Best vanilla cupcake? (and a birthday!)

I have a couple of chocolate cake/cupcake recipes that I'm very happy with, but I'm still on a quest for an ideal vanilla cupcake. I don't know what it is exactly that makes this a difficult search, but somehow, I have yet to find a perfect vanilla cupcake recipe. They're always either too dry, or too sweet, and above all, not vanilla-ey enough. And it's not as simple as doubling the amount of vanilla extract, either (then it's too one-dimensional). I should probably try getting some vanilla beans and see if that makes a difference (although that would make vanilla cupcakes rather expensive, sigh). Anyway, the latest recipe on the testing block is from Martha Stewart and I picked it because it calls for sour cream, which I figured would take care of the dryness problem (and also because I had bought some for potato salad). It was in fact a nice, moist cupcake with a good rise, and it was really good right out of the oven. I'm not as crazy about the texture after it cools though. To be fair, we are having a cold snap here, and I cooled the cupcakes on my windowsill, which is probably close to freezing point (my windows have actually frozen over! Brrr.) so I'm sure that didn't help the texture! Anyway, it's a decent cake, but the search continues.


The frosting is my old standby from King Arthur Flour (you can find the recipe here) and is my all time favorite (and I'm not even a big frosting fan!). Plus, it's made with cocoa, which I always have on hand. And since these were for a birthday, I decided to forgo my usual restraint (haha) and showered them with sprinkles.


Here's the birthday girl! We used to work together and now that I'm working elsewhere, I don't see her as often as I used to, but we had a fun time catching up (and I got to see her adorable kids and chat with her husband). I wish I had thought to bring my actual camera with me, but this crappy phone image will have to suffice--please pay special attention to her awesome gingerbread house which has lighting! And windows made out of butterscotch candies. I think the inhabitants were My Little Ponys, but they must have been out when I visited. Oh, and that blur in the corner is her younger kiddo, who was starting to resemble a Na'avi when I left. Heehee.

Anyway, I hope she had a good birthday, and we have plans to go to Dinosaur BBQ soon, woohoo!

And finally, a request--does anyone have a vanilla cupcake recipe they love? Please send it to me!

saying goodbye, saying hello

So, the news I've been sitting on for a month? I'm leaving my job! Today is my very last day, and I find myself with mixed emotions--I'm happy to be moving on, but I'm sad to be leaving some very fine coworkers who have become good friends. How do I tell them that I'm going to miss them dreadfully?


Well, since I have a reputation as a, ahem, not very emotional, mostly crabby person to protect, I say it with cake (mini cupcakes, naturally). And they know me well, so I think they will understand what I mean when I leave these in the pantry with a note that says "Eat eat eat! Thanks for everything. P.S. Please leave the boxes, I need them."


Strawberry lemon on the left, good old Guinness on the right
Dear coworkers--seriously, thanks for everything. You've dealt with my meltdowns, my moods, my silly moments (okay, I know sometimes I have laughing fits and can't stop! It's because you're all really funny!), my obsession with that falafel sandwich place (I'm sorry I made you eat there 3 times in one week), my insistence on showing you the Maru and Meat and Cheese videos 800 times, my attempts at organizing bowling/karaoke/bar night/dinner, my papercrafting, my bitching, moaning and complaining. You are all saints. Please keep in touch. Best wishes to each and everyone of you. Thanks for coming out last night to celebrate with me. Because you are my friends, I know you won't use any of my drunken babblings against me ;)


The monkeys! They keep following me!!
(And after I clean out my desk I'm off to Vancouver for two weeks where I will decompress, take a lot of photos, eat a lot of seafood, and maybe even write a blog post or two. And then I'll say hello to my new job.)

Cupcakery Indeed

And the celebrations keep on keepin' on! (Which is why I have not been blogging. Or at least, that's my excuse ;)) Last week was my friend's birthday (on Friday the 13th no less) but since we were all swamped, we celebrated with dinner on the following Wednesday at the Maple Garden Peking Duck Restaurant (one of our two standby dining places for girls' nights out--maybe we need to branch out. But it's so gooood!!!!) Let me just say, we in the girls club are all Asian, so you can rest assured that there is never any shortage of food (or any lack of putting food on each other's plates). Despite that (and knowing that they would be providing us with complimentary ice cream), I held firm to my belief that a birthday is not a birthday unless there is cake. And since I still had 4 bottles of Guinness left from my coworker's birthday, it seemed only natural and frugal of me to make some more Guinness cupcakes.


