230 replies to this topic

[RuthWells]

Here's the cupcakes I made for the bake sale at dd's school tomorrow.  I'm just learning to decorate on my own so ignore the flaws LOL.
Sandra

Flaws?! Are you kidding? They're ADORABLE!!

[joaquin]

My favorites right now are the coconut ones from the Barefoot Contessa, very, very good!

Mmmmmmm.... those Barefoot Contessa Coconut Cupcakes are incredible. They bake up very big and full looking, and with the cream cheese frosting and sprinkling of coconut they look just as irrisistable as in the photo. I made them for a party and folks were moaning in ecstacy. Note though, that the frosting recipes makes at least twice as much as you need for that amount of cake (and I piled it on).

I just made these Barefoot Contessa Coconut Cupcakes. I found the amount of frosting to be about right. But her recipe calls for about 1/2 a package ( 1 1/3 C.) of sweetened coconut to dip the finished and frosted cakes in. That was not enough. You will need an entire package to have the proper amount of coconut atop your cakes. Skimpy on this finishing touch does not make it.

[CanadianBakin']

I made a variety of cupcakes for a special occasion a few days ago. I'm happy with most of the results. You can read my review notes in my blog.

top row: coffee cake + coffee buttercream, vanilla cake + pistachio buttercream, green tea cake + azuki bean buttercream, coffee cake + ganache
middle row: coconut cake + cream cheese frosting, chocolate cake + ganache, lemon cake + lemon buttercream
bottom row: coconut cake + mango buttercream, chocolate cake + coffee buttercream, vanilla cake + strawberry buttercream, carrot cake + cream cheese frosting

What proportion of pistachio paste to buttercream did you use?

[debbiemoose]

Ina Garten has a new recipe for chocolate cupcakes that is very simple and produces a moist, fudgy cupcake.  It uses chocolate syrup, so if you don't like the taste of Hershey's syrup you might not like them. I made them for work and they were very well recieved. I covered with bittersweet ganache to balance the sweet cupcake.



Chocolate ganache cupcakes

A question about these cupcakes (and I'm not a big baker - those gorgeous flower-bouquet ones just sent me running for the liquor cabinet). Could those with the ganache be made day before serving? I'm thinking for a Christmas party, but I need a do-ahead.

[Patrick S]

Ina Garten has a new recipe for chocolate cupcakes that is very simple and produces a moist, fudgy cupcake.  It uses chocolate syrup, so if you don't like the taste of Hershey's syrup you might not like them. I made them for work and they were very well recieved. I covered with bittersweet ganache to balance the sweet cupcake.



Chocolate ganache cupcakes

A question about these cupcakes (and I'm not a big baker - those gorgeous flower-bouquet ones just sent me running for the liquor cabinet). Could those with the ganache be made day before serving?

Sure, these will keep for at least a few days at room temperature.

[ComeUndone]

I made a variety of cupcakes for a special occasion a few days ago. I'm happy with most of the results. You can read my review notes in my blog.
top row: coffee cake + coffee buttercream, vanilla cake + pistachio buttercream, green tea cake + azuki bean buttercream, coffee cake + ganache
middle row: coconut cake + cream cheese frosting, chocolate cake + ganache, lemon cake + lemon buttercream
bottom row: coconut cake + mango buttercream, chocolate cake + coffee buttercream, vanilla cake + strawberry buttercream, carrot cake + cream cheese frosting

What proportion of pistachio paste to buttercream did you use?

Unfortunately, I did not make notes on the pistachio paste to buttercream ratio. I eyeballed it by colour and repeated tasting. The ratio also depends on which brand of pistachio paste you use. Some are more potent than others.

[ericablu]

I LOVE to make cupcakes. Here are some I've made recently:

<img src="http://baking.ericab...t/cupcakes.jpg" />

From left to right - Sour cream cupcakes with cream cheese frosting from cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans; Cinnamon sugar puff cupcakes also from Elinor; Lemon poppyseed butterfly cupcakes, again Elinor; and the chocoloate sour cream cupcakes, Elinor, with a vanilla buttercream recipe from Magnolia via <a href="http://www.52cupcake...logspot.com">52 cupcakes</a>.

[miladyinsanity]

I don't know what I did, but I got perfect looking cupcakes and not so perfect tasting ones.

They are good--I used Snowangel's recipe. Just not great, not like the first time I made them. In fact, if you saw them side by side, you'd not believe that they are the same ones.

