Mini Pumpkin Cupcakes

Mini Pumpkin Cupcakes

My mom makes these amazing pumpkin cookies, and this was my attempt to replicate them as cupcakes. I decided to do mini cupcakes on the grounds that that would get the cupcake/icing ratio closer to the ratio of the cookies. I also used a few more spices in the cupcakes themselves, but I don't think that hurt anything. The soft crumbly texture of the cupcakes goes great with the crunch of pecans, and the brown sugar icing provides moisture and some extra sweetness.

Cupcakes:

2 cups cake flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp cloves

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/4 tsp cardamom

1/2 cup buttermilk

vanilla

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temp

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 1/3 cup pumpkin

1 bag (12 oz) pecans

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and spices. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars. Add eggs, one a time. Stir in half the flour mixture, then the buttermilk and vanilla. Add the rest of the flour. Fold in the pumpkin, then the pecans, stirring by hand.

Spoon the batter into mini cupcake tin. Fill cups most of the way full. Bake for 10 minutes, turn, bake for 10 minutes.

Let cool.

Makes 48.

Brown Sugar Icing:

1 cup brown sugar, packed

6 tbsp butter

8 tbsp milk

1 1/2 cups xxx sugar

vanilla

In a saucepan over medium heat, bring sugar, butter, and milk to a boil, stirring frequently to avoid burning. After 2 minutes of boiling, remove from heat and whisk in the xxx sugar and the vanilla.

Use immediately, spooning generously over each cupcake.

Decorate as desired.

Cupcake recipe adapted from The Baking Robot

Icing recipe by my mother

Creme Brulee Mini Cupcakes

Creme Brûlée Mini Cupcakes

These two-bite little cupcakes are tasty, and can really be flavored any way you want -- I used vanilla in my custard, but you can use almond extract, coconut, something fruity -- basically any flavor that you really enjoy.

Cupcakes:

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup oil

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and baking soda.

In another bowl, whisk together sugars, oil, vanilla, and buttermilk. Pour into the dry ingredients and whisk until combined and smooth.

Fill mini cupcake liners with about a tablespoon of batter (about 2/3 full). Bake 7 minutes, turn tins, bake another 7 minutes.

Let cool.

Makes 36.

Creme Brûlée:

2 egg yolks

1 1/2 tbsp sugar

1 cup heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla

Beat egg yolks until thick and light colored. Beat in sugar.

In a saucepan, heat cream over medium heat until warm. Stir in vanilla.

A little at a time, stir half of the cream into the egg yolks. Make sure you are stirring constantly during this process to keep the eggs from curdling. Then add the egg mixture back into the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring continuously.

My recipe claimed it would take 5-8 minutes for the custard to thicken, but my experience was that was a LIE. It actually took closer to 50 minutes, and I eventually had to add a little cornstarch to get it to thicken up. However, I didn't have enough heavy cream and I had to supplement with about 1/3 cup light cream, so I think this is one possible cause.

Whatever the case, don't panic if your custard takes a little while to thicken. Remember to keep stirring it, and when it's thick enough to coat the spoon it's ready.

When the custard is finished, strain it into a bowl using a fine mesh to remove solids. You will need to use it immediately.

To Finish:

1/4 cup brown sugar

Before making your custard, core a small hole in the top of each cupcake.

When custard is finished, spoon enough into each cupcake to fill the hole. Set the cupcakes in the fridge for at least two hours.

Before serving, sprinkle a generous amount of brown sugar over the top of the custard.

Then use a kitchen torch to caramelize the sugar into a crust. It will turn brown.

You only need to turn the heat on it for a short while -- too long and the sugar will burn, so use your judgement based on whether or not you like the burnt sugar taste.

This recipe was a little more nerve-wracking than some due to the custard, but overall not too bad. The mini cupcakes are perfect for a tea or garden party where finger food will be served; you can even unwrap them from their wrappers ahead of time to minimize trash. And the carmalised sugar topping looks extremely elegant.

Adapted from Design Bake Run.

Chocolate-Almond Cupcakes with Chocolate Almond Ganache

Chocolate-Almond Cupcakes with Chocolate Almond Ganache

Cupcakes:
2/3 cup finely ground bittersweet chocolate
1/2 cup finely ground almonds
3/4 cup self-rising flour, sifted
4 eggs, separated
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp warm milk

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Mix together chocolate, almonds, and flour. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar under thick and pale. Stir in the chocolate mixture, then the milk. The mixture will be incredibly thick at this point. I did not thin it, but in retrospect I think I would add a little more milk to make the batter thinner and more liquid.

