Hummingbird Cupcakes with Pineapple Cream Cheese Icing

My first cookbook dedicated solely to cakes was Cakewalk: Loving Spoonfuls from a Southern Kitchen by Robbin Gourley. It was an unexpected Christmas gift from my mother in 1997 when I was thirteen years old and highly impressionable. I have no idea where she found it, but I know it was more the beautiful illustrations that Robbin paints to accompany her recipes that lured my mother towards to purchase (my Mom is also an artist, after all), rather than the recipes. The illustrations are exquisite, complete with vignettes about Robbin's childhood and the family history behind each cake.

But the real artistic tour-de-force in this book is still the cakes. This is the book that first introduced me to scrumptious Red Velvet Cake, cheerful Pineapple Upside down Cake, and the ever-classic, decadent Bete Noire. Every recipe I have tried in this book has yielded amazing results - so while the book is not easy to find, if you ever happen across it...don't miss it!

I knew it was time to translate one of her cake recipes into cupcakes. Although I've tried almost every recipe in her book, I've never turned them into cupcakes - but I could hardly exclude Robbin from my cupcake quest.

You see, I've been feeling a bit of a funk these days. The weather in my hometown has been downright dreary these past few weeks, constantly drizzling out of the East in mournful shades of grey. The only days it seems to shine I am encased in my cubicle, far from the light. This is the first year with no "summer vacation" and I am feeling almost sick with lack of fresh air and vitamin D. I think my sense of disassociation with the seasons has caused me to veer towards more wintery, spicy, cupcakes, and I knew the time had arrived to seize Spring by the tastebuds and give it a shake.

Hence, Hummingbird Cupcakes. Hummingbird cupcakes are one of my most favourite recipes in Robbin's book. She writes "A long-standing favourite in the South, this cake is as delicate as the bird for which it is named". Indeed, these sweetooth pleasers are a gorgeous treat, full of sweet fruit and nuts. They have only a teaspoon of baking soda, and yet they rise gracefully and dome like a muffin. But their texture is definitely cake.

At work they were such a hit. I've recently moved to a new workstation - moving away from the front desk to my little corner just around the corner. The number one question I got when my coworkers were informed about the move was "where will the cupcakes be when you move?", which made me smile. Having the cupcakes on my desk is a nice way to have a little company throughout the day, as people come to pick up a cupcake or tell me their reviews.

Hummingbird cupcakes were the perfect salute to Spring. Fruity and sweet without the sickly taste of too much sugar, and my adapted cream cheese icing offered a nice balancing taste. Give these ones a try when the weather looks dull - they might not have much vitamin D, but they are still full of sunshine!

Hummingbird Cupcakes
From Cakewalk: Loving Spoonfuls from a Southern Kitchen, by Robbin Gourley
makes 24 cupcakes

3 c. all purpose flour
2 c. sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
3 large eggs
1 c. vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
one 8 oz can crushed pineapple with juice
1 c. chopped pecans
2 c. well mashed bananas

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees; paper 2 cupcake tins
• In a large bowl mix flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon
• Add the eggs and oil and stir until all the ingredients are moist (Do NOT Beat!)
• Stir in the vanilla, pineapple with juice, pecans and bananas (Do NOT Beat!)
• I saved three tablespoons of pineapple and juices for the icing
  
• Spoon the batter 3/4 into tins and bake for 22-25 minutes until springy to the touch

Pineapple Cream Cheese Frosting
pineapple and cream cheese is one of my favourite taste combinations, and here it was a perfect marriage of tastes
one 8 oz. package of softened cream cheese
1/2 c. (one stick) unsalted butter, softened
5 c. icing sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 tbsp. crushed pineapple and juices

• Cream together cream cheese and butter until smooth
• Add first three cups of icing sugar one cup at a time
• Add vanilla and pineapple
• Add last two cups of icing sugar one cup at a time until smooth
• Spread generously!

You might consider sprinkling some pecans on the top of cupcakes for a cute effect, I topped mine with a tidbit of pineapple.

Enjoy!

Standard Chocolate Poodle Cake

Last Friday was the 20th anniversary for one of my co-workers, Linda. In commemoration we decided to make a fuss about her (she deserves it), and in our discussions together as a team (covert, secretive, discussions) we decided there should also be a cake. I volunteered to make it and immediately regretted it.