But before we got to the desserts, we had an entire duck (naturally, since this is a Peking duck restaurant!), followed by a plate of stir-fried crabs (not on the menu and something we get special--it's good to be regulars), then followed by rice, greens, and one of my favorite things of all time, jiao yian pai gu. In English, that translates to salt & pepper pork chops, but we call them Crack Chops because they are SO DARNED ADDICTIVE. I can't figure out how they do it, and I don't care, as long as I get to eat them.


Finally, it was dessert time, and I hauled out my box of mini Guinness cupcakes (because they are so tiny, I had to core out the center to make room for the ganache with one of my small piping tips. Do you know how hard it is to get cake crumbs out of a piping tip?!). Then the birthday girl presented a box of macarons made at her cafe--but wait, there was even more! She even brought along brownies and a couple of slabs of cake, and that was when the waiter showed up with our dish of ice cream (and obligatory fortune cookies and orange slices). At this point, we were all groaning and holding our bellies, but I took a break by taking some photos. You can kind of see in that macaron photo that the left side of the photo is somewhat brighter--that's because my dear friend was trying to assist me by using her Blackberry's screen as a light. We were definitely getting some funny looks from the adjacent table (who had already been staring at us, probably because we demolished so much food. Or was it because we were laughing like hyenas?)

I discovered that I have a second stomach for ice cream. And my fortune? "You should be able to undertake and complete anything." (Obviously they were talking about dinner!) (Although I ended up toting home more food than I had brought, including macarons, one leftover cupcake, a brownie, a slice of red velvet cake, and the duck bones, which are currently simmering away for soup!)


And as soon as I got home, I was back in baking mode, for my coworker's birthday. I had emailed her sister to ask what her favorite cake flavor was; the response was "I don't know about cake, but she likes tiramisu." Well okay then! I went with tiramisu cupcakes. I didn't actually eat any of these, but did taste the mascarpone filling--yum. I guess you can't really go wrong with mascarpone, alcohol, coffee, and sugar.


And here is your bonus shot, a tiramisu cupcake next to a tiny Guinness cupcake. A still life representing happiness and joy.

My Apartment is now a Cupcakery

Whew, did I say that May was a big birthday month? I think I am wrong--I think there are way more birthdays in August to be celebrated. It started in the beginning of the month with my cube-neighbor, who, poor guy, has had to put up with me for way too long. Although, funny story (I really hope he never reads this)--he has this tendency to fall asleep at work (sleep apnea, he says) and for the 4 years that I've worked with him, I've tried and tried to get a photo of him asleep (he sleeps totally upright, one hand on the keyboard, one on the mouse, like he's just REALLY deep in thought) and every single time I whip out the camera, he wakes up. EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Anyway, that was kind of a digression, wasn't it? What I was going to say is, the man loves his beer. And so, what could be more appropriate than beer cupcakes? (Well, maybe I could have just gotten him a case of beer, but where's the fun in that?) And so I was googling away (at work, shhh) and came across this brilliant recipe for Guinness cupcakes over at Smitten Kitchen. They seem so over the top--Guinness in the cupcakes, Baileys in the frosting, whiskey in the ganache filling...perfect!


I resisted the urge to make these super girly with pink sugar. See, I am considerate. Chocolate shavings are slightly more manly! Anyway, I waffled a bit about actually filling the cupcakes because the cakes themselves are so moist that I thought it would be too much. In the end, I stuck with the recipe, but omitted the whiskey. It did make it insanely indulgent and rich, but hey, it's a birthday! And the frosting--holy yum.


Over the weekend, I made a batch of mini buttermilk cupcakes for my friend's cafe--is there anything more cheery than a pile of mini cupcakes in the afternoon sunlight?


Okay, how about a chocolate frosted mini cupcake? AREN'T THEY CUTE??? I know I'm a sucker for all things small and mini, but dang, these are especially cute. I hope they went over well! (By the way, in case you are interested, a standard sized cake recipe makes 81 mini cupcakes. 81 PEOPLE!!)


And last, but not least, Mamegoma wants to wish a belated happy birthday to bento blogging buddy Bentobird! (Mamegoma picked out the sugar flower on this one ;)).

It's Birthday Season

Whew, what a busy weekend! Go go go up until today, when I just ran out of steam. I did spend a couple of hours wrapping dumplings. But, that's not the subject of today's post! Today, we talk about birthday cupcakes! I don't know why, but I feel like there are sooooo many birthdays to celebrate in May (including mine!). Seriously, there are at least 3 of my friends who have birthdays this week, and the rest of the month is pretty much like that too. Better exercise more to make up for the birthday dinners I'll be eating.


