Mezzo-Mezzo Cupcakes

It’s been a long time since I’ve baked cupcakes, but lately I’ve missed eating cupcakes and since there are no “cupcakeries” in the Island, if I crave them I have to bake them. My mom wanted to bake and I used the opportunity to drill the idea of cupcakes into her head until convinced that cupcakes were the way to go. With my brother’s birthday approaching we used this batch as a taste test for the Mezzo-Mezzo Cupcakes from Cupcakes Galore (any excuse is good for baking cupcakes!) and they turned out to be awesome. Sadly the batch I made for my brother’s birthday didn’t turn out as moist and fluffy as the first batch. I think this might have been either because I used all-purpose flour instead of the usual unbleached all-purpose flour I use or because the flour I used was cold from being in the fridge for a few months now. Either way they were still good, but not as fluffy as the first batch. Another thing that I varied both times was that I creamed the butter and sugar instead of melting the butter and adding the sugar to the dry ingredients. In general both batches were chocolaty without overwhelming the palate followed by a slow and mellow coffee flavor. The Chocolate Whipped Cream Frosting was awesome; it was like a nice creamy cup of cappuccino melting in your mouth, it was so good I wanted to eat the frosting alone. If I could I would eat them every day.

Mezzo-Mezzo Cupcakes
Makes: 16

Cupcakes:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup light brown sugar

3 tablespoons instant coffee or espresso powder

1 stick unsalted butter

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1 cup sour cream

Chocolate Whipped Cream Frosting:

1 cup heavy whipping cream, chilled

3 tablespoons sugar (I used powdered)

1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tablespoon instant coffee powder

Procedure

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a large bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients together and set aside.

In another bowl, cream butter and sugar until white and fluffy; add eggs, and sour cream together. Pour into dry ingredients, rapidly mixing with a wooden spoon until batter is smooth.

Spoon batter into cupcake papers, filling cups about two-thirds full. Cook for 15-20 minutes or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Remove from oven and cool.

To make the frosting: put cream, sugar, cocoa, and coffee powder in a large bowl. Stir, cover, and let sit in the refrigerator for about an hour, until chocolate and coffee have dissolved. Remove from refrigerator and beat with an electric beater until stiff.

Frost cooled cupcakes just before serving.

Coconut Layer Cake and Cupcakes

My mom's birthday was on August the 23rd, all she asked from me was A home-baked coconut layer cake. Without knowing she helped decide which layer cake to enter in the Layers of Cake event that is being held at quirky cupcakes. BUT, I have a horrible memory and forgot to submit my cake, I was lucky that I checked the site today and read that the event had been extended... therefore, I still have a chance!!

The layer cake is adapted from the Martha Stewart site and the frosting is from Bon Appetit. The cake was for a three layer cake, but instead of a third layer I used the batter for cupcakes. I got 20 cupcakes from the third layer batter. The cake was very moist with a hint of saltiness from the cream cheese frosting, great with a nice glass of milk!



Coconut Layer Cake (adapted from Martha Stewart)
Makes about 8-10 servings

* 3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
* 2 1/4 cups sugar
* 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
* Salt
* 3/4 cup canola oil
* 12 large eggs, separated
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 3/4 cup sugar
* 1/4 cup cream of coconut
* 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
* 2/3 cup unsweetened coconut shavings, for garnish

Procedure

-Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter three 8-inch round cake pans with butter. Set aside.
-Sift flour, 1 3/4 cups sugar, the baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon salt into the bowl of an electric mixer.
-Whisk together 3/4 cup water, canola oil, egg yolks, and vanilla in another bowl. Add yolk mixture to flour mixture; mix on medium-high speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl; set aside.
-Put egg whites and a pinch of salt into the clean bowl of the mixer fitted with the whisk attachment; beat on medium speed until foamy. Raise speed to medium-high; beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining 1/2 cup sugar; beat until stiff, glossy peaks form.
-Fold 1/4 of egg-white mixture into batter with a rubber spatula. Fold in remaining egg-white mixture in 2 batches. Divide batter evenly among prepared pans. Bake until cakes are golden brown and spring back when pressed, 30 to 35 minutes. Invert cakes onto wire racks to cool.
-Bring 1 cup water, the 3/4 cup of sugar, a pinch of salt, and the cream of coconut to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring occasionally. Boil 1 minute; let stand.
-Place 1 cake on a serving plate, and brush with 1/3 cup coconut syrup. Spread with 1 cup cream cheese frosting, and sprinkle with 1/3 cup sweetened coconut. Top with another cake layer; brush with 1/3 cup syrup and sprinkle with 1/3 cup sweetened coconut Top with final cake; brush with remaining 1/3 cup syrup. Refrigerate until firm.
-Spread 1 1/4 cups cream cheese frosting over top and sides of cake. Refrigerate until frosting is firm, about 30 minutes.
-Spread 1 1/2 cups cream cheese frosting over top and sides of cake. Refrigerate until frosting is very firm, at least 1 hour. Finish frosting cake with remaining frosting. Cake can be refrigerated up to 2 days; let stand at room temperature 20 minutes before serving.

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting (from Bon Appetit)
Makes 3 1/2 cups

2 8-ounce packages Philadelphia-brand cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup canned sweetened cream of coconut (such as Coco Lépez)*
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Procedure
Beat cream cheese in medium bowl until fluffy. Add butter and beat to blend. Add sugar, sweetened cream of coconut and vanilla extract and beat until well blended.