I didn't regret the offer, per say, I was just worried about what I could possibly come up with that would do the cake justice. I didn't want to do just another slab cake, because then it would have just been smarter to buy one, especially since my standard decorating skills aren't that hot (God bless you Wilton, I'm just a slow learner).

So there was the challenge. I knew Linda liked golf, and gardening, yadda, yadda, yadda - but I also knew that she had a standard chocolate poodle. I knew this because of the high number of pictures plastered all over the cubicle of this beautiful dog doing the silliest things.

Once I put the two together, there was no other way about it. I searched on the internet and I found a picture of a pink and white poodle of the same design (I can't seem to find the link now, but I literally did a google search for "poodle cake"). It looked easy enough and heck, I have a mixer ;) What could go wrong?

Eager and excited with my plan of attack, I greeted Thursday night with enthusiasm. I had found out that Linda's favourite cake was vanilla chocolate chip, and as Thursday was already cupcake day, I decided to cut corners by making a vanilla cake mix and just mixing some chocolate chips in.

Bad idea. Baaaaaaaad idea. Turns out that chocolate chips are just a little too heavy for a vanilla cake batter and they sunk like stones. But that wasn't the worst part. The real problem was that when tipping the cake over, I realized just how far they had sunk.

!!!!!!!!! Shoot !!!!!!!!!!!

It was a moment for pause. For contemplation. For re-evaluation.

For fear.

I looked at this horrifically ugly cake and thought oh God I've ruined Linda's day. I thought of a million ways I could just buy a cake and get it over with, but it was already 10 pm and the time for cake buying was long gone (unless you counted WalMart. And I hate WalMart).

So I soldiered on. I made some chocolate buttercream and tried my hardest to use the techniques dear old Wilton has tried to teach me - weilding my angled spatula like a crazed woman I gently patted globs of icing all over the cake, spreading gently to avoid the (unavoidalble) crumbs.

Thank God for the marshmallows. I rolled them in cocoa powder to make them chocolate-y and snipped the bigger ones (for the head an tail) in half to make them sit better on the poodle. There was black licorice for the legs, tailand one ear and a chocolate chip for the eye.

Cutting the shapes out of the cake seriously depleted the cake size...and I work with a crew of about 30, so that just wasn't enough. I had made a double-batch of cake mix and had made cupcakes as well (the chocolate chips sunk there too, but luckily the papers kept them in tact). I iced 22 of them with blue icing to read "Congratulations Linda! 20" which were artistically placed the next morning ;) along with a piece of the remaining cake iced as a water bowl reading "wow" (someone joked it was a good thing I hadn't placed the "water bowl" on the other side of the dog)

When I was finished I couldn't recognize the ugly broken cake. Instead all I saw was chocolate standard poodle - and thank heavens that's all Linda saw too! She loved it so much she called her husband and had him come in to take a look before we cut the cake. Which made the cupcakes a hit, too.

Linda got a chance to tell us all about her dog, and we all had the fun of selectively removing cupcakes for maximum spelling hilarity (at one point it read "Rats, Lindo")

I'm really happy with how this worked out. I don't do shaped cakes, really, so it was a great experiment, and a great chance to practice my icing skills around all those curvy corners. I still love cupcakes, but this was a lot of fun!

Chocolate Chai Spice Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing

Armed with my new mixer...I am invincible.

No really, the mixer is phenomenal. It's like the instrument to a set of baking super powers I never knew existed, and now that I do I'm kicking myself for waiting so long. Seriously, it's like becoming a baking superhero.

It's the batmobile of baking utensils.

With that in mind, I was ready to try anything - and I was definitely ready to try something new. I'd been asked a couple of weeks back to make chocolate cupcakes, and this seemed to be a great week to try them; however, I needed a bit more kick than that. I found exactly what I was looking for on chockylit's blog Cupcake Bakeshop, one of my most-favorite-of-all-times cupcake blogs. This is a woman who is not afraid of her ingrediants, and armed with my mixer I was suddenly eager to jump into the fray.

I was so sorry to see that her blog is now closed. On her last entry she spoke about going new places (she has had a child, and is a career woman to boot), so I couldn't help but understand - yet selfishly, I wish she had continued! :) So this recipe seemed to be an even better choice, a tipping of the cap to chockylit.

