Buttermilk Funfetti Cupcakes with Fluffy Vanilla Frosting

Buttermilk Funfetti Cupcakes with Fluffy Vanilla Frosting

idk, I have an art show to go to to-morrow (I have three pieces in it) and they asked if the artists could bring food. I've been wanting to do something easy, especially since my sister is visiting this weekend and I think I'm going to try chocolate malted for her. So yeah.

Cupcakes:

4 1/2 cups flour, sifted
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 cup + 2 tbsp (2 1/4 sticks) butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
5 whole eggs + 3 egg yolks
2 cups buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla
Rainbow sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Whisk together flour, bp, and bs. Set aside. In another bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in eggs, one at a time; then add yolks, and beat until combined.

Add buttermilk and flour alternately. Add vanilla.

Add in the sprinkles last of all, and mix as little as possible. If you overmix, the color will bleed out of the sprinkles (this happened to me, sob).

Fill cupcake tins about 3/4 of the way with batter. Bake 10 minutes, turn, bake another 10 minutes.
Note: this recipe makes a LOT of cupcakes. It claims 36, but I got a respectable 42, and I'm prone to overfilling the cups. If you're worried about having too many, definitely cut the recipe in half.

Frosting:

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, soft.
2 cups xxx sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Milk if needed
Food color if desired

Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and creamy. Add vanilla. If the frosting is too thick, thin it a little with milk/cream -- just be careful to add the liquid in roughly 1 tbsp increments, because it's super easy to overdo it.

There was pretty much exactly enough icing for all the cupcakes in one batch, and I think I'm fairly liberal with icing, but if you are an icing lover you may want to add half again to this recipe.

As you can see, I colored mine. I use Wilton paste colors and I'll swear by them, but liquid food dyes certainly work fine as well.

As a final note, I swear this color is not brown. It's raspberry. It just didn't show up right in pictures at ALL.

Adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.

Mini Boston Cream Cakes with Chocolate Ganache and Creme Patisserie

Mini Boston Cream Cakes with Creme Patisserie and Chocolate Ganache Glaze

Warning: the creme patisserie is the long lead time item here; it has to chill for at least two hours before you can use it. I didn't notice that when I made these, so I had to wait around FOREVER for it to set. DON'T BE ME. Make it ahead.

Cupcakes:

6 tbsp (3/4 stick) butter, cut into pieces

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup milk

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter and flour your cupcake tins. This is really important -- I have baked using spray before, and it just does not work the same. Stuff does not come out nearly as nicely. If you can, definitely do it this way. The cupcakes popped right out with hardly any effort on my part at all.

Sift together flour and bp; set aside. In a saucepan, combined milk and butter. The recipe says to do this over "very low heat", in which case I should warn you that it takes a million years. I ended up turning it up -- first to 1 on a numbered stove, then to 3 and finally 5 (since ultimately you need it to boil).

Edit: I ended up making a second batch of cupcakes because I had ganache/cream left over, and definitely go ahead and heat up the milk faster.

Use an electric mixer to whisk the eggs and sugar until fluffy, pale, and thick enough to hold a ribbon on the surface for a few seconds -- about five minutes. Reduce speed, and add the flour slowly. Don't over mix.

Bring the milk stuff to boil. Again -- this can take a long time, and in the meantime the batter will get all weird and spongy; you may need to mix it again to get it back to the right consistency. When the milk boils, add it slowly to the batter and mix until smooth. Add vanilla.

Fill the prepared tins. The recipe says to fill halfway full, but I found that the cupcakes did not rise as much as I expected, and 3/4 full is probably better. I say this as someone who always overfills the cups, this is actually a recipe where it's better to overfill. Instead of running over, this batter rises up in a dome, so you don't have to worry about a mess. Bake for 8 minutes, turn, and bake for another 8.

I was able to transfer the cupcakes out of the pan immediately, using a knife to go around the edges. You may prefer to wait 10 minutes. When the cupcakes cool a bit, you can cut them in half very gently, using a serrated knife.

Creme Patisserie:

4 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

pinch of salt

2 cups milk

1 tsp vanilla

Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl; set aside. Combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a saucepan, heat over medium; slowly add milk. Cook until mixture thickens, stirring constantly. My recipe suggested this should only take five minutes, but it definitely took longer for me. It will get only slightly thicker, like very watered down glue, but you can see it on your spoon.

