Day 30: Chocolate Chocolate, again

Also, for that birthday I went to I made chocolate chocolate cupcakes with the same Sour Cream Chocolate Frosting that I've used a few times recently.  I made so much of that damn frosting.  Triple recipe is way too much.  I'm going to be eating that damn frosting for a very long time.

Chocolate Cupcakes (I omitted the chocolate chips)
Go read the rest of that blog post.  The better than sex chocolate cupcakes noms noms.

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
• 1-1/4 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoons vanilla
• 2/3 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Beat butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well combined. Measure the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder into a small sized bowl and whisk to combine. Measure out the milk and vanilla and stir to combine. Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar and beat to combine. Add about a half of the milk/vanilla and beat to combine. Continue adding, alternating between dry and wet and finishing with the dry. Stir in chocolate chips. Scoop batter into cupcake cups about 1/2 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 22-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. 

Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting Recipe

Day 28: French Toast Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream and Candied Bacon

I recently discovered the IRON Cupcake Challenge! here in San Francisco.  This month's challenge: Bacon.  I signed up too late to officially participate, but I was so inspired that I felt the need to make something anyway.  I'm going to need to sign up early next month.


I was torn between this and a Potatoe Cupcake with Sourcream Frosting and Candied Bacon (thank you Kate for the idea!).  Next time I'll expirment with the vegetable based cupcake.  This time around, I worked on consistancy and presentation.  

The cupcakes are so good.  Candied bacon is going to go on everything now.  I walked around San Francisco with these cupcakes for half a day with these cupcakes and I got so many ooh's and aah's.  One person even mentioned selling them at a coffee shop.  Please note my extremely excited husband.








French Toast Cupcakes
Originally adapted from 125 Best Cupcake Recipes by Julie Hasson.  I got this from The Busty Baker.
Makes 14 (I only got ll)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and then cooled
2 eggs
1 tsp maple extract
1/2 cup milk
10-12 slices bacon

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line baking pan with paper liners.

2. Make Candied Bacon (See below for recipe)

3. In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

4. In a large bowl, whisk together butter, sugar and eggs until smooth. Whisk in maple extract. Alternately whisk in flour mixture and milk, making three additions of flour mix and two of milk, beating until smooth. Fold in small bacon pieces. Mix until evenly distributed throughout batter.

5. Scoop batter into prepared pan and bake 20-25 minutes until golden brown and tops spring back when lightly touched. Let cool in pan on a rack for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely.

---

Maple Buttercream
Originally adapted from 125 Best Cupcake Recipes by Julie Hasson.  I got it from The Busty Baker.
Makes enough to frost 2 dozen cupcakes

2 cups confectioner's sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup (I used some pure Maple syrup made right here in Ohio!)
1/2 teaspoon maple extract
Pinch of salt

1. In a bowl with an electric mixer, beat butter until light and fluffy. Add maple syrup, maple extract, and salt, and beat until well combined. Add confectioner's sugar, half cup at a time, and beat until smooth and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

2. Frost or pipe onto cooled cupcakes. Top with inch-long bacon pieces.

---

Candied Bacon
Originally published in Gourmet, February 2007.  I got the recipe from Epicurious.

• 1/2 lb bacon slices (10 slices)
• 1/2 cup Demerara sugar (I used raw brown sugar)

• Special equipment: brown paper such as a grocery bag or butcher paper

Cook bacon in 2 batches in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat, turning over once, until bacon is lightly browned on edges but still flexible, 5 to 6 minutes total per batch. Transfer bacon as cooked to paper towels to drain.
Pour off fat from skillet and arrange bacon in skillet in 1 layer. Sprinkle Demerara sugar over bacon and cook over low heat, turning occasionally with tongs, until sugar is dissolved, caramelized (sugar melts very slowly and burns easily; reduce heat if necessary after sugar begins to caramelize), and coats bacon, 8 to 10 minutes. (Bacon will be dark and look lacquered.) Transfer bacon with tongs to brown paper to cool.