What I found was a recipe for Chocolate Chai Spice Cupcakes that looked wicked good. The recipe also called for eight eggs. Eight Eggs! However, I was not worried - I have a mixer after all!

So I jumped to it, and I must say they were pretty darn delicious. I was surprised that the batter rose as much as it did (it had a bit of a dome) and they were a nice texture - but I am still searching for the perfect chocolate cake recipe - one that is more a bit more moist. That is my only complaint.

As for the icing, chockylit tried a chai buttercream, but I was in the mood for something with a bit more punch....so I invented my own! I must say, the icing is a real winner. I will definitely use it again. I've thought about what it would taste like on a vanilla chai cupcake, which I think is worth looking in to. Finally, the raspberries (my afterthought decoration) were the perfect pairing - adding a little sharp sweet to the cupcake. My co workers loved them, a few actually said it was their favourite one yet!

However, when I brought the cupcakes to work, one of my more carb-conscious co workers took to nipping the raspberries without the cupcake...which soon lead to an angry note taped to my desk outlining proper raspberry-cupcake etiquette!

For the chai spice, chockylit gives a great recipe for do-it-yourself; however I am really committed to the chai masala spice I hunted at the Toronto International Food Show made by Arvinda's,

a company that makes authentic masala spices for gourmet Indian cuisine. Personally, I'm so much in love I cannot imagine using any other chai spice (plus cardamom is a pain in neck to grind)

So, anyway, check out the recipe on chockylit's site, and the to-die-for icing is below!

Chocolate Chai Spice Cream Cheese Icing

try saying that five times fast - it's not a tongue twister, it's just fun

8 oz. softened cream cheese

1/2 c. (1 stick) softened unsalted butter

4 c. icing sugar

2 tsp. milk

2 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 tsp. chai spice

• sift cocoa, chai spice, and icing sugar together (or dump it all together and use a wire whisk for 20 seconds to break up chunks, and blend together)
• beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy
• add icing sugar mixture one cup at a time for the first two cups
• add milk
• add last two cups of icing sugar mix
• pipe with large, round tip; top with raspberries!

Again, eyeball your icing. Icing consistency changes a lot, especially as the days get hotter you may find you need more icing sugar to get a good consistency. This icing is rich and creamy!

May the mixer be with you.

The Mixer Has Arrived

Enough said.

THE MIXER IS COMING! THE MIXER IS COMING!

CONFIRMATION: One Apple Green KitchenAid Mixer has arrived and is ready for pick-up in Michigan. My boyfriend and I are making a quick international trip tonight to pick it up and cart it back to Canada!

Passport? Check
Receipt? Check
Excitement Steaming Out My Ears? Check!!!

:D

The mixer is coming!

The Coping Diet

We're all looking for ways to cope. And most of us are looking for ways to diet.
Today I received this email from a co-worker and fell of my chair laughing - I think that's the best way of coping of all!

THE COPING DIET
Only girlfriends can understand this one.
This diet is specially formulated, designed to help women cope with the stress that builds during the day.

Breakfast
1 grapefruit
1 slice whole wheat toast
1 cup skim milk

Lunch
1 small portion lean, steamed chicken
1 cup spinach
1 cup herbal tea
1 Hershey's kiss

Afternoon Snack
The rest of the Hershey kisses in the bag
1 tub of Hagen-Daaz ice cream with chocolate chips

Dinner4 glasses of wine (red or white)
2 loaves garlic bread
1 family size supreme pizza
3 Snickers Bars

Late Night Snack
1 whole Sarah Lee cheesecake (eaten directly from the freezer)

Remember: Stressed spelled backward is desserts.

Cakemess, or Week One of Wilton Cake Decorating Course

My brother and I decided to sign up for a cake decorating course offered by Wilton through our local Bulk Barn. It was only a month, and we were really excited. It came with a workbook and a kit with a bunch of tools and everything.

We went to the first course, which was just an introduction, where the Instructor made icing a cake look as easy as...icing a cake. We learned about different consistencies of icing, where I realized that my icing was way too wimpy to ever be stiff enough to make shell borders, let alone a rose. We were instructed to bring an iced cake to class for the next week, as well as a whole whack of icing, with the ultimate goal being a round blue cake with a rainbow on the top.

We left excited.