Sorry, I don't have pics of the first ones. They had flat tops (and I got the same number of cupcakes both times), a thick crust, and a coarser crumb.

Anyway, there are holes inside, and the texture is well...odd. It's soft--and it should be, since I used a very low protein content flour--but it's kinda got that stick to your upper palate feel once it melts in your mouth. I think it's some kind of cake flour, but it's marketed as "superlite" and is also known as "Hong Kong flour." It didn't occur to me to write down the protein content, and I can't find it online.

My proportions:
130g sugar for burning
100g sugar
122g butter
350g flour
1 tsp lime juice--because my grandpa swore that it'd improve the texture and it works for my mom's pound cake and it was in the fridge
The rest were as stated by Susan.

My mom says the holes were caused by uneven folding of egg whites (probably true). I've not exactly gotten the folding in knack yet. I'm reasonably sure they were not underbaked, because I did the skewer test and the spring back test.

Any ideas?

Okay, it keeps telling me there's something wrong I'm doing, but I can't figure out what, so the piccies are Cupcakes a la Snowangel.

[whisks]

does anyone have problems with the cupcake paper separating from the cupcake after it has cooled? does anyone have a solution to this?
this happens to my cupcakes all the time - they're fine when they come out of the oven, but on cooling, they lift off the cake, which does not look particularly attractive. it doesn't matter which recipe i use, it still happens. my friend also has this problem; it was funny, when she started to mention her problem, i finished her sentence. at least i am not alone.
thanks

[MarieinLA]

I've found the paper separates when they aren't filled enough and overbaked a bit. If the cupcake, once baked, gets to the top of the paper they don't tend to pull away. You might want to make a batch where you fill to different levels and see what happens (but bake the lesser filled ones in a different pan than the more filled ones, otherwise you'll overbake the lesser filled ones waiting for the more filled ones to be done...).

[celenes]

Oh yes I'm still around just haven't had time to post or read as much as I would like because business is going well but I couldn't resist this topic because I have found here in Ohio cupcakes are quite popular. I just did several dozen on Friday for customers.

I created a cassata cupcake which is simply pudding filling with pineapple topped with a whipped frosting and finished with a strawberry.

My other popular cupcake is a chocolate cupcake with german chocolate filling then topped with a thin layer of chocolate ganache and finished with a chocolate cream cheese frosting. Yummmm I call this the "It's Friday" cupcake

Edited by celenes, 29 January 2006 - 08:15 AM.

[whisks]

thanks for that - i'll give it a try. somehow tho, i suspect that i have made "full" cupcakes as well, but didn't pay full attention to the paper problem. have to now line up an opportunity to make them.
thanks again

[ablosh]

Chocolate Cupcakes

Checkered with Chocolate Buttercream and Chocolate Ganache

[tmgrobyn]

I wanted to try something different Friday at the shop. I came across three lonely spice cupcakes that had been ignored when frosting the others earlier in the day. So I took about a cup and a half of our regular buttercream frosting and added two teaspoons of ground ginger to it. Mixed it up and frosted the cupcakes. Then I added a small sprig of candied orange peel for decoration. One customer came in tried one, and bought the other two. Couldn't say enough about them. So I guess my whim was okay. No pics though.

[rachel!]

I know the recipe for the Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Filling was posted to this thread quite some time ago -- I hope I'm not breaking etiquette bringing up the topic again, but I've just baked a batch tonight and was wondering if anyone might have any insights on why mine fell in the center. To my very, very inexperienced eye it looks like the cream cheese center bits weighted the middle down, rather than baking up, and the chocolate cakey part didn't really bake up around it (well, except insofar as the sides are taller than the middle, so obviously baked up some). I'm explaining it badly, but basically...the middles fell.

I made them as treats for my sister's birthday, which is this Thursday (I plan to freeze and then thaw them, having read here that it generally improves all cakes), so I halved the recipe because she only has a few coworkers. I have a brand new kitchen scale, so weighed the flour after measuring it -- I came up with 192g (for the 1.5 cups). I used Gold Medal AP - just bought it tonight. My baking soda is also a recent purchase.

