for a long time . . . since November I believe . . . well before baby London was born that’s for sure! I had recently started Cookies Cupcakes and Cardio, and my good friend Janine informed us that her baby shower was going to be January 9, 2011, so of course I jumped at the chance to volunteer (hog) creating the dessert treats!

I have spent countless hours obsessing over the perfect way to decorate the cookies . . . Google Images is a wonderful and horrible place to find yourself lost in. My talent level restricts me to simple decorations, but hey, I did it! Learning something new is always good for the brain.

Last weekend I conquered the cookies . . . I had to make the ahead of time! I’m learning that blogging and the pictures that need to go with a blog, slows down the baking speed quite substantially. Also, since I’m entering uncharted territory, I wanted to give myself plenty of time to screw it up!

I went with Maple Cream Sugar Cookies as I discovered at Christmas time that they are a tasty alternative from the typical sugar cookie. I found Baby themed cookie cutters, and off I went!

I think they are beautiful for my first attempt at something like this! Hahaha…if I don’t say so myself 😉

This weekend, I had to decide which flavour of cupcake to go with the cookies. I have been dying to make my own Funfetti, so when I came across a post by C&C Cakery, I realized it had to be destiny. Also, there are no strawberries in all of Cranbrook in the middle of January . . . therefore no Martha Strawberry cupcakes for us, which was my first pick.

The hint of almond makes these cupcakes extra delicious! They are fun, light and perfect for so many occasions.

I’m sorry I don’t have any pictures of the process of these cupcakes. My camera battery was dying and had to be charged.

Homemade Funfetti Cupcakes

(adapted from C&C Cakery)

1 1/4 cups AP flour (I used cake flour)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 large egg whites (room temperature)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 cup skim milk + 3 Tablespoons skim yogurt
1/4 cup rainbow sprinkles

1) Preheat your oven to 350C. In a small bowl, whisk together your flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

2) In a large bowl with an electric mixer, whip together your butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the egg whites, one at a time, until thick and white. Add your extracts and mix again.

3) With a spoon, slowly mix in your dry ingredients and milk/yogurt mix, alternating between the two. When everything comes together (taking care not to over mix), add the sprinkles and lightly fold in a couple times. Again, do not over mix.

4) Spoon in the batter to liners and bake for about 20 minutes, or until your tester comes out clean. Set out to cool before icing.

I decorated the funfetti cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Icing. I thought about exploring with a raspberry flavoured icing, but figured with the funfetti, perhaps simple was better. I made the icing swirl with Wilton’s 1M tip. If you put a dot of icing in the middle of the cupcake, then swirl starting around the outside, you will get a beautiful, classic icing swirl on your cupcakes.

To personalize London’s cupcakes, I used a small circle cutter to cut out fondant and cut out the letter the night before. Set the fondant out to dry out for a couple of hours. Place on top of the cupcake just prior to serving.

This cute little cake stand was a gift from Gretchen for my birthday! Thanks. It is so perfect for staging shots. It originally came with a blue ribbon, but I swapped it out for pink to match this shoot.

Photo experimenting!

On to the party!

London and I. I'm a little bit stunned in this picture! Perhaps it is because baby showers involve games. Ugh. I played though!

Here’s proof that me, I, myself actually held a baby! She is so cute. Congratulations Janine and Tyler.

You have a beautiful new baby daughter.

Filed Under: Cookies, Cupcakes Tagged With: baby shower cookies, baby shower cupcakes, funfetti, vanilla buttercream

Champagne Cupcakes

January 2, 2011 by Jenn

As you might have read in yesterday’s post, I declared this year my Champagne birthday celebration. So what does one do when it’s their champagne birthday? They bake cupcakes!

Champagne Cupcakes

For the cake part, you can use any flavour of cake mix that you would like to (I used French Vanilla) and substitute the water amount with champagne. As always, read ALL (hmmm, is that a shot at myself?) of the directions before you start…especially for the filling, as there are a number of different steps.

Cupcake:

1 box of white cake mix

1 1/4 cups of champagne

3 eggs

Bake cake as according to the directions on the back of the box . . . or as how your favourite recipe suggests.

Filling:

adapted from Sprinkle Bakes

1/2 cup half and half, divided (original recipe calls for heavy cream, but I only had this, and it turned out fine)

1/2 cup champagne

2 tbsp cornstarch

5 tbsp granulated sugar

1 whole egg

2 egg yolks

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla

In a medium bowl, whisk cornstarch in 1/4 cup of cream. Combine the remaining cream, sugar and 1/2 cup champagne in a saucepan; bring to a boil then remove from heat.

Beat the whole egg and egg yolks into the cornstarch/heavy cream mixture. Pour 1/3 of boiling champagne mixture into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so the eggs do not cook. Return the remaining champagne/cream mixture to a boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, whisking constantly until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla. It will seems like it is never going to thicken, then BAM all of a sudden, you have filling!

Cut a divot into the top of each cupcake and fill with pastry cream.

Trim the cut-out cake pieces flat to make a “lid” . . .

. . . and place on top of the filled divot.

Frosting:

adapted from Homemade by Holman

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3-4 cups powdered sugar

3 Tbsp champagne

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter on medium high speed until smooth and fluffy. Add vanilla extract and about three cups of powdered sugar. Mix on low speed to ensure you don’t get covered in icing sugar! Add in champagne and mix on low to incorporate. Increase speed to medium and beat about one minute to whip frosting. I needed to add an extra TBSP of champagne to the icing to get the correct consistency.

Frost cooled cupcakes as desired. I used Wilton white candy pearls, and put each one on it’s place with tweezers! Labour intensive, but worth it for the look. Elegant and tasty.

Filed Under: Cupcakes Tagged With: birthday, champagne, champagne cupcakes, cupcakes

Coconut Cream Cupcakes and Week 3- Wilton Decorating Class

Jenn’s Custom Cakery Business Card Debut

My New Bakery!

Giant Filled Birthday Cupcake

Birthday Princess Cupcakes

Cosmopolitan Cupcakes

Baby Shower Cupcakes and Cookies

Champagne Cupcakes

Happiness is Homemade

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