Cooks' notes: 

·Don't be tempted to transfer bacon to paper towels to drain — the sugar will make the bacon stick to them.
·Bacon can be made 1 day ahead and kept in an airtight container at room temperature, but it will become less crisp.
·Before cleaning skillet, add a few inches of water to it, then add tongs and boil to dissolve hardened sugar from pan and tongs.

Side Note: Big shout out to Mama Bear, for the lovely outfit (as seen above) and the frosting bags to make my cupcakes so pretty. xoxoxo

Day 25: A Femivores Delima

Before reading this article in the New York Times, I had never heard of the word 'Femivore'.

Over the last few years, I've gotten really into food.  I've always love food and cooking (I'm a fat kid at heart), but it didn't go beyond that.  Then I started reading Michael Pollan and everything changed a little.  I starting thinking about the food about me in a different way for the first time.  You mean, a Fruit Roll-Up isn't food?  Well, no, I guess it's not.  It's 'food product' dressed up as a fun, on the go treat for children.  You mean that food companies don't care about our health? You mean they want to confuse us about what's good for us so that we buy more of their product and believe what they say is healthy? Their bottom dollar is what's most important to them? Shit.  It's been a sad epiphany.

Since then I've read quite a few books on food and the food industry. Personally have been trying to cut out all food with ingredients that I don't understand, products that have blatant toxins in them (parabens or Bisphenol A, anyone?), and trying to purchase foods locally where possible.  I like to think food is my little way to be political. 

In the article Peggy Orenstein says, "Femivorism is grounded in the very principles of self-sufficiency, autonomy and personal fulfillment that drove women into the work force in the first place. Given how conscious (not to say obsessive) everyone has become about the source of their food — who these days can’t wax poetic about compost? — it also confers instant legitimacy. Rather than embodying the limits of one movement, femivores expand those of another: feeding their families clean, flavorful food; reducing their carbon footprints; producing sustainably instead of consuming rampantly. What could be more vital, more gratifying, more morally defensible?"

Upon reflection, I like the word Femivore, and although I think I might be embarrassed to admit it in a conversation, it's a word that fits me.

Day 23: Rum Soaked Pumpkin Pie Spice Cupcakes with Caramel Buttercream

First of all: on the business front I have made (some) progress on my business plan, it's slow going.  If anyone has any tips on the cost calculations, that would be a HUGE help.  It's very daunting.

Second of all: I've put up an ad on Craigslist and am in the process of trying to vend at the next Underground Farmer's Market and the upcoming Bicycle Music Festival.  Wish me luck, and feel free to contact me if you need any cupcakes!

This weekend I was seeking inspiration for cupcakes and found myself staring into the liquor cabinet.  I had my pick to the liquor that we don't like very much: rum or brandy.  After a long deliberation and a brief internet search, I went with the rum.

I adapted this recipe from Vanilla Garlic.  I was too poor to go purchase more cupcake supplies, so I worked with what was on hand.  It was kind of an exercise in minimalism.  First of all, I only had enough cupcake liners for 5 cakes. So I non-stick sprayed the rest of the cups, thinking it was no big deal.

I pulled these from the oven, and burst out laughing.

They had become craters!  My best guess on what happened: This was a low flour recipe that I added an extra 1.5 tablespoons of rum to for extra rum-y goodness.  This made flour ratio it too low, which made them fall/crash into this shape.  So I've increased the flour in the recipe below.  Even though they looked terrible, they tasted great.  Pumpkin pie spice makes everything better.

I was planning on making an effort for attractive finished looking cupcakes on this batch, but with their decidedly concave shape, I skipped it.

Rum Soaked Pumpkin Pie Spice Cupcakes
adapted from Gourmet - makes 12

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
pinch of salt
6 tablespoons of butter, room temperature
1/2 cup of sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 tablespoons of spiced rum (break out the Captain Morgan)
1/2 cup whole milk

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Put cupcake papers in a muffin tin.

2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and salt in a bowl and set aside.

3. Beat the butter and sugar together for a few minutes in high until light and fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla and rum and beat for another minute or two.

4. Add the flour mixture and milk alternatively in batches, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and mixing until just combined.