Add a third of the milk mixture to the egg yolks while whisking constantly, then add it back and continue to cook it, still whisking constantly, until it comes to a boil and gets really thick. At this point, it is so thick that "boil" is kind of a difficult term. It will make a lot of big thick bubbles that pop grossly, and it is very pale yellow. I found that 5 minutes was about right here.

Take it off the heat, add the vanilla, strain it through a sieve into a heatproof bowl. Cover it with plastic wrap, pressed down onto the surface to keep a skin from forming (note: I did not do this, because I am lazy; the skin can be whisked back into the mixture pretty easily, though). Refrigerate until chilled and firm, anywhere from 2 hours to 2 days.

Ganache:

6 oz. semisweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used mini chocolate chips, which worked well and avoided a lot of extra work)

2/3 cups heavy cream

1 tbsp light corn syrup.

Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Bring cream and corn syrup to simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat, then pour over chocolate. Let stand for a little bit.

Then stir it together slowly until it combines, which make take a little bit. The mixture will get thick and creamy. At this point, you can strain it to get out any remaining chocolate solids (of course I did this, I am anal-retentive about straining things), which leaves it nice and smooth. 

Take your halved cupcakes and put about a spoonful of creme patisserie on the bottom half. For the top half, take a spoonful of ganache and spread it around so the cupcake top is fully covered. Stick them together, et voila!

Caveat: These recipes make about 1/3 more ganache and creme patisserie than cupcakes. I ended up making another half batch of cupcakes to use up the extra. If you don't want to deal with this, you may want to halve or do 2/3 recipes of the former.

ALSO, I would definitely serve these chilled. You can see from the pictures (above: chilled, right: not chilled) that the ones I chilled have a much smoother texture and the creme patisserie is firm enough to hold up without the tops sliding off (which they will definitely try to do). If you are making them for an event, definitely make them ahead and let them sit in the fridge for an hour or so.

Adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.

Mocha Cupcakes with Seven-Minute Frosting and Coffee-Bean Garnish

Mocha Cupcakes with Seven-Minute Frosting and Coffee-Bean Garnish

Cupcakes:

2 1/4 cup flour, sifted

2 tbsp cocoa

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup sour cream

3/4 cup espresso

Preheat the oven to 325 F.

Whisk together flour and cocoa. In another bowl, cream butter until smooth. Add brown sugar and eggs and beat until well-mixed. My recipe says "fluffy", but the batter was actually unnervingly grainy at this point. It's okay! Add vanilla and baking soda, beat until combined.

Add flour alternating with sour cream. I did not have enough sour cream, so I did halvies with plain yogurt and it worked great, no problem. Still got that nice moist texture. By now the batter also was starting to get smooth and not as weird-looking. Add the espresso (I just used super-strong coffee). The recipe also calls for 1 tbsp of espresso powder, which I didn't use because I didn't have any. I think the coffee flavor is still there, but if you like stuff really strongly flavored you may want to add the espresso powder. I will note the recipe says NOT INSANT COFFEE!!11!, idk the difference myself.

Fill lined baking cups about 3/4 full. The cupcakes do rise nicely, but the ones that overflowed still didn't stick to the pan; this was a nice batter. Bake 11 minutes, rotate, bake another 11 minutes. Let cool.

Frosting:

1 1/2 cups + 2 tbsp sugar

2/3 cup water

2 tbsp light corn syrup

6 egg whites

Combine 1 1/2 cups of sugar with water and corn syrup over medium heat (about 5 on a numbered stove). Use a candy thermometer to tell when the mixture reaches 230 degrees F ("soft ball"). Meanwhile, whisk the egg whites until they are soft peaks. Add 2 tbsp sugar to egg stuff.

When syrup reaches soft ball, take it off the heat immediately and slowly pour it down the side of the bowl of egg whites while beating on medium. When all the syrup is in, raise speed to medium-high and let it go for the proverbial seven minutes (stiff peaks, bowl is cool). I also added a tablespoon or so of the leftover coffee for flavour.

Dollop onto cupcakes; garnish with coffee beans.

Recipe and Frosting adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.

A word about the frosting: This is how Martha shows it looking on the cupcakes. NO WAY. There is some secret ingredient she is using to get that consistency, and I have NO IDEA what it is. I've made seven-minute frosting many times, and it is always, always the way it looks in my pics, not the way it looks in the book. I would love to be able to do that architectural sculpting, but no way. I have no idea what she did.