Unfortunately, our hopes were dashed with a series of mishaps throughout the weekend (leading up to our Sunday afternoon class) making for one of the most frustrating, and yet hilarious, afternoons of my life.

It started with the cake. I decided that my cupcake agenda was already expensive enough, and that I needed to find a way to make a cake that could be cost effective. Bulk Barn sold white cake mix en masse that called for nothing to be added but a little water. So I bought enough for two cakes (as per the instructions) and didn't give it much thought.

Until Saturday. I stood in front of my cake, and stared in disbelief. My cake mix, which said was enough to make a full cake, was a wimpy little flan-looking thing a mere 2 inches high. I couldn't believe it. This was my first cake to decorate? Well alright, I thought, don't stress about a wimpy cake. It will look awesome once its covered.

Riiiight.

20 minutes later I tried flipping it out of the pan. DISASTER! It turns out that no amount of flour or cooking spray is going to make a Bulk Barn white cake unstick. Instead it crumbled out of the pan in a very unflattering way. Still, I pressed on, piecing the ugly thing back together with my fingertips.

I was determined.

However, I was now also flustered. So flustered that when I looked at the recipe for the buttercream icing (which is made at a stiff consistency, and then brought down to either a medium or thin consistency) I read it completely wrong. Backed by my new worry that my icing wasn't stiff enough, what I tried to spread on the cake was like a block of cream cheese. It wasn't going anywhere, except rolling like a snowball across the top of my cake, gathering layer after layer of crumbs.

My mother found me crying in the kitchen, and her efforts to help were met with a very ungrateful attitude. No, that's not true - I accepted her overtures of help, but the cake was just too far gone. Five minutes, six angry yelps, and countless craters of cake later, I turned my spatula on an angle and let my anger out.

Three karate chops later my cake looked like this:

Needless to say, this cutie wasn't going anywhere except in the trash.

Six mouthfuls of cake and one long glass of water later, I had mustered up enough strength to try it again. This cake had similar problems -- it was a wimpy little thing that cracked into pieces. This time, though, I resorted to more drastic forms of reconstruction. Ten minutes, three skewer sticks, and a pair of garden shears later, I had pinned it together enough to handle a coat of (this time much thinner) icing). It was crappy, flat, and lumpy, but it was going to have to do.

Well didn't my brother laugh at me. And didn't he whip up a Duncan Hines chocolate cake that rose like a balloon, sniggering the same way.

But didn't he get impatient, ice it warm, and get crumbs all the way through! :P

He was so mad. He arrived at class mad. His madness was compounded by the fact that I had duplicated the mistake with icing - making it far too thick - this time too thick to properly pipe out of the bag to even make dots and shells.

It was so horrible I could only laugh. The instructor took pity on us and let us use some of her icing, and we all tried to laugh it off. Except the brother. He was pissed. So in a last ditch effort I ad-libbed my cake decoration to read:

Unfortunately, as indicated by his response, there was no salvaging this day for Simon

What a day. We went home and ate Simon's cake. Mine was not very good (as indicated by attempt #1) and full of sticks. So that one got a full afternoon of sunshine on the counter, and then made its way to the trash can.

Next week we are decorating cupcakes (thank God, a medium I understand) and I bought some Duncan Hines mixes that ensure a better raise. I've also learned more about icing, and Simon has insisted that he try piping with it before we go to class to make sure I don't mess it up again.

What a cakemess!

Maple Walnut Cupcakes

Mmmm, maple. I think this is one of my favourite flavours in the world. However, I need to qualify this comment - by saluting maple I am not saluting those awful maple cookies, or Aunt Jemima - because there isn't a drop of tree sap in those products anywhere.

Living in Ontario, I am blessed with an abundance of maple trees, and maple syrup. While I sometimes curse the twelve Manitoba Maples in the backyard which make growing an inch of grass next to impossible, there is is nothing better than opening a can of this Spring's maple syrup and making something decadent.

Real maple syrup is labelled in grades - the first run is like extra virgin olive oil - it comes from the very beginning of the Spring and has a very light colour. The colour will deepen as the season itself deepens, giving medium and amber grades which are just as delicious. In this batch I used a medium grade syrup from Paisley, Ontario, and I found it was a lovely deep flavour.

Nevertheless, the honest truth is that my own cupcakes were flavoured with maple extract, for the syrup was just too dense for a light, fluffy cupcake. However, I used maple syrup in the buttercream, which was amazing. At first it was sickly sweet - but the addition of the ground walnuts helped immensely.

