Mimosa Cupcakes with Champagne infused Orange Curd filling

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Yeah it's that time again.  Last year I did an anisette cupcake for 2011.  This year mimosas were on my mind.  Think it had something to do with Christmas morning breakfast and the glass of orange juice spiked with champagne.......anyhow.

I love oranges.  I love orange flavor in a cake, scones, biscuit you name it.  So I embarked in making my own orange curd.  The recipe I borrowed from Ina Garten really wasn't what I wanted but I messed with it a bit.  I wanted a more custard like curd (the lemon curd I have in my fridge, for example, has no bits of zest.  But this orange recipe has ton).  So if you don't want the bits of zest I suggest making a pudding or mousse or even infusing the buttercream with orange extract or some orange juice.  Next time I will pulverize the curd in a blender or food processor a little more and get rid of the pieces of zest.

The cake is a moist vanilla cake that I added the zest of one large orange to along with 1 tspn pure orange extract.  * Please people.  If you are going to use a fruit flavored extract make sure it isn't imitation.  I hate the imitation fruit extracts they taste fake.  Lemon is the worst.  Either use real fruit juices or pure extract.  Thank you. 

When the cupcakes were done, I filled them with the curd (which I laced with about 1/4 cup pink champagne).  I like pink champagne but you can use whatever champagne you want.

The buttercream is a simple vanilla swiss buttercream with about oh....maybe 1/2 cup pink champagne.  It was palpable in the air which means it was the perfect amount!

I decorated the cupcake with pink edible pearls and a 2012 I made out of melted white chocolate and sprinkled with gold disco dust.

Here is the inside.

Despite my feelings about the curd, it really was very yummy!!  And tasted like a mimosa in cupcake form!

Ingredients

1 box vanilla cake mix

3 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1 cup buttermilk (1 tblspn vinegar to 1 cup milk - let sit for 5 minutes)

Zest from one orange

1 tspn pure orange extract

Mix all together.

Orange Curd

*someone mentioned I could short cut and add 1 1/2 cups of Orange Marmalade rather than zest the orange and put it in a food processor with sugar.....let me know if you try it.

4 oranges
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/4 pound unsalted butter, room temp
4 large eggs
1/2 cup orange juice
1/8 tspn salt

Remove the zest from the oranges with a vegetable peeler - avoid the white pith as much as possible.  Put the zest and sugar in a food processor and pulse until zest is finely minced.

Cream the butter in a mixer.  Add sugar/orange mix. Blend until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time then the orange juice and salt.  Mix until well combined.

Pour mixture into a saucepan and cook over low heat until thickened - takes about 15 - 20 minutes.  Do not over cook or it will curdle.  If using a candy thermometer, 175F is a good end temperature for the mix.  Remove from pan and let cool or refrigerate.

Buttercream

1 cup plus 2 tblspn sugar
5 egg whites
1 1/4 tspn vanilla
4 sticks unsalted room temperature butter
1/2 cup champagne

Put egg whites and sugar in heat proof mixing bowl.  Set over boiling water and whisk until sugar dissolves.  Do not let mixing bowl touch the boiling water or eggs whites will cook.

Place on mixer with whisk attachment - whisk on medium until bowl is cool to touch.  Add butter 1 tblspn at a time.  Add vanilla.  Replace whisk attachment with paddle attachment and mix on medium high until mixture thickens into buttercream.  Add champagne 1/4 cup at a time.  Mix on medium until consistency returns.  1/2 cup may be too much for you.  I found it to be very strong but still very good.

Cherry Pie in a Cupcake....cupcakes

Okay so my bestie came to visit shortly after the Christmas holiday.  Since her hubby was making me his most delicious jambalaya, in response I made them my Caramel Pretzel Cupcakes and the Cherry Pie ones.  I had been wanting to make the cherry pie ones for awhile but never got around to it.  The following is a little step by step on what I did and at the end the ingredients and recipe and such for making them.  They turned out really yummy!  I love cherries.  So this was right up my ally!

First you need some pie crust.  I bought the refrigerated brand because I didn't have time to make my own pie crust.  These work just as well if not better and there are two 9" rounds in the package.  You also will need a mini cupcake tin.  Cut circles out to fit the cavities in the tin.  I used a 1/3 cup measuring cup (in the background there - the silver thing) and using the hollow side, cut the rounds out.