I wound up with 2 dozen smallish cupcakes -- some of them reached just to the top of the muffin pan, and some were a bit below, so I may have underfilled them? I may have underbaked them a little as well, since I was paranoid about overbaking them. Could that have made them fall? I did the filling with half full-fat cream cheese and half reduced-fat -- I have no clue what that might've done, if anything. I did let the cream cheese and the egg sit out at room temp for quite a while, but they may have still been a little cool -- again, I don't know if that would give them the dipped-in centers. I omitted the nuts entirely, but otherwise made the recipe as stated (well, halved). And those are all my best guesses on where I went wrong. I do have an oven thermometer and my oven was right at 350.

Lastly (sorry this is so long already!), does anyone have suggestions for an easy frosting/topping for these to help hide the sinkyness? I don't have any fancy baking anything -- I do have an immersion blender, but I don't have a stand mixer or a hand-held mixer. And I've never made any sort of frosting before. I was thinking of the fudgey topping mentioned upthread that was a mix of chocolate and evaporated milk (14oz chocolate to a can of evaporated milk) -- would it be too rich for an already decadent cupcake?

Thanks so much for any insights or suggestions!!

[Jujubee]

I know the recipe for the Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Filling was posted to this thread quite some time ago -- I hope I'm not breaking etiquette bringing up the topic again, but I've just baked a batch tonight and was wondering if anyone might have any insights on why mine fell in the center.  To my very, very inexperienced eye it looks like the cream cheese center bits weighted the middle down, rather than baking up, and the chocolate cakey part didn't really bake up around it (well, except insofar as the sides are taller than the middle, so obviously baked up some).  I'm explaining it badly, but basically...the middles fell.

This is a different recipe than the one you followed, but in this picture the cream cheese part is a little sunken. Maybe this type of cupcake is meant to sink a little in the middle? Is this what yours looked like?

http://www.leitescul...ck_bottoms.html

[ruthcooks]

A similar recipe is an old favorite of mine: it calls for reserving some of the chocolate batter and placing a teaspoon or so over the cream cheese filling. (Also, mine are topped with a sprinkling of sugar and some slivered almonds.)
I think your chocolate batter is rising around the edges of the cheese so this tip might help.

[anvi]

These chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese filling are my old potluck standby. they are fudgey and creamy, not too sweet and can be in the oven in less than a half hour. They are actually better when made a day ahead to allow the flavor of the cocoa to develop. Not at all elegant or sophisticated, but everyone loves them! This makes a lot of cupcakes, so you might want to halve the recipe, or make all of them and freeze half.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Filling

For Chocolate Cake:
3 cups flour
2/3 cup cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
2 cups sugar
1 tsp salt
2 cups cold water
1/2 cup + 2 Tbs veg. oil
1 Tbs vanilla
2 Tbs white vinegar

mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. In another bowl mix all the liquid ingredients. pour the wet into the dry and whisk until smooth - don't worry about overmixing. Batter will be quite liquid.

For Filling
12 oz cream cheese - room temp
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1-1/4 cups chocolate chips
1/2 cups chopped, toasted walnuts

Beat together the cream cheese, eggs and sugar. stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts.

Put paper liners in muffin tins. fill each about 1/2 to 2/3 full of batter. Top with a generous 1 Tbs blob of filling. no need to push the filling down or put more batter on top, as the batter will bake up around it and there will just be a bit of the cream cheese showing on top of the baked cupcake.

Hi,
I was planning to try these cupcakes but than i noticed that there were no eggs in the recipe for the cupcakes.there are eggs in the filling but not in the cakes itself.Is this OK?
i know you guys are all experts ,so please pardon me for the dumb question!!

Ruth,
Could you please let me know if this recipe calls for eggs ?i did not see any eggs being used for the cupcakes and have been wondering ever since.I did not get my query resolved earlier and am hoping that you will be able to help me here.

I wanted to try these but did not do so on acct of the egg question and did not want to end up with a failure.Once again,i am a baking novice,so please pardon my dumb question

Anvi

[rachel!]

I know the recipe for the Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Filling was posted to this thread quite some time ago -- I hope I'm not breaking etiquette bringing up the topic again, but I've just baked a batch tonight and was wondering if anyone might have any insights on why mine fell in the center.  To my very, very inexperienced eye it looks like the cream cheese center bits weighted the middle down, rather than baking up, and the chocolate cakey part didn't really bake up around it (well, except insofar as the sides are taller than the middle, so obviously baked up some).  I'm explaining it badly, but basically...the middles fell.