Grinding the walnuts helps to release the woody (almost bitter) taste of the walnut oil, which infused the icing and added a nice deep taste to the lightness of the maple, and the texture of the cupcake.

What a success! They were a hit at work, barely making it to noon hour before the entire tray was devoured. My ode to spring, and my first maple recipe of the year.

Maple Walnut Cupcakes

makes 24 cupcakes

1 c. unsalted butter

2 c. white sugar

3 eggs

1 over ripe banana, mashed

2 3/4 c. cake flour

2 1/4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. vanilla

3 tsp. maple extract

200 g. walnuts

• sift together flour and baking powder, set aside
• mix together milk, vanilla, and maple extract, set aside
• cream butter until soft and fluffy; add sugar and mix well
• add eggs one at a time, followed by banana
• alternate wet and dry ingredients until fully incorporated
• grind walnuts in food processor until meal-like, add half of the walnuts to batter and mix until full combined
• bake in 350 degree (preheated) oven for 20-22 minutes
• allow to cool fully before icing
  

Maple Walnut Buttercream

3/4 c. unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 c. maple syrup
1/4 c. milk
5 c. icing sugar
100 g. ground walnuts (the second half of the 200 g. you just ground for the cupcakes!)

• cream together unsalted butter and maple syrup
• add 3 cups of icing sugar one cup at a time, beating to incorporate each cup
• add milk (it's ok if it looks a little "chunky" here, it will smooth out)
• add last 2 cups of icing sugar, followed by walnuts on a very low speed
• beat until smooth
  

*note! I tried to do swirls with the 1M tip on these cupcakes, but I found walnut kept clogging up the tip. So, next time I would just frost them with a knife! It's not worth ruining a tip!

Bon appetit!

Cupcake Bouquet

Oh man I can't wait to try this! Look at this technique! And it solves the riddle to two-toned icing. Mamma mia!

My Magnificent Mixer!

Oh check her out. Have you ever seen anything more lovely? Ok, ok, maybe that's a bit of an overstatment, but I must tell you how excited I am to be the proud Mama of a Kitchenaid Mixer!

I've always had a thing for the avacado green of retro kitchen appliances, and while they no longer sell fridges in that colour (believe me, I checked last fall when my Dad needed to replace his), they are now selling this puppy in "green apple" which is pretty close.

I've always wanted a mixer, they are so professional looking - I always considered them the tool of a real baker. (Although to be completely honest - since purchasing my mixer I have been shocked at the number of non-bakers who all have mixers...so perhaps my criteria was a little off). For me, I could never justify the cost of one; however, I've blown the motor out of a fair number of hand mixers this year, and in my cake decorating class the instructor told me that the icing used to make flowers and such is just too stiff for a little old hand mixer to handle on its own. So, standing mixer it is! Also, it seems like standing mixers are becoming the more frequent character in new recipes I am trying, so I decided to bite the bullet.

But that doesn't mean I have to lose my sense of style! There were eighteen colours available through JC Penney, which has them on sale right now and free shipping in the US until Father's Day (my Canadian hometown is a border city, and I've got connections that let me ship to their place across the river in the US)...how could I resist? I'm hoping that she'll be in my arms by next week, but I guess there is always the chance for delay. ::Sigh:: So it's back to the hand mixer for at least one more week -- because it's Cupcake Thursday tomorrow!

Novel Ideas, Heroic Deeds

Holy. Cow. Just when you think you have heard of the coolest thing on God's green earth, doesn't the creativity of the human race just come and surprise you with another delicious creative outlet!

I poked around on my favorite foodie blogs - I love nothing more than a rainy Saturday when I can just jump from one blog to another, seeking out the best new recipes posted this week - searching different recipes of "Opera Cake" that the Daring Bakers just finished for their May recipe challenge. I was so excited to see what this month's recipe would be, and (of course) it was another astounding success. I don't know if I am brave enough to try it on my own (it's a pretty involved recipe), but it sure was amazing to look at and drool over!

Anyway, back to blog jumping. As I moved from site to site I fell upon this amazing little blog called Champaign Taste (yup, that's how it was spelled) and I found such an amazing, creative idea nestled in its posts.