Beat the egg whites in a separate bowl until soft peaks form. Fold them into the batter until just combined (and this is why I think you could stand to thin the batter; I was not able to fold the egg whites because the batter was so thick, I had to beat them in with an electric mixer).

Bake for 6 minutes, turn, and bake for another 6 minutes. Let cool.

Ganache:
2/3 cup dark chocolate
1/3 cup (5 1/2 tbsp, or about 3/4 of the stick) butter
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp almond extract

Create your own double boiler using a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Melt together chocolate, butter, and cream, and stir until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in almond extract. Chill in the fridge until set.

Take the finished cupcakes and cut a small divot out of the top of each. Spoon in the chilled ganache (or pipe, if desired). If you wish, you can save the part of the cupcake that you scooped out and use it to top the ganache. Decorate with sprinkles.




I found that these cupcakes have a really interesting texture. Because of the bittersweet chocolate, they are not overly sweet, and the nut flour makes them very dense. I made some both mini and regular sized cupcakes, and I found that the mini ones were better because of the denseness.


Cupcake recipe from Cupcakes by Anneka Manning.
Ganache recipe by me.

Cherry Crumble Mini Cupcakes

Cherry Crumble Mini Cupcakes

Cupcakes:
3/4 cup butter, soft
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
1 cup self-rising flour
1/4 cup regular flour
1/2 cup canned plum juice (substitute 1/2 cup milk for juice if unavailable)
1 cup canned or fresh sweet cherries, cut into small pieces

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line mini cupcake/muffin tin with paper liners.

Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla until creamy. Add in eggs one at a time, beating well. Sift in the flours and milk/juice. Mix in the cherries by hand; do not overmix.

Crumble:
1/2 cup raw sugar
1 cup flour
1/3 cup butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup chopped pecans, if desired.

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl, using your hands, until the mixtures resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

Sprinkle crumble over the tops of the cupcakes, covering them well.

Bake for 10 minutes, turn pan, and bake for another 10 minutes.

This is another recipe that lied to me about quantity. It claims to make 24 mini cupcakes, but in reality there were 48. Also, regarding the plum juice. The original recipe calls for plums rather than cherries, and I picked it to use up some canned plums I had in the basement. However, although the juice was perfectly fine, the plums more or less disintegrated as soon as I took them out of the jar. I substituted the cherries because I happened to have them on hand.

I would not recommend switching in cherry juice because it's a lot stronger than plum juice, which is more or less just a simple syrup in which the plums have been floating -- so the taste is very mild. If you have a mild fruit juice on hand, maybe a pear juice even orange juice, that would probably be an all right substitute. On the other hand, milk should meet the requirements for a liquid just as well without having to worry about interfering with the taste of the cupcakes.

Adapted from Anneka Manning's Cupcakes.

Mini Rollo Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache

Mini Rollo Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache

Cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup water

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp white vinegar

48 rollo candies, unwrapped

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Sift together flour, soda, and cocoa powder. Stir sugar and oil together in a mixing bowl, then add in flour mixture, water, vanilla, and vinegar. Stir until smooth; make sure there are no flour lumps in the batter, as this happens really easily.

Line a mini cupcake tray with wrappers, and fill 3/4 full of batter.

Bake for 7 minutes. Remove cupcakes and quickly insert a rollo into the center of each. It should sink in a little, but not be covered by the batter. As you can see that some of the rollos are visible and some aren't. The ones that aren't were where I tried to insert the rollos at five minutes; they ended up sinking to the bottom and sticking to the cupcake wrappers, so I recommend seven minutes. Since you're going to frost the cupcakes, it doesn't matter if the rollos are visible on top.

Ganache:

12 oz semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup heavy cream

48 rollo candies, unwrapped

Heat the cream in a saucepan until it comes to a boil. Immediately pour it over the chocolate in a heatproof bowl, then stir until totally combined and smooth. Refrigerate for several hours, or until firm.

Spoon the ganache into a piping bag and pipe little swirls onto the tops of the cupcakes, covering the rollos. I meant to take pictures of this process as I did it, and then forgot, but as you can see, the spirals don't need to be perfect, because once you have piped them you should quickly place a rollo on top of the ganache as an accent. I also used edible silver sprinkles for accents.

The original recipe directed you to make your own caramel filling, but I have had bad luck in this area. If you melt kraft caramels they have a tendency to reharden into solid lumps of rock-hard caramel, so I prefer to use the rollo, which stays soft even after being melted.

I will say that the recipe made exactly 50 mini cupcakes, and there was exactly the right amount of ganache, which has not been my experience with Martha Stewart recipes, which often lie about this key feature. So excellent!

Adapted from Design Bake Run.