Coconut Cupcakes with Coconut Frosting

Coconut Cupcakes with Coconut Frosting

Cupcakes:
1 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup shredded coconut (I upped this to about a cup with no ill effects)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
1 1/3 cup sugar
2 whole eggs + 2 egg whites
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup unsweet coconut milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Whisk together flour, bp, and coconut. The original recipe suggests grinding the coconut in a food processor to make it more fine, but I just put mine in the way it came and had no texture problems.

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Then beat in the eggs, one at a time, and add the vanilla. When these are well-combined, add the flour mixture alternating with the coconut milk until smooth.

Fill your cupcake tins. This recipe is supposed to make 20; I got 24. The cupcakes rise a reasonable amount, so if you fill the liners about 2/3 full, this gives them a nice swelling curve across the top. Bake them for 10 minutes, rotate, and bake another 10 minutes. Let them cool.

Adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

Frosting:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
2 1/2 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar (SIFT IT I PROMISE)
1/3 cup coconut milk
1 1/2 tsp coconut extract. The original recipe calls for a vanilla bean/vanilla extract, but I wanted a really rich coconut flavour so I used coconut extract. Obviously you can modify this according to your preferences.

Beat the butter until it's fluffy, then add everything else. Beat it until fluffy. I found that when I beat it the icing developed a kind of weird texture, almost a little grainy? Which I think may have been because the coconut milk was too warm (mine was frozen in a tin so I had to reheat it on the stove).

I decided to be brave and try to use a piping bag, which negated the issue with the texture; however, I am pretty wretched at piping which is why it looks kind of weird and squiggly. I would suggest if you are comfortable with piping, go ahead! If you are like me and always cause a disaster when piping, just go ahead and spread it with the spatula.

Sprinkle with your choice of coloured sugar.

Adapted from epicurious.com

Tiramisu Cupcakes with Marsala Syrup and Mascarpone Frosting

Tiramisu Cupcakes with Marsala Syrup and Mascarpone Frosting

adapted from Martha Stewart's cupcake book

Cupcakes:

1 1/4 cups flour, sifted
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup milk
1 vanilla bean, cut up and opened
4 tbsp (1/2 stick) butter, chopped into wee pieces
3 eggs + 3 egg yolks
1 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 325. Whisk together flour and baking powder (I always sift these ingredients together and I think it makes a big difference; the flour is less likely to form little clumps and the bp gets integrated evenly).

Take the milk and vanilla bean and put them together in a little saucepan; scrape out the vanilla beans so the seeds are mixed into the milk. Cook it on about a 5 (medium) until little bubbles form around the edge. Take it off the heat, whisk in the butter pieces until it's all melted together, then let it sit for a while.

Mix together the eggs and sugar thoroughly, then put your mixing bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Whisk it by hand until the sugar is dissolved. This doesn't take nearly as long as you'd think. It will look basically like it did before. Whip it with an electric mixer until it gets super thick and fluffy. A ribbon of batter will stay on the surface for a couple of seconds.

Fold in the flour slowly. Strain the milk mixture to get out the vanilla pods (if you don't cut them too small, you can really do this by hand just by picking the pieces out), whisk a little batter into the milk, then add the milk mixture back into the batter and whisk it gently until it's folded together.

Put it in your lined cupcake pan. The recipe says it will make about 18; I got 23. Fill the cups about 3/4 of the way. The batter at this point is super fluffy and a little spongy on the bottom.

Bake for 10 minutes, rotate pans, bake another 10 minutes (using this method of turning the cupcakes halfway through has been insanely good for me in terms of getting stuff cooked evenly all the way through). Take them out, let them cool a bit. Now it is time to add the syrup!

Syrup:

1/3 + 1 tbsp very strong coffee or espresso
1 oz. (2 tbsp) marsala or other sweet dessert wine
1/4 cup sugar
Stir them together while the coffee is hot so that the sugar dissolves.

Brush the syrup onto the cooled cupcakes. I poked a few holes in the tops because I thought the syrup would soak in better, but I think that was actually unnecessary.

Frosting:

1 cup heavy cream
8 oz. mascarpone
1/2 cup sifted xxx sugar

Whip the cream until it's stiff peaks. Fold together the cheese and sugar in another bowl. Fold into the whip cream. Use right away -- it plops right down in lumps. I spiked it a little with my fingers, but you can probably smooth it pretty well with a spatula or knife.

Dust with cocoa powder.

If you're like me and you hate creamy cheeses in your desserts, regular whip cream also works just great; sweeten it with a spoonful or two of regular sugar.