It's called Novel Food, and unlike most roundups that are quite specific in their culinary criteria, this challenge is merely to make a food that is inspired by a book! Well shit, yo, I'm in! If there is anything, anything! I possibly love more than baking...it's books. To the point that I've had to take my visa number out of my online bookstore shopping account since it was being used just a little too frequently with it ready-programmed in there!

The next deadline is June 21st, and I am totally going to try it. I can't wait to look around. Of course, I'd love to find a book that related back to cupcakes, but that might be a stretch. And frankly, baking something other than cupcakes might be a good stretch for me!

Of course, I never would have become so adventurous if it wasn't for another, more taste-specific challenge, that will keep me in cupcake heaven. It's called Cupcake Hero and it's an awesome cupcake roundup that I've been watching for a couple of months. I wanted to make sure that this wasn't for really accomplished bakers, because I'm definitely not there yet, but it seems to appeal to a high number of foodie blogs and non-foodie blogs of all talent levels. So: I'm in. This month's ingrediant was cocoa powder...which sounds really easy right? But when I started thinking about it, I realized that the fact that there was so much choice was actually the hidden challenge in this month's challenge. Supposedly all the entrants will be posting today, or around today, and I can't wait to see what has been created!

So freakin' delicious. It can rain all day at this rate!

"Spaghetti and Meatballs" Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream

There have been moments when I am a bit of a snob - turning up my nose to decadent designs with flat taste combinations. For me, it's all about the taste, the taste!, which is why I was slightly dismayed when I opened Karen Tack's book Hello Cupcake which seemed to be devoted to the art of decorating, and not the cupcakes themselves.

I know, what a snob!

Turns out the book is awesome, and in light of my new found appreciation I decided to attempt her cupcakes decorated like spaghetti and meatballs. The picture was so comical I couldn't resist, and it was the perfect way to spice up a basic vanilla cupcake recipe.

I brought them in to work today and my co-workers' mouths fell open. They couldn't believe their eyes! For one, the meatballs look really realistic which had people wondering if I had gone completely nuts, but more than anything it was just the extreme silliness of the entire situation.

So this blog entry isn't dedicated to the cupcake - it's dedicated to the decoration!

Basic Vanilla Cupcakes

makes 24 cupcake

1 c. unsalted butter

2 c. white sugar

4 eggs

2 3/4 c. cake and pastry flour

2 1/4 tsp. baking powder

1 c. plus 2 tbsp. milk

2 tsp. vanilla extract

• sift together flour and baking powder; set aside
• mix together milk and vanilla; set aside
• cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy in large mixing bowl; add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly with a mixer on medium speed
• alternate wet and dry ingredients in thirds until well combined
• fill cupcake papers 2/3 full and bake at 350 degrees for 18-22 minutes
• allow to fully cool before frosting

Vanilla Buttercream

• 3/4 c. unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4 c. milk
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 5-6 c. icing sugar

Cream unsalted butter with 1 c. icing sugar. Add milk and vanilla and then add icing sugar (4-5 c.'s) until reaches thick enough consistency to be piped consistency

Meat Sauce

adapted from Hello Cupcake! by Karen Tack

• 1 jar no-sugar added strawberry jam*
• 24 Ferrero Rocher chocolates

* I'm serious about the no-sugar added factor of the strawberry jam for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the icing is really really sweet, so the less sweet the jam, the better. It cuts the taste. Secondly, low-sugar or no sugar jam has a better colour, according to Karen Tack (and confirmed by moi!)

Assembly

• Lightly ice each cupcake; position on one tray touching each other (4x6 format)
• Use an icing bag with a 4 Round (Wilton) tip, or a ziplock bag with a very small hole for piping. If you choose to use the ziplock, try your noodle size out on a piece of wax paper before icing...my first try looked like fettuccine more than spaghetti!

• Loop that icing all over the place! Move from one cupcake to another, and let it dribble down the sides a little, to look like piles of noodles
  
• Pour the jam into a bowl, mix in chocolates gently until completely covered. Spoon one chocolate and a little jam on each cupcake*

* I would suggest that you don't add your meatsauce and meatballs until just before you are ready to serve, because the jam will set and get gelatin-ish if you leave it too long.

Voila! Excellent-ly delicious, easy, and amazing cupcakes! (Don't those meatballs look believable?)

