Chocolate Cupcakes With Instant Pudding Frosting

It's been a while since I made a great cupcake, with the exception of the gingerbread cupcakes I made for Christmas - I made How To Eat A Cupcake's gingerbread cupcakes, frosted them with Bakerella's buttercream (with a dash of salt added), and topped them all with a mini gingerbread man from Martha Stewart's gingerbread cookie recipe.  They tasted great.

But the chocolate ones I made for Christmas, like so many of my previous batches of cupcakes in the past weeks, were flat, short, tasteless and sort of rubbery-like.  It's really been a huge disappointment; even the red velvet cupcakes I made for my husband's work were flat, short and rubbery.

I think the reason I have been baking cupcakes like this is that my baking powder expired 3 months ago. I only found this out within the past few days, and I encourage everyone to take note of their baking powder expiry dates!  I did do a test by putting a teaspoon of baking powder in some tepid water, and it did fizz, hinting that it is still active, but I really think that it is not.  There's no other explanation to my recent string of cupcake failures.

Well, I still have no new baking powder, but I needed to bake cupcakes today because there are no other sweets in the house!  I chose the chocolate mayonnaise cupcake, which uses baking soda, not powder.  They rose just fine, have a nice soft texture and are very chocolatey.  This is my second time baking this cupcake.

I intended on making blueberry frosting for these cupcakes, but realized that I was about 1.5 cups short of confectioners' sugar.  I did have French vanilla instant pudding, however, and knew I could make frosting out of this:

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 cup milk

1 package Jello instant pudding, any flavor

Pour all ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix with whisk attachment on high speed until the frosting is thick and spreadable.

It won't be pipeable, though.  It's airy and light and will thicken somewhat after a time in the refrigerator.  Be sure to keep any cupcakes frosted with this frosting in the refrigerator.

I know, it's a strange combination - mayonnaise, chocolate and French vanilla pudding, but as I have done before, I assure you that you cannot taste the mayonnaise in the cupcakes.

The matching liner and frosting was a total fluke, by the way.

Amy Sedaris Vanilla Cupcakes

In my search for a perfect vanilla cupcake recipe, I realized I haven't yet tried Amy Sedaris' vanilla cupcakes.  I baked up a batch before Christmas, with Bakerella's favorite buttercream.

I did like Amy Sedaris' recipe, and would use it again for my next batch of vanilla cupcakes.  However, the addition of Bakerella's favorite buttercream made it too sweet; next time I would add a dash of salt to her buttercream recipe.

Iron Cupcake Voting Now Open

Voting is now open for December's Iron Cupcake Earth challenge, Chocolate With A Twist.  To help you remember my entry, I entered a chocolate and matcha marbled cupcake, coated in a layer of chocolate ganache and frosted with matcha swiss meringue buttercream.  That buttercream was heavenly!

You can now vote for your three favorite cupcakes, so head on over to No One Puts Cupcake In A Corner and vote before January 2!

Snickerdoodles

How To Eat A Cupcake's recent post on snickerdoodles rekindled my love of said cookie.  They used to be my favorite cookie to choose at the cookie bakery when my mom and I would go out shopping at the mall.  I've made a variety of different snickerdoodle recipes and none could really compare to the ones from the bakery that I remember, although they were all quite nice.

I wanted to make How To Eat A Cupcake's version, which she got from allrecipes.com, but I didn't have any shortening on hand.  However, there was a snickerdoodle recipe in Martha Stewart's Cookies book for which I had all the ingredients.

And did they measure up?  They sure did; they may be the best snickerdoodle recipe I've tried to date.  They are perfect.  I didn't make my cookies as large as recommended in the cookbook; I made mine slightly smaller and ended up with exactly 37 cookies of the perfect size for me.  My daughter helped to roll the dough in the cinnamon and sugar, which she was really proud of.  She's calling them "snickerpanoodles"!

Martha Stewart's Cookies book does not say that no part of the book may be reproduced, so I feel comfortable with posting the recipe here.  This recipe is not on the Martha Stewart website.

Snickerdoodles

Ingredients
* 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt (I used 1/4 teaspoon table salt)
* 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
* 1 1/2 cups, plus 2 tablespoons sugar
* 2 large eggs
* 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Sift together flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.  Put butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Mix in eggs.  Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture.