First up is L! It's a big birthday for her this year, and although I'm sad I missed her surprise party, at least I could send cupcakes along. (And, for your information, Mr. Party Planner, yellow cake + chocolate frosting does NOT equal chocolate cake! But, I'll forgive you since you also don't know what a grapefruit is ;).) I hear they went over well, which makes me happy; I was really worried that the buttercream would melt in transit (Saturday being the first really hot day we've had this year.) I had one leftover (that wouldn't fit in the cakebox) that I ate for breakfast this morning--yum, love this chocolate frosting. The cake is a yellow buttermilk cake from the Joy of Cooking, and the frosting is a simple chocolate buttercream from King Arthur. Not too sweet, very chocolatey. Yummy.


I'm not much of a decorator, but I can manage to pipe frosting neatly (most of the time). And hey, what is more cheerful than nonpareils? Or sugar flower sprinkles? Simple, but cute, right? And a variation from my usual sugar star sprinkles. (I can't find my jar of sugar stars! Where did it goooooo?)

Anyhow, happy birthday to L and all the other May babies in advance!

Happy Birthday Fat Bob

Well, I had Part 3 of my Hong Kong trip drafted and ready to go, but it is being pre-empted by something far more important, someone who shaped my teenage years and taught me (at various stages of my life), how to look tragic, how to put on makeup, and most importantly, how to recognize good music.

Yeah, that's right--happy birthday Robert Smith! May you live a long life! I'm sorry I piped your face on kind of wonky and that this doesn't reeeeeaaally look like you. Although, I think the hair is kind of cool?! And Disintegration was the best album ever!!!

I leave you with apt lyrics:

Cake icing and decorating set
Special offer
Only 3 pound 30
Save 1 pound 52 on recommended retail price
Give your cakes and pies a professional look
With this superb
Decorating set

I'm not meant to be here
But so what?
And nobody's
Nobody's taken your place
Nobody's taken your place

Each set includes
A turntable
A nine inch icing bag
With six high definition nozzles and adaptor
With a fifteen inch food decorating bag
With three piping nozzles
Please send off this leaflet
Post it today

And if you knew
Nothing could replace you
If you were sane
Your heart wouldn't ache
But so what?
So what?
So what?

Order now
Allow twenty one days
For deliver
This offer closes
31st December 1979

British sugar bureau
When I told you what I
And I

And I wouldn't ask you to pretend
That we were one
And still another time
Forget all the lies forgive me the wounds
And all the world was used to love
And yes we'd still be happy in another time
But so what?
So what?

So please send me icing and decorating sets
I enclose a cheque and postal order number

So what?
So what?

Chocolate-chocolate Cupcakes

Birthday baking is the best kind of baking, in my opinion. But maybe I like it because it gives me an excuse to make something? At any rate--yay birthdays!


Sugar star sprinkles may not be as elegant as silver dragees or sugar pearls, but they are undeniably festive looking and colorful! I feel a bit more cheerful just looking at this photo. This was my first time making the chocolate-chocolate cupcakes from Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home To Yours (my go-to!). I'm on a bit of a hunt for the perfect chocolate cupcake recipe, and the problem lies in the fact that I want something that is light but not spongy. Most recipes I've tried either fall into the very airy or the dense (like poundcake) camps. So far, the frontrunner is still the Old Fashioned Chocolate Cupcake recipe from Chockylit's Cupcake Bakeshop. But I have to give these a second try. Do you want to see what the frosting is hiding?


Is weird looking, right? Kind of like an all chocolate version of the popular self-frosting nutella cupcake? That is because I am a dummy! The recipe calls for both cocoa and melted chocolate in the batter, so I dutifully melted some nice 70% chocolate and left it on the counter to cool...where it stayed until I had already put the tray of cupcakes in the oven. Frickinfrackin!#$!!#$!#%!# So I tried to stir the chocolate into the already portioned cupcakes--unsuccessfully as you can see. But actually the cupcakes were pretty good, even with the screw up, and I bet they would be even better if I had made them right. So, next time. The glaze is definitely a keeper, though!

So, I just looked at my calendar and realized how close we are to Christmas--eep! Where did the time go! I'm going to have to start making batches of dough and freezing them this weekend!

Kevin Geeks Out About...Dummy Deaths!

Well, I was promised cupcakes, and I got cupcakes! These were made by Lisa Beebe for Kevin Geeks Out About Dummy Deaths at the 92nd St. Y in Tribeca on Friday. They are cute in a demented kind of way, aren't they? (There are many more (and better) photos of dummy death themed cupcakes at Lisa's Flickr. And also check out her Vincent Price cupcakes! Hee.) I am only sad that I did not get to say hello to her.