5. Divide batter among cupcake cups. bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. When cooled brush with rum. Allow it to absorb for 10 minutes. Brush again with second coat of rum. When the rum is absorbed frost the cupcakes.

Caramel Swirl Buttercream
1 1/2 sticks of butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoons vanilla
Caramel Sauce ( I had some left over from a Christmas gift,  check here for recipe that looks pretty good)

1. Beat the butter until fluffy, about 5 minutes, slowly ad the powered sugar, beat until fluffy and combined.  Fold in the vanilla.

2. Fold in the caramel sauce until buttercream is swirled with caramel.

( I was lazy, and put some caramel on the cupcakes, then tossed some buttercream on top.  Tasted just as good, although not nearly as beautiful as they could have been.)

Day 19: Pursuing the Illusive Business Plan

Today I'm home sick, can't work the phones with a sore throat.  I'm abstaining from cartoons for the day (although I can hear them longingly calling my name..) and working diligently on my Cupcakery business plan.

If you google 'Business Plan' you come up with 177,000,000 results.  It can definitely feel overwhelming.  I just wanted to share bakery specific resource with anyone trying tackle this massive task.

The Funky Brick Bakery in Cincinnati Ohio, in the name of transparency, published their business plan with a video blog.  Their videos are really interesting and it's (so!) nice to be able to read a finished business plan in these beginning stages.  Thanks guys!

Good Luck!

Day 17: Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

In honor of my obscure Irish roots and St Patricks Day, a few weeks ago I started searching for Guinness cake.  A friend had sent me a recipe for Guinness cupcakes a some time ago, which looked like a really interesting recipe (flour in the frosting? crazytalk!), but I lost it.  I'm going to keep seeking and hopefully I'll be able to contrast it someday with this recipe.

I went searching into the wide world of google and I came upon a recipe for using the holy trifecta of Guiness, Jameson, and Baileys.  It was so amazing I began to salivate as I was reading it.  Side Note: There are such great blogs on food out there.  Every time I go recipe exploring I am consistently humbled, and a little intimidated, by the amazingly passionate food blogs around the web.   I can only hope that someday this blog will be so well rounded.  I just have to remember the goals: learn to bake (better), learn to run a business, put them together into a job that makes me happy, or at least happier.  Everyone must start somewhere, and I'm starting here.

Back to the point, things I learned in this recipe: the apple corer, as suggested, would be much better way to make room for the ganache than the 'cut a shallow divot off the top' method that I employed.  My cupcakes are not structurally sound.  Also, don't let your husband's phone be your timer if he's about the leave the house.  I ended with slightly singed cupcakes.  Despite these handicaps, these tiny imitation drinks are mind blowing.  I am thoroughly impressed with the soft fluffy cake, luscious whiskey ganache, and the strong flavor of the Bailey's Buttercream frosting.  I'm currently restraining myself from getting up and having another: Mouth! Stop watering!

Recipe taken from this post with Confessions of a Tart, but it was originally posted here with Smitten Kitchen.  Please view those blogs for great commentary and much better pictures than I was able to come up with.

Chocolate Whiskey and Beer Cupcakes (aka. The Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes)
Makes 20 to 24 cupcakes

For the Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes

1 cup stout (such as Guinness)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Jameson Ganache Filling
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 to 2 teaspoons Irish whiskey (optional)

Baileys Frosting (see Recipe Notes)
3 to 4 cups confections sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 to 4 tablespoons Baileys (or milk, or heavy cream, or a combination thereof)

Make the cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners.

Put the butter with the beer in a sauce pan over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Whisk in cocoa powder until smooth. Cool slightly.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. In a mixer bowl, beat the eggas and the sour cream together. Add the beer/butter/cocoa mixture and beat to combine. Add the flour mixture and beat briefly just to combine. Using a rubbet spatula, fold the batter until completely combined, making sure to incorporate little pockets of flour on the bottom so that the batter is of equal consistency everywhere.

Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 of the way if you want flatter cupcakes and 3/4 if you want domed. Bake for about 17 minutes, or until a toothpick or a slim knife inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool completely to room temperature.