They were very easy to make, and that vanilla cupcake recipe is easy, moist, and delicious. It's also the basis for most of my flavour experiments as I find it a really versatile recipe (except I think I should challenge that preconception soon, because as I learned last week, my orange cupcakes could have used a different base...so perhaps there is still work to be done).

Anyway, it was a great week with great results. Recommended!

Almost Orange Cupcakes with Absolutely Almond Buttercream

OK a lot of posting in a little amount of time. Turns out I lost the cord that hooks my camera up to the computer, so I had to put my pictures on CD at Shopper's Drugmart and the price for a CD is exactly the same if you have 2 pictures or 20...so I waited until I had 20.

:)

Anyway, last week for work I tried orange cupcakes with almond buttercream. The idea of the recipe started a week earlier when I read about on Wishing on Clovers' website called "Oh My Darling Clementine" Cupcakes. I tried the cupcakes and loved the clementine sharpness (which I kicked up a notch with a tsp. of orange extract) - however, when I went to make them the next week, I had lost my copy of the recipe, my computer crashed, and I had no clementines.

Time to improvise!

An orange was an easy substitute for the 2 clementines Clovers suggested, but it didn't have the same kick, even with 2 tsp's of orange extract. I also had to wing the rest of the cake recipe, and I think Clovers highlights the citrus taste a little better.

Still, it was a resounding success. Even the one Financial Advisor who used to be a professional baker said that the cake was great and the almond in the buttercream made for a fantastic fusion of tastes. It was subtle, but definitely there, and overall a pretty sophisticated blend of tastes. The morning after I took these pictures I topped all of the cupcakes with half a marachino cherry for a little colour.

The true success, though, was in my icing technique. Take a look at that swirling technique! Can you believe it? It took me a couple of tries (even to just fill the icing bag) but I totally managed it. At one moment my friend, Kiki, who was helping me bake up a storm, took a picture of me in a squatting stance to bring my eyes down level with the counter. It was embarrassing. Hence: not published!

So even more than the cupcake, I was impressed with the icing...but people hardly even noticed the artistry once they took a bite!

Almost Orange Cupcakes with Absolutely Almond Buttercream
makes 24 cupcakes

1 c. softened unsalted butter

2 c. white sugar

1 c. milk
3 tsp. orange extract
1 tsp. vanilla extract

juice of one orange

zest of one orange

2 3/4 c. cake flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder*

• Preheat Oven to 350 degrees farenheit; paper 2 cupcake pans
• sift together flour and baking powder; gently mix in zest with fingertips until just combined; set aside
• mix milk, orange extract, vanilla extract, and orange juice together; set aside
• in a large mixing bowl cream butter and sugar on medium with mixer until fluffly
• add eggs one at a time on medium speed and beat again until fluffy
• alternate wet and dry ingrediants in thirds until fully combinedtaste...does it need a few drops more orange extract? let your tastebuds guide you!
• fill cupcake liners 2/3 full; bake 18-20 minutes until golden topped and springy to the touch

* check your baking powder - it does have an expiration date. I found that my recipes turn out so much better since I splurged and got a new little container full of fresh stuff!

Almond Icing

2/3 c. unsalted butter, softened
1/4 c. milk
2 tsp. almond extract
4-5 c. icing sugar

• cream butter and 2 c. icing sugar until smooth with mixer on low (otherwise the icing sugar shoots right out of the mixing bowl)
• add milk, mix again until cottage cheese consistency.
• add icing sugar until desired thickness**
• add almond extract and beat until smooth

** I came to a breakthrough: fun 1M swirls on cupcakes need stiff icing. I used a lot more icing sugar than I generally do, which made it stiffer...and sweeter. When I finished I slipped an extra 1/2 tsp of almond extract in there. But be careful, because I think my almond extract was also a little old. I'm a big fan of the "taste test" for optimal results!

Happy Baking!

Crazy for Cookbooks

Blame it on my type-A personality that needs instructions for everything. Blame it on my English degree, that has cultivated in me the love of the written word. Blame it on whatever you like, it still doesn't change it - I love books.

I love all books: fiction, non fiction, poetry, children's...but one of my absolute favorites is the cookbook. Especially if it comes with those amazing colour photos of the final products (you can blame that one on my Art History degree because I love a textbook with pictures)...mmm, mmm.

