We give you the cupcake enthusiast

IN A WORLD FULL OF STRESS AND homework, WHAT CAN PUT YOUR MIND AT REST AND YOUR STOMACH IN BLISS? WELL, DUH…

A CUPCAKE!!!

We give you, The Cupcake Enthusiast!

Welcome to The Cupcake Enthusiast, a blog about cupcakes! Anna and Eva, former cupcake entrepreneurs, swimmers, and best friends have joined to give you folks out there a beacon of bake-able hope to put a smile on your face in time of need through recipes, commentary, experiences, and more. (Hopefully) So start reading now, you fools, and embark on a frosting-smeared journey into a world of… um, you get the picture. This must-read blog is sprinkle-filled delight to the cupcake lover inside all of us, if we do say so ourselves! Read! Read! Read!



Thursday, March 18, 2010

Some Beautiful carrot cupcakes



Ona beautiful theursday afternoon I decided to make some awesome carrot cupcakes. They were awesome. I had the day off because( I know what your thonking, and know I had confrences) I decided to make some carrot cupcakes with my gradma. I startede bye searching the cumputor foe a carrot ckae recipe that didn't have pineapple or apllesauce ( we did'nt have any ). I ended up having to go through my grandmas amazing selection of cookbooks till we found the perfect recipe. I started by grading 4 cups of carrots( with help from my friend choppy thing A.K.A Cuisinart). After that I dumped all the ingredeints into te beloved mixer and well, mixed. After that was over I carefully scooped them with all of their awesomeness into the tins and set them to bake. I was a little worried becuase my grandmas oven is form the 1920s and the temp gage dosent work so well, but.............. lucklty they din't stick. Te bad side: NO BREAD PUDDING:( Anywho I set to work making the frosting . I have decided that frosting is the best food in the world brcause it's butter sugar and cream cheese (heaven). I pulled the cupcaked out only to descover I hac 20 minutes to frost thenm and they were still hot. My goal was to do one sheet. To cool them down I had a plan.....
A) To put them on a bead of ice. (It DID NOT exactly work)
B) to cover them with a cloth and put them in the fridge. (The answer is above)




WITH SPELLING ISSUES TO BE CONTINUED

Monday, March 15, 2010

I love cupcakes

the tittle tells all I love cupcakes

Some aewsome cupcake recipes

SO, (announced self-importantly)

We cupcake enthusiasts might have mentioned in the blog proceeding the most recent Oreo Cupcake one, that we would give you the recipe for Thick & Rich Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes w/ Coffee Frosting! and, as we always, well, somethimes keep our promices and follow through here it is! Fortunately for you folks; we feel guilt tripped into adding a second recipe. Wait for one get one free!


Thick & Rich Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes w/ Coffee Frosting
  • 3 ounces fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), chopped
  • 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, chopped
  • 3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F. and butter and flour an 8-inch square baking pan, knocking out excess flour.

In a heavy 1 1/2-quart saucepan melt bittersweet and unsweetened chocolates and butter over low heat, stirring, until smooth and remove pan from heat. Cool mixture to lukewarm and whisk in sugar and vanilla. Add eggs, 1 at a time, whisking well until mixture is glossy and smooth. Stir in salt and flour just until combined and stir in chocolate chips.

Spread batter evenly in pan and bake in middle of oven 25 to 30 minutes, or until a tester comes out with crumbs adhering to it. Cool brownies completely in pan on a rack before cutting into 16 squares. Brownies keep, layered between sheets of wax paper in an airtight container at cool room temperature, 5 days.
FROSTING

  • espresso whipped buttercream frosting
  • 2 sticks unsalted organic butter, softened
  • 1 cup organic pure cane sugar
  • 1 cup organic whole milk
  • 1/4 cup sifted organic all-purpose flour
  • 1-2 tablespoons powdered espresso
  • 1-2 tablespoons hot water
  • make the frosting

    In a small saucepan, combine 1/4 cup of the milk with flour, whisking until there are no lumps. Over medium heat, slowly add the remaining 3/4 cup milk. Whisk constantly over medium-high heat and cook until bubbles form and it comes to a low boil. Reduce heat to low and keep whisking for a few more minutes until the mixture starts to thicken. Remove from heat and keep stirring. Then let cool to room temperature. Quicken this step by throwing mixture into freezer until it is room temperature. If there’s a thick skin on top that’s developed while in the freezer, remove and discard it.

