Raspberries & Champagne…Blueberries & Chocolate!

By on Tuesday, July 26th, 2011

Living in Upstate New York this time of year, we’re blessed with an abundance of fruits, like raspberries and blueberries. 

Inspired, I paraded through the Internet to locate recipes that have me headed straight for fresh picking tomorrow morning early so that I can head to the kitchen.

How about Raspberry Cupcakes with Champagne Buttercream Frosting?  Wow!  But with only 4T of champagne in the frosting recipe…I better pass along my personal note that you can toss a few fresh raspberries into a flute of champagne et voila!  It’s time to have over your girlfriends in spades.

For the blueberries…did you know that freezing fresh blueberries for a few hours will stop them from sinking in the cupcake batter while baking?  Another idea is to dip them in flour, also to prevent sinking.  I settled on Chocolate Blueberry Cupcakes with a recipe calling for both bitter and sweet chocolates, goat cheese, and cinnamon.  Who needs a partner with this much comfort in a cup?

Enjoy the fresh pickings!

Lava Fudge Cupcakes

By on Friday, July 22nd, 2011

Love fudge?  Been eating hot fudge sundaes?  How about cooling down while heating up some “Lava Fudge Cupcakes” in your kitchen?

Lava Fudge Cupcake

Georgetown Cupcake’s Sophie has a 2-minute video, courtesy of The Learning Channel, claiming to “reveal the secrets behind their famous Lava Fudge cupcake.”

While she doesn’t provide the recipe, Sophie does provide several excellent tips, from using apple corers to hollow out cupcakes before pouring in the fudge, to easy-pour tops for filling and decorating.

So I dug around the Internet at bit…and found the Georgetown Cupcakes recipe for their chocolate cupcake with vanilla cream cheese frostings with variations!  Add your own fudge and, “By George!  I think we’ve got it!”

Cupcake gebakken in een schelp!

By on Tuesday, July 12th, 2011

More in my week-long series, using foreign blogs for summer cupcake ideas.  Yesterday, we were speaking Spanish for super cute, beach umbrella cupcakes.  Today, we’re working in Dutch to figure out baking cupcakes in sea shells!

Sea Shell Cupcakes

Even if you’re land-locked in South Dakota, you can find sea shells for this recipe at cooking shops.  Primarily used for dishes like Coquilles Saint-Jacques, leave it to Carola Damen in Boskoop, Netherlands to think to use sea shells in lieu of cupcake wrappers!

And, take note that Carola starts the cupcake by placing an edible “pearl” under the cupcake batter and ends with chocolate sea shell decorations on top.  Carola makes use of edible body paint to achieve her silvers and golds.

If anyone speaks Dutch and would care to help us understand even more about the recipe, please let us know.

Build a … Cupcake!

By on Wednesday, July 6th, 2011

Today, my friend Beth and I tried a little market research on cupcakes, going to Dollop, a local cupcakery.  A novel concept:  at Dollop, you pick your cupcake, your filling, your frosting, and your topping, and the cupcake is put together before your eyes.

Ice Cream & Cupcakes!

Beth asked for a chocolate cupcake with mint frosting and York Peppermint Patty topping.

I asked for a vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting with dark chocolate bits as topping.

On the side?  That’s mint chocolate chip ice cream and mocha chip ice cream from our favorite local, Pittsford Dairy Farms.  All organic, Pittsford Farms Dairy uses milk and cream from their cows to make their ice cream.  The perfect accompaniment!

Do you have cupcake shops like this near you and what do you choose when you go there?

To Peanut or Not to Peanut?

By on Monday, June 27th, 2011

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcake

Let’s chat on the subject of peanut butter cupcakes, like this lovely one from the Baker Street Bakery.

Smooth or chunky?

I have never met a peanut butter cupcake made with chunky peanut butter.  Have you?

Here’s a sampling of what I could find.  Some recipes create a peanut butter cupcake base and go so far as to say “smooth.”  Other recipes put the peanut butter in the frosting and indicate “creamy.”  Going over the top is a recipe that not only uses peanut butter, it also uses Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

And I did manage to find one recipe that specified “creamy or chunky.”

Hot Out of the Test Kitchen!

By on Friday, June 24th, 2011

"Strawberry Lime Daiquiri"

 

Ooooh!  About three weeks into blogging for this site, I finally have my Facebook and Twitter sufficiently loaded with cupcakeries that I’ve scored these yummy photographs from the Little Cake Bakery in Atlanta, Georgia.  These were just uploaded into Facebook in a new album titled “Test Kitchen.”

Who wants to report live on location to our cupcake community whether these cupcakes taste as good as they look and sound?

 

"Chocolate Curry with Coconut"

"Chocolate Ginger Toffee"

What is it about Hostess cupcakes?

By on Tuesday, June 14th, 2011

Hostess Snack Cakes.  Gotta love their cupcakes.  Golden.  Chocolate.  Orange.  Fondant-y icing.  Seven, white squiggles down the middle.  Vanilla creme frosting in the middle.  Wrapped in plastic.  Mass producted.

Hostess is big business.  Hostess Brands, which owns Hostess Snack Cakes, employs 21,000 people in 39 bakeries in 41 states across the U.S.A.  (In case you’re interested:  they’re hiring.)

Hostess is still celebrating its February 2011 launch of the strawberry cupcake, so it’s not too late for you to vote for your favorite Hostess cupcake and get a chance to win $25,000 and other, daily prizes.

According to the Hostess Director of Marketing, “Hostess sets the standard for timeless treats that are loved from generation to generation.”  So just how many Hostess cupcakes do Americans eat every year?  600,000,000.  And it’s Memphis, Tennessee that’s the Hostess cupcake eating capital of the Hostess empire.