In Ontario, my home, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) puts out a quarterly publication called food and drink which promotes a lot of alcohol, but also has some darn good recipes (which, by the way, they publish online for easy access. Check out their dessert section, it's mouthwatering) so during my very very poor days as a university student I didn't really buy a whole lot of cookbooks, although I managed to scam a bunch off my Mom.

And even now, I do a lot of my recipe searching on line because I can get feedback on the different recipes. But with my new challenge as a cupcake connoisseur, I noticed that there were the same cupcake cookbooks surfacing as must-haves. So I did what any beginning would: I got my tools.

In other words, I went on an e-shopping binge at Chapters book store and stocked up!

Before I did this, my personal cookbooks looked like this. It had a couple of goodies, including the slim volume third from the left called Cakewalk:Loving Spoonfuls from a Southern Kitchen by Robbin Gourley, and my old standard, the Joy of Cooking. It was a pretty good show, but didn't really speak to my present undertaking.

In total I spent a little more than $50.00, but when all five cookbooks came in, the box was pretty huge. Now my shelf looks like this:

A little Nigella Lawson, some Clare Crespo, and a smattering of others - what a haul! I was so excited until my Mom came into the room.

Ahh, the mumma. Her heart really is in the right place, but no amount of arguing that this was the same amount my brothers could drop in a bar in one evening fell on deaf ears. The whole scenario was slightly deflating.

Still, I soldier on! My cupcake dreams will not be quashed, and I am still super excited at my new finds that are blending my loves: cookbooks and cupcakes! Complete with glossy photos, great how-to, and some excellent stories along the way, I'm caught up in culinary bliss!

Now the adventure really begins!

Take Your Cake To Work Day

Mmm, finance. The sweet smell of money in the morning; the subtle art of crafting with cash. Nothing beats the aromatic smell of laser printer ink iced with application carbon copies...

Hmmm. Not buying it? Me neither.

In fact, being a recent English Literature and Art History major at university, an avid gardner and an aspiring baker, I had big dreams. And I found myself at 24 coming back to my family home and working as the receptionist for a major insurance company. A good job, but not quite my dream job.

Moving home was the hardest part. Leaving my new-found independence behind for a while to add some cushion to my wallet might have been a cheap fix, but had costly implications on my spirit. Coupled with the job that offers some big plusses (wage? plus. people? plus) and some bigger nonplusses (data entry? nonplus. inside all day? nonplus. routine, computer screen, routine? nonplus.), I knew that I needed a creative outlet. Fast. Something that, at home, was all my own, but also something that could make its way into my life in bigger ways and sprinkle a little joy around.

So I did what any creative cookie would - I decided to mix things up. If you can't beat 'em, cream and sugar 'em.

I brought cupcakes to work. The first week was after stumbling across the blog 52 Cupcakes, which chronicles one woman's journey of one cupcake recipe a week for a year. It. is. fabulous. What an amazing way to make your life and job just a little more exciting (and delicious).

I thought to myself how awesome is this idea! Could I start a cupcake revolution like this in my life? It was a pretty darn good fit: 1) Cupcakes are exciting for me: check. 2) Cupcakes are perfect sharing food: check. 3) Cupcakes make people happy: check. 4) Cupcakes are an excellent way to break the ice and make new friends: check.

And so it began. My pledge to my workplace to turn them all into cupcake connoisseurs in one year flat. It started with chocolate cupcakes and pink peppermint buttercream. I kept them at the front desk, and as each confused coworker entered that morning I handed them a cupcake, a napkin, and a pink scrap of paper reading: Have a cupcake, cupcake!

I've been at it for a month, now, and it has been a smashing success. There has even been a little envelope placed in the kitchen to take donations for the cause! The feedback is incredible, as are all of the stories that these recipes are bringing out of my coworkers. Stories of their childhood, mostly (which is hard to imagine of some of these suits), but also promises to recipe swap, and just general silliness.

It's amazing. Thursday (cupcake day) is an anticipated day of the week. People who have snuck in the back door come up to the front just to chat and grab a cupcake throughout the morning. Even the UPS man is excited for his early-morning sugar high. And life for me is infinitely more exciting - having something to look forward to, to prepare for, to joke about - it's made me twice as nice and more than happy.

Cold world of finances no more! Warm that up with a little cinnamon and spice!

Who said cupcakes can't change the world?