This is a different recipe than the one you followed, but in this picture the cream cheese part is a little sunken. Maybe this type of cupcake is meant to sink a little in the middle? Is this what yours looked like?

http://www.leitescul...ck_bottoms.html

Mine aren't that pretty, but they do look sort of like that. I think I did underfill them -- they came just to the top of the papers, so they didn't bake over the edges of the cups and form that cupcakey ridge -- the mushroomish shape. Also, I didn't have that much of the center showing on mine -- to some extent the filling did sink into the rest of the batter, which came up over it a bit.

I think the suggestion to reserve some of the chocolate part to cover it would probably help with the sinking, though I also think you may be right about this style just looking that way. There's something appealing about a bit of the cream showing, so people know they're getting a filled cupcake.

Anvi - The recipe Jujubee linked to is extremely similar to the one upthread -- there are no eggs called for in the cake part, just in the filling. Though I underfilled my cups (and may have overbaked them, despite earlier suspecting I underbaked them -- oi this whole baking thing is complicated) I still think they have a good flavor. Being a complete novice myself I have no clue what eggs do or don't do as a component of baking recipes, but I can say that no one would mistake mine for anything other than cupcakes. I'd say go for the recipe as written.

Edited by rachel!, 14 February 2006 - 07:39 AM.

[ruthcooks]

My recipe is about half of the one above: 1 1/2 cups flour and 1 cup sugar, etc. for a dozen cupcakes. The filling calls for 3 ounces cream cheese, 1 egg yolk and 1 egg in the filling, and the other egg white is in the cake mixture. Perhaps there is just too much filling in the above recipe, and the weight of it simply bears down on the cake batter so the cake takes the path of least resistance.

Oops, I also had a senior moment! This recipe does not call for placing a spoon of batter on top, that must have been in another recipe.

I'm posting the recipe on RecipeGullet.

Black Bottom Cupcakes

Edited by ruthcooks, 14 February 2006 - 10:04 PM.

[tejon]

How do you all transport cupcakes? I just made up two dozen to take to my son's preschool (nothing special, so no pictures), and ended up taking them in the baking trays so they wouldn't fall over in the car on the way over. Any better ideas?

[sanrensho]

How do you all transport cupcakes? I just made up two dozen to take to my son's preschool (nothing special, so no pictures), and ended up taking them in the baking trays so they wouldn't fall over in the car on the way over. Any better ideas?

Michael's sells a plastic cupcake tray holder that doubles as sheet cake holder. Tupperware also has one.

There were some other ideas covered in one of CanadianBakin's threads.

[tejon]

Off to Michael's I go, then! Thank you

[sanrensho]

Off to Michael's I go, then! Thank you 

Maybe phone ahead. I definitely saw them at Christmas but haven't poked around there since then.

[CanadianBakin']

How do you all transport cupcakes? I just made up two dozen to take to my son's preschool (nothing special, so no pictures), and ended up taking them in the baking trays so they wouldn't fall over in the car on the way over. Any better ideas?

Michael's sells a plastic cupcake tray holder that doubles as sheet cake holder. Tupperware also has one.

There were some other ideas covered in one of CanadianBakin's threads.

Here's the link.

[Ling]

I would love to do the cupcakes in the ice-cream cones with my baking class on Friday. Do I put a cupcake liner in the cone, then fill with batter and bake as usual? Or do I put the batter directly in the cone? Thanks

ETA: Oops, just found out on Martha Stewart's site that I can pour the batter directly into the cone. Do you all use some sort of support so the cones don't topple over in the oven?

Edited by Ling, 19 February 2006 - 12:54 PM.

[cookman]

I would love to do the cupcakes in the ice-cream cones with my baking class on Friday. Do I put a cupcake liner in the cone, then fill with batter and bake as usual? Or do I put the batter directly in the cone? Thanks 

Ling, I've done this for my daughter's class, and they all loved it. Buy those flat-bottomed cones, you know, the ones with the texture of styrofoam. The muffin batter goes right in them, with no liner. Don't overfill the cones, since the muffins need room to expand as they bake. If you overfill them, they will spill over the edge, and make a big mess. (I speak from experience!)

[Ling]

^haha...thanks. I'm not a fan of scrubbing the stove, so I'll remember now to overfill.

[lapasterie]

Check your cones to make sure they have no tiny holes also.

[momlovestocook]

When I made the cupcake cones, I put them in a muffin tin to help keep them from falling over.

Sandra