Make the filling: Chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then stir until smooth. Add the butter and whiskey (if you’re using it) and stir until combined.

Fill the cupcakes: Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped. Using your 1-inch round cookie cutter or an apple corer, cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes. I went about half to 2/3 of the way down and used a small knife to help me extract the centers. Put the ganache into a piping bag with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top.

Make the frosting: In a large mixer bowl, whip the butter for several minutes until very light and fluffly. Slowly add the powdered sugar, letting it incorporate, utnil the butter becomes thicker and stiff (you will know when this happens). Slowly drizzle the Bailey's (or milk or cream or a combination thereof) and whip until combined. Ice and decorate the cupcakes.

Deb of Smitten Kitchen says that you can make these in advance: "You can bake the cupcakes a week or two in advance and store them, well wrapped, in the freezer. You can also fill them before you freeze them. They also keep filled — or filled and frosted — in the fridge for a day. (Longer, they will start to get stale.)"

Day 16: The Queen of Hearts

It has been a little while since I've posted.  The reason for the small hiatus: cash flow.  I'm taking up this new hobby partially because I love baking, but also because it's much less expensive than some alternatives (ahem, going out, anywhere).

This week was a friend's birthday and I decided to make her a cake.  I figured that it was a great excuse to experiment with fondant.  I have been perusing recipes for some time, but many of them have not easily obtained ingredients.  I  haven't been able to find glycerin, so I went on a search for a non-glycerin recipe.  I had a choice between a marshmallow base, or a 'normal' base.  I went with 'normal'.  Don't go with the normal.  Bad choice.  It crumbled and broke.  It had no elasticity and I couldn't even lift it without it breaking.  It's not at all the supple, glossy wrapping for a cake.  Long story short, don't skimp on the ingredients.  Next to try: marshmallow fondant, and trying to find glycerin.

The sour creamchocolate frosting was great, like last time, but I didn't get a chance to taste the cake, so I can't vouch for it's tastiness. 

Hurray for my first tiered cake!

Fondant Recipe from Yahoo Answers
INGREDIENTS
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup shortening
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
2 pounds confectioners' sugar
DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, stir together the shortening and corn syrup. Mix in the salt and vanilla flavoring, then gradually mix in the confectioners' sugar until it is a stiff dough. If you are using a stand mixer, use the dough hook attachment. Otherwise, knead by hand. If the dough is sticky, knead in more confectioners' sugar until it is smooth. Store in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator.
To use, roll out on a clean surface that has been dusted with confectioners' sugar until it is 1/8 inch thick or thinner if you can. Drape over frosted and chilled cakes and smooth the sides down, or cut into strips to make bows and other decorations.


White Cake from AllRecipes.com

Ingredients

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.

 Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting
 See this post for the recipe

 

Day 9: Failure

I made awful cupcakes today.  I was kind of in a bad mood and so I just whipped together some ingredients, based on what I remembered from recipes and what I had on hand.  The cake was made using flour and corn meal, then I added the juice of an orange and a bunch of orange zest.  Orange does not come out as well as lemon.  They almost tasted like fake orange flavoring, which is odd.  I think it was the zest, the flavor was not quite, but definitely on its way to being bitter.  With too much corn meal it ended up being like a cornbread that a cake.

Other mistakes: Too much batter in each cup so it overflowed the cup in baking.  The cake wasn't puffy either.  They weren't nice and round and puffy in the middle, like happy convex little arches.  They caved in to be lower in the center than on the edges.  I'm not sure if it was the recipe or the amount of batter that contributed to the cake 'falling'.  As for frosting, I wanted to make a super fine chocolate chip buttercream.  I ended up grating the chocolate way too finely, so the frosting kind of looks dirty.