    While milk-flour mixture is cooling, make the butter-sugar mixture. In a mixer, cream butter on medium speed for 3-5 minutes. Add in sugar and beat on high speed until light and fluffy, 5-7 minutes. Once milk-flour mixture is cooled, on low speed, slowly pour the milk-flour mixture into the butter-sugar mixture. Increase to medium speed and beat until frosting is light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes.

    Dissolve espresso powder in hot, preferably boiling, water. Start with 1 tablespoon of each. I was looking for a stronger coffee flavor so I went with 2 tablespoons of each. However, add additions slowly so that you do not lose the desired frosting consistency. Frost the cupcakes!




Keylime cupcakes


Ingredients

  • 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
  • 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon grated Key lime zest
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 3/4 cups self-rising flour
  • 3/4 cup whole milk
  • 1/4 cup fresh Key lime juice, divided
  • 1 cup confectioners sugar
  • 1 tablespoon rum (optional)
print a shopping list for this recipe

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Generously butter a 9- by 2-inch round cake pan and line bottom with a round of parchment paper.

Toast coconut in a small baking pan in oven, stirring once or twice, until golden, 8 to 12 minutes. Cool. Leave oven on.

Beat together butter, granulated sugar, and zest with an electric mixer until fluffy. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Stir together flour and 1/2 cup coconut (reserve remainder for topping). Stir together milk and 2 tablespoons lime juice. At low speed, mix flour and milk mixtures into egg mixture alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour.

Spoon batter into pan and smooth top. Bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Cool to warm, then turn out of pan and discard parchment.

Whisk together confectioners sugar, remaining 2 tablespoons lime juice, and rum (if using) and pour over cake. Sprinkle with remaining coconut.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Oreo cupcake madness

What sounds better than an oreo cupcakes, cookies and cake double yum (yum).
Well that's what we thought until well, we pulled them out of the oven. So grab a drink, sit down, and read. It all started after an incredibly boring series of little league games. For us the whole 4 hours included switching between watching our brothers games, drawing ion each others hands, and sitting in trees making up stories about random people ( we were really bored).
After the freezing cold, mildly interesting, drawing on handish game, we decided to make some cupcakes. Eva had just bought some joe joes so it seemed fitting to make oreo cupcakes. We have no ides what caused the lack of yummyness but after about an hour of baking and snacking we pulled the cupcakes about of the oven and as i would say they were "blucky" they were dry and just not good. The cupcakes were BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD.
But at least they made good bread pudding :)

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Over here to our avid and dedicated readers (all, like, 3 of you), this is our first official blog so we are screaming. We kingly invite you to freak out with us. (Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!) Oh, come on, you know we would freak out for you. Anyways, in our first blog we would like to tell you readers about the first time we baked for a formal event; with the recipe attached at the end. It seems only fitting. And here, my friends, is how it all began... As we might have or might not have mentioned before in our intro, we are into swimming. I usually swim 5 days a week for the YMCA Pirates, 2:30min-2:15min a practice. How this relates to our cupcakes: the YMCA Pirates has an annual swim-team banquet. Last year's I accidentally commemorated it by getting the worst haircut of my life just hours before, so this time I was determined to make a better impression. Since the people who wrote the best and funniest speeches had left the team shortly before, we decided to try to keep up the Best Speech tradition by writing one ourselves. As we progressed into the difficult assignment, we realized how much it would improve our presentation to have props and/or gifts. As my English teacher says: "Go with what you know for better results!" So we came to the conclusion that the perfect balance of a prop, a gift, and something we knew about was a cupcake! Not-quite-longish story made slightly shorter-ishy, us baking/swimming/chatting pros made scrumdiddlyumptious cupcakes which we cleverly invented ourselves by mixing and matching parts of other recipes to make Thick & Rich Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes w/ Coffee Frosting! Stay tuned for recipe: coming soon to a computer near you! (aka, the one in front of your face)