Stir together cinnamon and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar in a small bowl.  Shape dough into twenty 1 3/4-inch balls; roll in cinnamon sugar.  Space 3 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges are golden brown, 12-15 minutes.  Let cool on sheets on wire racks.  Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment paper in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

Makes 1 1/2 dozen cookies.

---

Since I made my cookies smaller, I baked for a slightly shorter time.  I timed the oven for 5 minutes, then rotated my cookie sheet (because things facing the back of my oven brown quicker) and baked for another 5 minutes.  They were perfect with each batch; I have to keep remembering what Alton Brown said during his chocolate chip cookie show; that if the cookies look done in the oven, then they are too done, so you should take your cookies out before they look done!

Review: Marsh Supermarket Holiday Cupcakes

I was quite disappointed today to see these pathetic holiday cupcakes from my local Marsh Supermarket.  They offered a choice of either red-frosted or green-frosted vanilla cupcakes; my daughter chose green.

They were not very pretty or attractive.  The frosting was strangely shiny and super soft, and extra sweet.  The cake was very soft and spongey.  Once again this was a case where I liked the cake, but the frosting, not so much.

Cookie Exchange!

Last night I went to my local women's group cookie exchange.  I was generally quite unimpressed with the cookies (no offense to any of those women who may be reading this, but I'm really picky!), but there were some yummy treats.  Of course, I was a huge fan of the fudge I made with a Lindt coconut white chocolate bar swirled in.  But I also really liked a friend's Oreo truffles.

My fudge recipe is simple.  It is the fudge recipe from this post.  What I did differently was stir in a melted Lindt coconut white chocolate bar.  That's all!  It's so yummy!  The fudge isn't as smooth as regular fudge because of the very finely chopped coconut, which gave it a kind of strange appearance, but the taste of it made up for that!

I have seen Oreo truffles before, mainly on Bakerella's blog (see here and here, for example) and my friend had made these Oreo truffles at last year's cookie exchange.  They are really yummy; the process of making them and the texture of the truffles are very similar to Bakerella's cupcake pops and cake balls.

There are a few different methods to making Oreo truffles, but the easiest one is as follows.

Oreo Truffles

Ingredients
1 package Oreo cookies
1 8-ounce package cream cheese
2 packages (8 squares each) Baker's semi sweet chocolate

Method
Mix 3 cups of the cookie crumbs and the cream cheese until well blended. Shape into 42 (1-inch) balls.  Place the balls in the freezer to firm up, about 10-15 minutes, as they will be easier to work with when firm.

Dip balls in melted chocolate; place on waxed paper-covered baking sheet. (Any leftover melted chocolate can be stored in tightly covered container at room temperature and saved for another use.) Sprinkle with remaining cookie crumbs.

Refrigerate 1 hour or until firm. Store any leftover truffles in tightly covered container in refrigerator.

Tip: To easily coat truffles with the melted chocolate, add truffles, in batches, to bowl of melted chocolate. Then use two forks to roll truffles in chocolate until evenly coated. Remove the truffles with forks and allow excess chocolate to drip back into bowl before placing truffles on prepared baking sheet.

The truffles can look very beautiful if prepared neatly, as seen here!

Guest Blogging At Cupcakes Take The Cake

When Rachel of Cupcakes Take The Cake asked me to be a guest blogger, I felt shocked and honored to be a part of their guest blogger lineup.  I'm very excited to see my guest post on their website today, so go check it out already!

Coffee Buttercream

I spent some time searching for an easy coffee buttercream recipe, but the only ones I could find involved either raw egg whites, or was a Swiss meringue buttercream.  I just wanted a regular coffee buttercream to frost the next batch of chocolate cupcakes that I would remove from the freezer.

However, I could not find a regular buttercream that was coffee-flavored.  It would be easy to create one myself (I presume I would just dissolve instant coffee in milk and add that to the frosting), but I did find one in one of my cookbooks, Chocolate, Coffee, Caramel: A Cook's Book of Decadence.

I'm posting it here in case someone else is in need of a simple coffee buttercream.

Coffee Buttercream

adapted from Chocolate, Coffee, Caramel: A Cook's Book of Decadence

Ingredients

2 teaspoons instant coffee

1 tablespoon hot water

6.5 ounces unsalted butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

10 ounces sifted confectioners' sugar

Method

Dissolve the coffee in the hot water, then set aside and let come to room temperature before using.  Using an electric mixer, mix the butter, coffee mixture and vanilla in a bowl until well combined.  Gradually add the icing sugar, beating until smooth.  Makes enough to frost 12-18 cupcakes.

