Baking cupcakes in my tiny NYC apartment is a real balancing act. Cupcakes are often found cooling on my printer, baking gear on the scanner, and (at times) I've had to ask my neighbor to stowe stuff at his place while I work (trade-off is fresh cupcakes). I have a cat who loves frosting too, so I have to keep everything edible in a non-feline-friendly location.
But, there were some products I'd been dying to try, and a friend's birthday party to bake for, so I spent a day baking cupcakes. And photographing the experience.
I chose to bake vanilla cupcakes with lemon curd filling and cream cheese frosting. And topped with a strawberry slice. I used the vanilla cake mix from SpoonNYC, but followed the instructions in the back of Hello, Cupcake!
The book recommends substituting buttermilk for water, and using 4 eggs (no matter what the mix recipe calls for). You use the exact amount of oil the mix recommends.
Hello, Cupcake! also says to put the batter into Ziplock bags, and use them to fill the baking cups. It was a tremendously messy and somewhat wasteful transfer, but in the end it was the best way I've yet managed for cup-filling.
SpoonNYC's cake mix recommends sifting the mix because they don't use any anticlumping agents. This was a very important part of the instructions and I'd say not to skip it because (unlike in most commercial mixes) there were some hard little lumps that resisted the sifter.
The sifter sends out a big puff of mix, which eventually ended up on my floor:
Thank you Martha Stewart show for these new Wilton cupcake pans!
And Martha Stewart cupcake liners:
I filled the cupcakes with some SpoonNYC lemon curd (*drool*), using my 99-cent store "injector."
For the frosting, I used a standard cream cheese recipe with slight "Stacie" modifications.
To 16 ounces of cream cheese and 8 ounces of butter I added some lemon zest and about 1 generous teaspoon of vanilla extract. (I'm still dying to try that Utah-based Mexican vanilla extract that Sweet Revenge's Marlo Scott raved about on the Martha Stewart show.) I creamed that together quite thoroughly, then added confectioners sugar a bit at a time.
Mix mix mix mix mix:
I put the frosting into Ziplock bags as well, and placed the bags inside of some plastic cups (to support the weight and to serve as a holster for my frosting "guns"). (Not very environmentally conscious of me, I know, but it totally worked and made the process easier for amateur bakers like me.)
This is a cupcake frosted while it was still too warm, and just so I could taste it. I SO could not wait!
It was excellent. I prefer them a bit cooler, but it was so damn good! The buttermilk made a huge difference. If possible, I'll be using buttermilk in future cupcake attempts. When I visited with Melissa Chmelar at tbsp the other week, she mentions that she uses olive oil in her cake recipes! I was impressed with that and had planned to use light olive oil but all I had was extravirgin/first cold pressed, so I had to use vegetable oil instead. Next time, though.
I also thought that these cupcakes weren't as sweet as commercial mixes and I really appreciated that. I am one of those people who prefer the not-to-sweet cupcakes varieties. These were firm, and perfect for building a frosting project.
This is what they looked like frosted, but without the strawberry slice.
This brought me to yesterday's HELP! post. I knew I wanted to use strawberry slices on top of my cupcake, but I didn't know yet how I was going to do it. In the meantime, I placed them in their traveling cupcake boxes, again, courtesy of the Martha Stewart show the CTTC'ers went to last month.
Cute, right? And perfect for my friend's birthday party!
It was then I made the final decision about how to treat the strawberries. It had come down to the following ways to prevent fresh-fruit "uglification":
I didn't have any apricot or apple jam/jelly/glaze/preserves handy, and I wanted to wrap and beribbon the cupcakes before I left the house, so I decided to go with the lemon-juice method.
I'm glad I chose that method, although there was a tiny bit of red strawberry stain on the top of the cupcake. The cupcakes traveled many a mile through storm and wind, not to mention subway, and arrived at the party in tip-top shape.
The birthday boy had requested additional frosting (he had a frosting bar and a cake made of frosting!), which I brought in the empty SpoonNYC lemon curd jar.
At the end of their journey, this is what the cupcakes looked like:
I was impressed. Next time I'll wait for the lemon-juiced strawberry slices to dry a bit more before placing them in the frosting. And the time after that (I'm already planning) I'm going to try the apricot-glaze method, so I can compare and contrast.
Also, I want to say thanks again to all the people who emailed and commented on my cry for help about the fruit. I'm grateful for your thoughts and solutions. You guys rock.
You can see more of the birthday cupcake baking set here; all photos by Stacie Joy.
But, there were some products I'd been dying to try, and a friend's birthday party to bake for, so I spent a day baking cupcakes. And photographing the experience.