Then place them in the tins - press them down and along the sides a bit.  I didn't use any butter or flour inside the tins as they always seem to come out without any issues.  I did this with the Pumpkin Pie in a Cupcake too.  You can "pull" the dough so it comes up higher on the tin if you want but I don't find it a necessary thing. Technically you are suppose to bake the crust first before filling it - I didn't do that.  I forgot.  It doesn't matter much but if you want to bake it first, pop them into a preheated oven at 400F and bake for about 5 - 10 minutes.  Keep an eye on it as the directions on the box is for a full 9" piece of dough and this isn't that.  ONWARD....

Anyhow, get yerself a can of cherry pie filling and fill the pie crusts - if you already baked the crusts - pop them back in the oven for about 5 minutes.  If not, NOW put them in a preheated oven at 400F and bake for about 5 - 10 minutes.  Again, keep an eye on them.  Each crust took about 4 cherries from the can plus some sauce.

Viola!  Mini cherry pies.  The one all the way to the top right I ate....oh yes I did.  And it were yummy!  * I used a small icing spatula to pop them out of the tin.  DO NOT turn the tin over and let them fall out.  This does not work in your favor.  Use a spoon or something to get them out.  They should come out really easy.  However, like in my case, I had two or three where the filling bubbled over and stuck to the tin - you'll need to carefully cut it away from the tin with a knife.

Next, line the tins of a standard cupcake tin with liners.  Mix your batter (I used simple vanilla because vanilla and cherry I think go hand in hand) and place about 1 - 2 teaspoons in the bottom of each liner just to coat it.

Carefully place a mini cherry pie in each batter filled liner and press down just a bit.

I use an ice cream scoop but you can use what you want.  But fill the cupcake liners making sure the pies are covered.  Remember that this batter is going to rise a bit so don't over fill the liners, like I did in two (it just creates a flat top on the cupcake that you may or may not have to cut away when done).

Place in an oven at 350F and bake for 22 minutes.  Mine actually required 28 minutes but I've been told ovens may vary.  So just keep an eye on them.  An inserted toothpick at the end that comes out clean means they are done.

Here is one of the finished cupcakes topped with vanilla buttercream and cherry pie filling.

And here is the inside!

You can substitute the cherry for apple, blueberry, peach...whatever.  The instructions would be the same for each.  Enjoy!!

Ingredients

1 box vanilla cake batter

3 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1 cup buttermilk (or 1 tblspn vinegar added to 1 cup whole milk - let sit for 5 minutes)

Mix all ingredients together.

1 box refrigerated pie crusts

1 can pie filling (cherry, apple, blueberry whichever)

Following steps above for making the mini pies

Buttercream

1 cup plus 2 tblspn sugar

5 egg whites

1 1/4 tspn vanilla extract

4 sticks unsalted butter

Place sugar and egg whites in bowl from mixer and over boiling water, whisk until sugar is dissolved (don't let the bottom of the bowl touch the water or it will cook).

With whisk attachment, whisk sugared egg whites until bottom of bowl is cool to touch.  Add butter by tablespoon to the mixer.  Once butter is fully incorporated, add vanilla.

Remove whisk attachment and add paddle.  Mix on medium-high until buttercream thickens.

Then pipe or spread onto cooled cupcakes.

Vanilla White Chocolate Overload Cupcakes

Since I made an all chocolate cupcake complete with chocolate mousse center, I wanted to try an all vanilla one with a vanilla white chocolate ganache center.  This is the end result.  It's very vanilla!  Below is the instruction for making the ganache.

The cupcake is a vanilla bean cake filled with a white chocolate vanilla bean ganache, topped with a vanilla bean buttercream and white chocolate shavings.

I am not a huge fan of vanilla but this was really really good.  And no I did not deep fry this one :)

The buttercream is my standard with the exception of 1/2 vanilla bean and 1/4 tspn vanilla extract.  The short cut version is one white cake mix with the addition of 1scraped vanilla bean and the scraped white chocolate for the top.  I've have had people ask for the short cut version so they could replicate.  If you ever want my version, the longer version, just let me know :)

Vanilla White Chocolate Ganache

1 tablespoon corn syrup

2/3 cup heavy cream

1/2 vanilla bean (scrape the seeds)

6oz white chocolate (chips or squares, just chop the squares up)

Place corn syrup, heavy cream and split vanilla bean pod and seeds in sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium heat.  Place white chocolate in heat proof bowl.   Remove the vanilla bean pod and pour the hot mixture over the white chocolate.  Mix until smooth.  Place in refrigerator for 45 minutes.  Pour ganache mixture into mixing bowl and whisk at high speed until thick (about 3 minutes).  Fill cupcakes and enjoy!

Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes

So while browsing blogs and websites, I keep seeing people talk about Orange Creamsicle cupcakes, how good they are and how favored a flavor it is. So I thought I might as well try one.

Although I'm really into the unique flavors, the "what can I do with this" flavors, going back to something simple is good therapy I think!

I made a basic vanilla base and then split the batter. One half of the batter I tinted orange and added a little bit of orange extract but mostly I added orange juice. The extract isn't that bad but I think some of these fruit flavored extracts give off an artificial flavor. Sometimes a medicinal taste too. Of course I could have used orange flavored jello and that would have worked too.

Then I teaspooned the batter on top of each other into the cups (1 tspn white, 1 tspn orange, 1 tspn white etc) to get a swirled like effect.

The little teardrop shaped bubble hole was purely by accident.

The buttercream is a vanilla bean and orange twist.

It was rather yummy! And I can see why it would be a favorite!
Now I have this desire to make other Twisted Cupcakes! oooooo! O.o that might be something too, twisted cupcakes!

Better get to work! Have a great day!

Blackberry Vanilla Cupcake with Lemon Buttercream

This one was made for a friend of mine when I stated
"watch out or I'll name a cupcake after you!"

I'm still waiting for him to approve the name I gave it! So for now we'll just call it what it is.

This is a vanilla cake made with real blackberries. I chopped some of them up as well as put in whole berries. The buttercream....well I wasn't happy with it. In my quest to find a really good lemon buttercream I'm just not finding what I want. So...time to experiment a little.

Adding fresh lemon to buttercream is not working. And it's probably a citrus versus dairy thing. I wanted a light lemon flavor without it being sour or falling a part. So I took out a pack of lemon jello. Guess what? It works! It gives the buttercream a light lemon flavor AND it turns it a pale yellow. I may start doing this with other buttercreams that I want to turn color and add flavor too. Sometimes the food color liquid and paste makes it taste funny.

This is the first in 5 "Spring" cupcakes I want to make. One will have an apricot mousse! I can't wait to try that one! I'm planning a lavender one and a cherry one too! oooo maybe a cherry pie in a cupcake cupcake!!

Anywho, I will be recreating these as minis soon and shipping them Darren :)

Next Up: Girl Scout Cookies inspired cupcake "Tagalongs"

Cupcake Party

OMG! Did I really make 265 mini cupcakes!? I DID! The work involved was immense but it was so much fun! Two dozen cupcakes of eleven flavors including four new ones! Take a look at all the photos posted below.

With the help of my sister (watch out! one day Cupcakeables! may become Two Sisters Cupcakery) we cranked out two dozen minis of the following: S'mores, Key Lime, Coconut, Mocha Frappuccino, Vanilla Almond, Chocolate Peppermint and Dannen O'Donnels (Pretzel Caramel). The four new flavors were Gingerbread with a Maple Buttercream, Oreo Surprise with a Cookies and Cream Buttercream and a White Chocolate Raspberry with a White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting in two varieties (one filled with white chocolate, the other with raspberry jam). Oh! And I made an Almond Cinnamon Vegan Cupcake with Cinnamon Glaze. Believe it or not, non believers, it was really good!

I rather like the minis. Most people, I'm finding, prefer them. They are bite size, you can have more than one flavor without filling up on a standard sized cupcake and you can get more for your buck. I may stick primarily with minis but also offer standards. The minis look pretty too with all the little decorations you can put on them.

Here are some photos from the party in Fort Lauderdale. I'll be having one in Ocala after the New Year! :)

Mocha Frapps ^

Gingerbread ^

Coconut ^

Dannen O'Donnells ^ aka Pretzel Caramel

Key Lime ^

Oreo ^

Peppermint ^

White Chocolate Raspberry ^ 1st Variety

Vanilla Almond ^


Pamphlets coming soon!

Vanilla/Almond Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercreme

Oh...my....goodness! This was one of the most delicious cupcakes I have ever had. The recipe was picked up from www.gimmesomeoven.com. The cake base is a white cake with vanilla and almond flavoring. The salted caramel buttercreme is made from scratch caramel and then mixed with a basic buttercreme base. It was very yummy! I added the almond slices on the cupcake and the thing that really made it was the caramel drizzle! It added 100% to the cupcake. These are my new favorite cupcakes!