Mistakes are as important as successes.  What I learned today is that my pre-cooking research is very important.  If I were to do it again, I think it would be a chocolate orange cake instead with some sort of tangy citrus frosting (lime? It's what comes to mind)

Remember: be creative and learn from your mistakes.  I might have made nasty cupcakes, but I certainly felt better after! ^_^

Day 7: Cooking Class and the Underground Farmers Market

I was lucky enough to snag a seat at a free cooking workshops thrown by the Art Institute of California. (Read about it in the SF Gate)  I'm sure it's a fishing scheme to try to snag wide eyed home cooks into going to school there, and I'm quite sure that I will wish to be snagged.  I think that it would be really great to go back to school for something I love as much as cooking.  Unfortunately I've grown a practical side and it would be hard to swallow that much (more) debt.

After I get out of that in the evening, I'm going to be heading over to the Underground Farmers Market.  It's a market for the cottage industry and home cooked foods from all over the Bay Area.  Overall, I really support this movement, probably because I have one foot in the door of participating in it.  The whole movement, along with CSA's (Mine is Terra Firma Farms) and other non-traditional direct-to-consumer food distribution schemes is a great way to support my local economy in creative ways.  I love giving my money to people that I've met, face to face, for products that are worth every penny.

See you there!

Day 6: Drunken Lemon Cupcakes with Champagne Buttercream

 The biggest realization I had with this recipe was: I have no interest in eating as many cupcakes as I'm making.  This was the first batch that after I had one and even though it was fantastic, I couldn't stomach another.  That's a good thing for my waistline.  It's also a bad thing, because now I have to start finding people who want my confections regularly.  Any takers?  Cupcakes for a minimum donation to cover costs? ^_^

In process pics of my messy kitchen:

 

 

This lemon cake is AMAZING.  It outshone the frosting to the point that you almost wanted to wipe the frosting off, and just have the delightfully tangy cake.  Really moist and fluffy.  Make sure to really beat the crap out of the butter, so your batter is light.  I bought the cheapest champagne at my corner store, which leads me to my second favorite thing about this recipe: you get to drink all the champagne afterward.  I don't know if I could think of a better night than one consisting of fancy cupcakes and champagne.
The champagne buttercream was just ok.  It didn't taste like champagne, it just tasted like butter.  Just like a lot of different types buttercream just end up tasting like butter.  I'm thinking of experimenting with coconut oil/vegan frostings, to see if I can get some variety of taste in the cupcakes. Also of experimenting with different liquor flavorings.

Drunken Lemon Cupcakes Cupcakes:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 eggs 
1(8-ounce) cartons dairy sour cream
1/3 cup chamagne
 juice of 1 lemon
zest if 2 lemons

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Fill a standard muffin tin with about 14 paper liners.  Combine first four dry ingreedients, mix. Beat butter, sugar, vanilla, and egg until combined and moderately fluffy.  Begin to ad dry mix, alternating with sour cream, alternate 3 times.  Batter will be very thick.  Fold in champagne and lemon juice.  Fold in zest.  Fill paper liners 3/4 full with batter.  Bake for 19 to 30 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Champagne Buttercream
1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
2 cups powder sugar
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup champagne
pinch salt

Whip ingreedients on high until they become light and will hold peaks, about 5-7 min.  Add more powdered sugar or champagne as necessary to get the right.

Day 4: Vanilla Vanilla Cupcakes

Another recipe from the Cupcakes book.
The conundrum: vanilla vanilla.  Classic, and boring.
I really liked this cake.  It's a really nice brand of vanilla.  I'd kind of like to substitute some other type of flour, like some cake flour with a bit of corn meal, just to make an interesting flavor/texture.  This, however, is a wonderful basic vanilla cake recipe. 

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes

• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 1 large egg white, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup whole milk

For the buttercream frosting

• 3 large egg whites, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• Pinch salt
• 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature, cut into 16 pieces
• Seeds from 1/2 vanilla bean
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Colored decorating sugars or nonpareils, for garnish (optional)

Directions:

For the cupcakes: Position a rack in the middle of the oven; preheat to 350 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper or foil cupcake liners.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer or hand-held electric mixer; beat on medium-high speed for 2 to 3 minutes, until light and fluffy.
Reduce the speed to low; add the egg and egg white separately, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and beat on low speed to incorporate. Stop to scrape down the bowl as needed.
Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, beating on low speed until just combined and alternating with several additions of milk; scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat for about 30 seconds or just until no traces of flour remain. Do not overbeat.
Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake liners, filling each about three-fourths full. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until they are lightly golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then transfer the cupcakes to the wire rack and cool for 1 hour.
For the buttercream frosting: Combine the egg whites and sugar in a large heatproof bowl. Set the bowl over (but not touching) an inch or two of water in a large saucepan over medium heat.
Heat the mixture for about 2 minutes, whisking constantly, until the sugar has completely dissolved and the mixture is very warm to the touch (about 160 degrees on an instant-read thermometer). Remove the bowl from the saucepan.
Transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer or use a hand-held electric mixer to beat the egg white mixture on high speed for 6 minutes, until it is fluffy, has cooled to room temperature and holds stiff peaks. The mixture should not look dry.
Reduce the speed to medium-low; add the salt and then the butter, a few pieces at a time, beating well after each addition. If the frosting appears to separate or is very liquid after all the butter is added, increase the speed to high and beat for 3 to 5 minutes, until the frosting is smooth and creamy. Add the vanilla bean seeds and vanilla extract; beat until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Use right away.
Frost the cupcakes with the buttercream. Garnish the cupcakes with the colored sugars or nonpareils, if using.

Day 2: Chocolate Vanilla Cupcakes

I've been working with the book Cupcakes by Shelly Kaldunski.  I really like this book because it has a wide variety of recipes that use a lot of different techniques and each recipe is geared for a relatively small batch of 12 cupcakes.  Not sure it's the highest quality baking cook book I've ever seen, but it's a good place to start. 

These turned out really really good.  The cake was rich, moist and fluffy.  The contrast (I wanted to use the word juxtaposition, but I restrained myself.  You're welcome.) between the cake and the buttercream is wonderful.  I really love buttercream, but there's something about it that makes my stomach hurt.  Maybe it's because this type of frosting is more or less just whipped butter.  I need to find a way to make a frosting that's noms-o-licious, but not so very heavy.  I mean, really, two sticks of butter?  It's like a fancy way to dip a stick of butter in sugar and lick it like a Popsicle.  I'm not sure if that sounds like a dream come true, or if it makes me vomit a little in my mouth. Probably both

Also, if you try to make buttercream and your butter is too cold, it looks nasty, like this:

Just keep mixing and it will all work out.

Chocolate Cupcakes
2/3 cup all purpose flour
2 1/2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup plus 3 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350F.  Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper or foil liners.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.  Place the chocolate and the butter in a large heatproof bowl and set over (but not touching) simmering water in saucepan; stir frequently until melted and smooth, about 5 minutes.  Remove the bowl from the saucepan let the mixture cool to room temperaure, 10-15 min.

Using a wooden spoon, stir the sugar into the chocolate mixture until combined.  Stir in the eggs one at a time, beating until combined after each addition, and then beat in the vanilla.  gently fold in the four mixture just until no traces of flour remain, do not overmix.

Divide the batter evenly amont the perpared muffin cups, filling each about three-fourths full.  Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, 22-24 min. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 min.  Transfer the cupcakes to the wire rack and let cool completely, about 1 hour. 

Vanilla Buttercream
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
pinch salt
1 cup unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
In a large, clean heatproof bowl, combine the egg whites and sugar.  Set the bowl over (but not touching) simmering water in a saucepan and heat the mixture, whisking constantly, until the sugar has copletely dissolved and the mixture is very warm to the touch ( about 160F on a ninstant- read thermometer), about 3 minutes.  remove the bowl from the saucepan.  Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat the egg white misture unitl it is fluffy, cooled to room temterature, and holds stiff peaks (the mixture should not look dry), about 6 min.

With the mixer on medium low speed, add the salt and the butter, a few pieces at a time, beating well after each addition.  If the frosting appears to separate or is very liquid after all the butter is added, continue to beat on high speed until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.  Add Vanilla, and beat until combined.  Use right away.

Tomorrow's Challenge: Lemon Somethings.  ^_^