I chose to bake vanilla cupcakes with lemon curd filling and cream cheese frosting. And topped with a strawberry slice. I used the vanilla cake mix from SpoonNYC, but followed the instructions in the back of Hello, Cupcake!
The book recommends substituting buttermilk for water, and using 4 eggs (no matter what the mix recipe calls for). You use the exact amount of oil the mix recommends.
Hello, Cupcake! also says to put the batter into Ziplock bags, and use them to fill the baking cups. It was a tremendously messy and somewhat wasteful transfer, but in the end it was the best way I've yet managed for cup-filling.
SpoonNYC's cake mix recommends sifting the mix because they don't use any anticlumping agents. This was a very important part of the instructions and I'd say not to skip it because (unlike in most commercial mixes) there were some hard little lumps that resisted the sifter.
The sifter sends out a big puff of mix, which eventually ended up on my floor:
Thank you Martha Stewart show for these new Wilton cupcake pans!
And Martha Stewart cupcake liners:
I filled the cupcakes with some SpoonNYC lemon curd (*drool*), using my 99-cent store "injector."
For the frosting, I used a standard cream cheese recipe with slight "Stacie" modifications.
To 16 ounces of cream cheese and 8 ounces of butter I added some lemon zest and about 1 generous teaspoon of vanilla extract. (I'm still dying to try that Utah-based Mexican vanilla extract that Sweet Revenge's Marlo Scott raved about on the Martha Stewart show.) I creamed that together quite thoroughly, then added confectioners sugar a bit at a time.
Mix mix mix mix mix:
I put the frosting into Ziplock bags as well, and placed the bags inside of some plastic cups (to support the weight and to serve as a holster for my frosting "guns"). (Not very environmentally conscious of me, I know, but it totally worked and made the process easier for amateur bakers like me.)
This is a cupcake frosted while it was still too warm, and just so I could taste it. I SO could not wait!
It was excellent. I prefer them a bit cooler, but it was so damn good! The buttermilk made a huge difference. If possible, I'll be using buttermilk in future cupcake attempts. When I visited with Melissa Chmelar at tbsp the other week, she mentions that she uses olive oil in her cake recipes! I was impressed with that and had planned to use light olive oil but all I had was extravirgin/first cold pressed, so I had to use vegetable oil instead. Next time, though.
I also thought that these cupcakes weren't as sweet as commercial mixes and I really appreciated that. I am one of those people who prefer the not-to-sweet cupcakes varieties. These were firm, and perfect for building a frosting project.
This is what they looked like frosted, but without the strawberry slice.
This brought me to yesterday's HELP! post. I knew I wanted to use strawberry slices on top of my cupcake, but I didn't know yet how I was going to do it. In the meantime, I placed them in their traveling cupcake boxes, again, courtesy of the Martha Stewart show the CTTC'ers went to last month.
Cute, right? And perfect for my friend's birthday party!
It was then I made the final decision about how to treat the strawberries. It had come down to the following ways to prevent fresh-fruit "uglification":
- coating the strawberry slices in strained, warmed jam, jelly or glaze (such as apple or apricot),
- dipping or coating the slices in lemon juice, or
- slicing and placing the strawberries on the cupcakes when I arrived at the party.
I didn't have any apricot or apple jam/jelly/glaze/preserves handy, and I wanted to wrap and beribbon the cupcakes before I left the house, so I decided to go with the lemon-juice method.
I'm glad I chose that method, although there was a tiny bit of red strawberry stain on the top of the cupcake. The cupcakes traveled many a mile through storm and wind, not to mention subway, and arrived at the party in tip-top shape.
The birthday boy had requested additional frosting (he had a frosting bar and a cake made of frosting!), which I brought in the empty SpoonNYC lemon curd jar.
At the end of their journey, this is what the cupcakes looked like:
I was impressed. Next time I'll wait for the lemon-juiced strawberry slices to dry a bit more before placing them in the frosting. And the time after that (I'm already planning) I'm going to try the apricot-glaze method, so I can compare and contrast.
Also, I want to say thanks again to all the people who emailed and commented on my cry for help about the fruit. I'm grateful for your thoughts and solutions. You guys rock.
You can see more of the birthday cupcake baking set here; all photos by Stacie Joy.
Comments
The best (and least messy) way I've found to get batter into cupcakes is using a cookie scoop. I presently only have a middle sized scoop- so regular cupcakes take about one and a half to two scoops full, while minis take a half to one, and Texas cupcakes (the large ones) can take up to four and a half.
I felt like singing when I figured out that I could use my cookie scoop for cupcakes.