Strawberry-Banana Cupcakes

Awesome recipe from the awesome Vanilla Garlic.

They were very moist and the bits of strawberries gave them a nice touch. Every time you bite into a piece of strawberry it made the cupcake even more moist and sweet. A very simple recipe perfect for a hot day.

Blue & Red for St. Valentines Day

I moved to a new house last month, this is like the 5th house I've lived in so far. Last week I was reading about one of Vogue's previous editors-in-chief in this month's Domino magazine and realized that this lady (she must be in her 50's or 60's) had lived in less houses than I had.I have to stop moving so much. So, I haven't been able to bake anything because apparently I'm cursed. First there was the dilemma of the kitchen being tinier than the previous one & there was no space for the stove, so after moving stuff around my mom and I ended up putting it where the fridge was supposed to go. After that we had to install the gas for the stove, but apparently the walls here are made of titanium or something because the guy that came to install the gas couldn't make a single hole in the wall for the gas line, so we ended up with no gas and a wall full of holes. Anyway, my mom called some other guy to install the gas line, he succeeded, but three days later the oven died. We have no clue why since the stove isn't even a year old. Apparently the Bakery Gods don't think we are meant to bake in this house. Since I've been cursed, I'll leave you with some cupcakes I did last month.
I baked some red velvet cupcakes. This time I tried a different recipe because even though I liked the other recipe, it seemed too dry for my taste. Me and my best friend decided to bake cupcakes for St. Valentines. We both wanted to bake Red Velvet Cupcakes shaped like hearts, she brought her pan to my house and we set everything to bake, but we couldn't decide which recipe to do. We looked at a few recipes and ended up deciding for a recipe from Smitten Kitchen, mainly because it used butter instead of vegetable oil. The cupcakes turned out very moist and we could barely keep ourselves from eating them as soon as they would come out from the oven. I specially loved the shade of red they had, it was very deep and somehow they looked almost natural, like the cupcakes were that shade and not like we had used two bottles of red food coloring. I frosted mine with a Speckled Cinnamon Frosting from Martha Stewart and my friend frosted hers with the traditional cream cheese frosting. The frosting I used was a very good substitute for those that don't like the sweetness of butter cream and for those that are tired of the traditional cream cheese frosting. I only had a minor problem with it, apparently I wasn't patient enough when during the cooking, because the frosting even though fluffy had a strange consistency. Other than that, it was so good that I could have eaten it alone with a spoon, very soft and fluffy with a hint of buttery goodness.

Cheesecake Cupcakes

This miniatures disappeared the same day I made them, my family devoured them like they were the last desserts they were ever going to eat. But I don't blame them, they were moist and sweet with a hint of saltiness that left you wanting to eat a million if these. The recipe asked for fruit preserves, I used apricot jam for half the cupcakes and for the other half mango preserves. Recipe from The Baking Sheet, Autumn 2005.




Cheesecake Cupcakes
Makes: 12

12oz cream cheese
1/2c sugar
2 Large eggs
1 egg yolk
1tsp lemon zest
1tsp vanilla extract
1/4tsp salt

Beat the cream cheese at low speed of an electric mixer until soft and creamy. Gradually add the sugar, increasing to medium speed, beating until the mixture is light and fluffy. Stop and scrape the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl. Mix in the eggs one at a time, taking care to scrape the bowl after each addition, and mixing until smooth with no lumps. Beat in the egg yolk, lemon zest, vanilla, and salt.

Preheat the oven to 300F. Line the wells of a muffin pan with papers. Scoop the batter into the cupca by tablespoonfuls; the cups should be 2/3 full. Bake for 25 minutes. Once you take them out of the oven, they will fall down a bit and give you the head room you need to put on the topping.

Topping

3/4c sour cream
1 egg white
1/2tsp vanilla extract
1/4c sugar
1/4c fruit preserves

While the cupcakes are baking, combine the sour cream, egg white, vanilla extract, and sugar in a small bowl. After the cheesecakes have baked for 25 minutes, remove them from the oven and spoon a teaspoon of the topping over each, taking care to cover the entire top. Place a half teaspoon of jam or preserves in the center and return the cheesecakes to the oven for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for 20 minutes before removing from the pan. Chill until ready to serve.

Carrot-ginger Cupcakes with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

The best cupcakes I've baked so far, even though there are two things I have to fix. Next time I will use real orange juice instead of the canned one I used and I plan to add more ginger, because even tough the recipe used 2 tablespoons of fresh ginger and I added and additional tablespoon, the cupcakes had a ginger-y aroma but you barely felt the taste of ginger. I got the cupcake recipe from marthastewart.com and the frosting from chockylit.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache

I've been baking cupcakes lately. I really like them because they are small and fun to make. The first recipe I tried was the Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache, the vanilla cupcakes recipe I got it from marthastewart.com and the chocolate ganache recipe i think i got it from chockylit. The chocolate ganache began to melt as soon as i piped them into the cupcakes because that day was horribly hot & humid since it's Puerto Rico... in summer. What was I thinking? When I read recipes I always forget that I live in a tropical area & maybe certain things in the recipe will turn out different because of the humidity. In the end, once i put them in the refrigerator for a while, everything turned out delicious! Everyone in my house loved how the chocolate gave the vanilla cupcakes intensity and a touch of decadence.