And here is Kevin Maher, the brains behind the Kevin Geeks Out series...you might be wondering what on earth Kevin Geeks Out About Dummy Deaths would be about, and I kind of was too, but it was exactly what it sounded like--a compilation of clips featuring dummies and mannequins (and not always of the human variety!) meeting their untimely, frequently grisly demises. It was quite eye-opening (particularly the clip from Ricco the Mean Machine, which I am 100% sure I will never watch). Anyway, it was a great time and we also got to meet and chat with the Flying Maciste Brothers, the co-hosts of the event.

So, dummy deaths, cupcakes, beer, and friend time. Really, what else can I ask for on a Friday night?

*Edited to add: Better writeup about the actual film clips can be found over at Love Train for the Tenebrous Empire.

More birthday baking: Pink Lemonade Cupcakes & Brownies, Oh My!

Man, this is a seriously backdated post. I started drafting this sometime in September, right when the weather was just beginning to cool off....well, it's officially COLD now, and I've been remiss in blogging, but it's been a really busy month! We've been travelling pretty much every weekend in October (2 weddings in a row) and it's going to be busy probably through the end of the month. But, there are some good food-related trips coming up so I anticipate some good blogging opportunities.


A couple of my coworkers had birthdays in the end of August and beginning of September, so I decided on two different items, even if there were actually three birthdays--hey, a cupcake is a cupcake! The two As got pink lemonade cupcakes, and Hurricane, who is a devotee of the cupcake truck, got brownies baked into cupcakes. (As much as he loves the cupcake truck, I hear him complain all the time about how they never have just plain vanilla or plain chocolate.) As an aside, I bought some of these parchment baking cups by If You Care and they are soooo nonstick that the brownies just kind of slid out of the cups.

I used the brownie recipe from the Martha Stewart baking handbook, because I had a couple of bars of chocolate I wanted to use, but it's definitely not the best recipe I personally have tried. Those honors still go to the King Arthur recipe that's printed on the back of their cocoa packages. Still, a brownie is a brownie!


I couldn't resist making these pink lemonade cupcakes when I saw them while I was googling away one day--I mean, they're lemonade flavored and they're pink! I was already in love with the idea. I used the recipe from Cast Sugar. I have to be honest; I wasn't that crazy about the texture of the cupcake. When baked, it almost felt like a Chinese steamed cake, which is not the texture I want from a cupcake! But hey, it uses no butter and no egg yolks, so at least it's (sort of) healthier than a normal cupcake. And the frosting made up for what the cupcake lacked. And did I mention how pink and cute they were? I almost felt bad for bestowing such a girly cupcake upon the birthday boy. Almost.

Anyway, hopefully I will have time to blog more regularly soon. This weekend we are going to the Sheep & Wool Festival, where I will attempt to stop myself from kidnapping an alpaca...

Lemon-Almond Cupcakes (or, How I Sabotaged My Gym Class)

Aren't sugar stars cheerful?
I've been taking a weekly functional training class at the gym with a couple of my friends for a while now, and we love our trainer for many reasons, not least of which is that he likes to dance and plays us cheese-tastic music (this past week we were subjected to Color Me Badd, of all things!). Anyway, it was his birthday and, although I know it sounds extremely counterproductive, we had to bring some kind of treat to class.

This ended up being a fridge-clearing kind of cupcake. I needed a recipe that would use up some buttermilk (leftover from the hot cross buns) and some of my huge stash of ground almonds (apparently I went on a buying binge at the Baker's Catalogue right around Christmas). I had initially thought of making an orange-almond cake, but...we had none, and I was feeling too lazy to go out and buy some. So, lemon almond buttermilk cake it was, thanks to epicurious.com!



The original recipe finishes the cupcakes with a soaking of lemon syrup. I opted for a lemon glaze instead so it would look more festive. And you know...at least we probably worked off some of the calories!

Lemon-Almond Cupcakes
adapted from epicurious.com
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 stick + 2 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
3 large eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 cup ground almonds
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
2/3 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 2 muffin pans with paper liners (I got 20 cupcakes out of this recipe.) Whisk the flour, salt, and baking soda together in a medium bowl. Set aside. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes with an electric mixer. Beat the eggs in, one at a time, making sure each is incorporated before adding the next. Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternately with the buttermilk in 2 additions (so, flour-buttermilk-flour-buttermilk-flour). With the mixer on low speed, beat in the almonds and lemon peel. Fill the prepared muffin pans with the batter, which will be fairly thick; don't overfill, you should be aiming for somewhere between half and 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the cakes are risen, nicely browned, and a skewer inserted in the center of a cake comes out clean.