Not the best photo, but just wanted to give you an idea of what it looks like.  The frosting is pipeable, but I just used a knife to spread it on.  Thank my daughter for the chocolate jimmies!

Matcha Cocoa Cupcakes

I made this cupcake intending to enter it into December's Iron Cupcake Earth challenge Chocolate With A Twist.  Then after I made it I thought it wasn't good enough.  It tasted great, but I didn't think it was the worthiest contender.  Then as I keep looking at them sitting there in the kitchen I thought, what the hay, I'll enter them!  Here is the matcha cocoa cupcake.

Yes, I need to work on my piping skills, I know!  :)

I call it the matcha cocoa cupcake, because it does taste similar to the matcha hot cocoa recipe I enjoy.  The chocolate cake in these cupcakes are very chocolatey, and the matcha is very matcha-y.  The cake is dense and heavy and quite filling.

The dark chocolate ganache is a nice touch, and the matcha Swiss meringue buttercream is to die for.  This is my second attempt at making SMBC (my first attempt failed) and it went really well.  The texture is amazing, almost mousse-like.  It pipes really well.  The matcha taste in the SMBC is not overpowering and adds an extra light matcha flavor.

Thank you to Cupcakes Take The Cake for posting my matcha cocoa cupcakes on your blog!

Our December ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:

    * BETTY TURBO
    * as well as a pair of cupcake earrings from LOTS OF SPRINKLES
    * PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice -sweet!

As an added bonus for December we have adorable cupcake pincushions complements of SWEET CUPPIN CAKES BAKERY AND CUPCAKERY SUPPLY.

Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS; HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, JESSIE STEELE APRONS; the CUPCAKE COURIER; TASTE OF HOME books. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers.com.

Recipes:

Chocolate & Matcha Marbled Cupcakes

(adapted from La Tartine Gourmande)

makes 10-12 regular sized cupcakes

Ingredients

8 Tbsp butter, melted (1 stick)

3 oz dark chocolate, melted

3 eggs, large

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 + 2/3 cups flour, sifted

1 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

1.5 tsp sifted unsweetened cocoa, diluted with 2 Tbsp whole milk

1.5 tsp Matcha powder

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt the butter and set aside. Melt the chocolate using a double-boiler.

Beat the eggs with the sugar until blended. Add the melted the butter and vanill extract and mix well.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt and add to the butter/egg mixture.  Beat until blended, but do not overbeat.

Divide the batter in two halves. In the first half, add the Matcha tea, in the second the chocolate and cocoa diluted in milk.  Stir each half until thorougly incorporated.

Spoon chocolate mixture into cupcake liners, and spoon matcha mixture on top of the chocolate.  Fill liners about 1/2 - 2/3 full.  You can use a toothpick or knife to gently stir the colors together for a marbled effect, or you can leave as is.

Bake in a preheated oven for 20-22 minutes.  Test with a toothpick to make sure they are done.

Chocolate ganache

Ingredients

3oz dark chocolate

3oz heavy whipping cream

Method

Heat the whipping cream and chocolate in a small pan over low heat unti melted.  Do not boil.  Remove from heat and sit aside until cooler.  Dip tops of cupcakes into the ganache and sit aside to let ganache harden, or put into the refrigerator to harden it quicker!

Matcha Swiss Meringue Buttercream

(method adapte from How To Eat A Cupcake)

2.4oz egg whites

4.8oz sugar

5.3oz unsalted butter, room temperature

1.5 tablespoons matcha (use more or less to suit your taste)

Method

Put egg whites and sugar into the top of a double boiler over a pan of simmering water. Whisking constantly, cook until sugar has dissolved and mixture is warm (about 160 degrees).

Pour heated egg whites into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg white mixture on high speed until it forms stiff (but not dry) peaks. Continue beating until fluffy and cooled, about 7 minutes.

Switch to the paddle attachment. With mixer on medium-low, add butter two tablespoons at a time, beating well after each addition. Increase speed to medium-high; continue beating until frosting appears thick, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low; add matcha powder and continue beating 2 minutes to eliminate air bubbles.