If you want to go with the lemon syrup instead of the glaze, combine the juice of two lemons with 1/3 cup of sugar and stir until dissolved. As soon as the cakes come out of the oven, poke them thoroughly with a skewer and spoon the syrup slowly over the top.

If you are going to go my route and go with the glaze, place the sifted confectioner's sugar in a small bowl and add lemon juice, a tablespoon at a time until the desired consistency is reached. You shouldn't need more than 2 tablespoons, but if you thin it out too much, just add a bit more sugar. Spoon over the cupcakes when they are cool. Decorate with sprinkles as desired.

Green tea ice cream

,

In baking, sometimes even a disaster can still have a happy ending. I was going to turn those horribly ugly cupcakes into cake crumbs for future use, but it just so happened that last week I tried a recipe for homemade green tea ice cream...and then I promptly forgot about it in the freezer. (Forgetting things is a seriously bad habit of mine.) But actually, it's good that I forgot about it, because now I can have (trimmed up) chocolate cake and green tea ice cream. Hey, all right!

This recipe is from Elizabeth Andoh's Japanese cookbook, Washoku; it's a really terrific resource for homestyle Japanese recipes. It is about as simple as you can get for ice cream (no need for an ice cream maker!) and as long as you have good quality tea, it's really delicious. It's not as creamy as the ice cream I buy, but I also suspect that it's a lot less caloric. And if you are more diligent about whipping it than I was, it'll be smoother.

Green Tea Ice Cream
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1/2 teaspoon mirin
2 teaspoons matcha
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup half-and-half

In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and water. Stir the mixture over low heat to melt the sugar and continue to simmer for about 5 minutes, or until syrupy. Add the mirin (which I omitted), stir, and remove the pan from the heat. In a small bowl, combine 1 tablespoon of the warm syrup and matcha and stir until dissolved. Return this sweet tea concentrate to the saucepan and stir until completely blended. To retain optimal aroma and ensure an intense jade color, do not reheat the mixture. Stir in the milk and half-and-half and mix thoroughly.

Pour the tea and milk mixture into a flat, shallow, freezer-safe container. Tap the container gently on a countertop to force out any air bubbles. Cover and freeze for 1 1/2 hours or until nearly firm. With a handheld mixer, whip the mixture vigorously in a deep bowl. Return the mixture to the same container, re-cover, and freeze again for another 45 minutes, or until firm throughout. Repeat the whipping step one more time to achieve a silkier texture. Makes about 1 pint (unless you keep tasting it).

Birthday cupcakes

It was my lovely coworker's birthday yesterday and since I consider edible gifts to be the best kind there is, I decided to make her some cupcakes. As a sidebar, I just want to point out how eeeevil sites like Tastespotting are--pages upon pages of delicious looking foods...so that you start off looking for a chocolate cupcake recipe and the next thing you know, you're making a shopping list that includes a leg of lamb, cucumbers, candied shiso, and couscous. So much food, so little time.

Anyway! Before I get too distracted again, after considering the approximately 8trillion chocolate cupcake recipes that I have, I suddenly decided I wasn't in the mood for chocolate. And yes, I know, these weren't for me, but I felt like something fruity would be more seasonally appropriate. Okay, and I figured I would get to eat any misshapen or ugly ones.

These are actually quite simple to make--the cake has a nice quantity of zest in it and then a lemon syrup is poured over the top. It's pretty tasty on its own, but I didn't think it was festive enough, so I whipped up a quick cream cheese based frosting and folded in some crushed raspberries. Yay, pink! The problem I always have with frosting is that by the time you add up enough confectioner's sugar to get the right, pipeable consistency, the frosting is way too sweet for my tastes. Hence, the runny frosting. Fortunately, what they lack in beauty, they make up for in tart deliciousness.



I won't print the recipe for the lemon syrup cake since I just used this one from Williams Sonoma; just bake it as 12 cupcakes instead of in a loaf pan. It's best to put the lemon syrup on while they're still warm because it seems to soak up better. Once they have cooled completely, proceed with the frosting, plop on a raspberry, and enjoy!

Raspberry cream cheese icing
1 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/2 stick butter, softened
2 C confectioner's sugar, sifted
1 tsp lemon juice
1/4 C raspberries

Mash the raspberries thoroughly with a fork and set aside. Beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth and well combined. Add the lemon juice and 1 cup of the confectioner's sugar and beat. Gradually add the remaining cup of sugar until you have achieved whatever stiffness you want--if you want something you can pipe, you will actually probably need close to 3 cups total. I stopped at 2. Stir the mashed raspberries in and marvel at the beautiful pink you have now produced. Makes enough frosting for about 20 cupcakes.