Attack of the killer marshmallow March 28, 2008

So, I have been totally hooked to playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl on Wii.  And while I am not a big gamer, I do play now and again.  It so happens I’m a decent player too… and the guys hate me.  I beat their arses to a pulp with KIRBY!  A killer marshmallow! 

Kirby Cupcakes Makes 2 dozen

(Adapted from Dorie’s Perfect Party Cake recipe)

2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups 1% milk
4 large egg whites
1 ½ cups sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 stick margarine, at room temperature
½ teaspoon pure orange extract

Strawberry Preserves

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.
Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant.
Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light.
Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed.
Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated.
Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.
Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.
Fill cupcake holders halfway with batter.
Spoon 1 teaspoon of strawberry preserves into the center of each cupcake.

Bake at 350F for 25 minutes.

Killer marshmallow Frosting- Decoration

• 1 stick margarine, softened
• 1 7oz. jar marshmallow fluff
• 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• red food coloring
• blue food gel
• red jelly beans, cut lengthwise

  So, you smooth on the pink frosting then have some fun drawing faces.  We had a mini party decorating them trying to see who could most make one that looked like Kirby.  Then you use the cut jelly beans to be the little Kirby sneakers.

Final Review: I didn’t eat any of the cupcakes, so I have to rely solely on my gay posse to tell me what they thought.  They loved the cupcakes.  Like, seriously loved them.  For the first time my frosting came out way firm instead of squishy.  But the boys thought they were just fine.  Together with the light citrusy cake, the delightful strawberry innards and the fun Kirby designs, they were way fun to finish and eat.  I’ve decided this will be my Nerd entry as well.  Stay tuned as the Kirby’s go out in the world.  The pictures could have been better, but I was in a rush to get this out in time for the Cupcake Hero deadline. 

If you like pina coladas… February 24, 2008

Yes!  I have had that silly song running through my head this entire weekend.  It’s a good thing I like the song or else it’d be burning my brain already. 

I couldn’t leave it well enough alone.  For someone who considered not submitting anything this month for Cupcake Hero, I sure as heck went about doing a lot of baking for it.  I couldn’t help myself!  As the resident tropical diva, I had to pull out another mixed drink confectionary.  For a while I thought that perhaps someone else would have come up with this kind of entry before for this month.  But some quick googling later, I didn’t seem to find anything from the usual cupcake suspects.  So, in a last stitch scramble before deadline, I whipped these up and prayed they were a success.

 Pina Colada Cupcakes makes 18 cupcakes

• 1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 extra large eggs
• 4 tsp. dark rum
• 1 1/2 cup self-rising cake flour
• 1/2 cup coconut cream
• 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1 can crushed pineapple, all liquid removed and drained

1. Beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Mix in one egg at a time; blend well.
3. Add cream of tartar and rum.  Alternate the addition of flour with the coconut cream.
4. Drain can of crushed pineapple, saving half a cup of the juice for the frosting.  Fold in pineapple to the batter.
5. Fill cups halfway and bake at 325F for 25-35 minutes, or until toothpick in the center of cupcake comes out clean.
6. Cool in pan for 15 minutes before removing to racks to cool completely.

 

Banana Colada Frosting

• 1/2 stick butter, softened
• 1 banana, ripe and mashed
• 1lb. powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons rum
• 2 tablespoons pineapple juice
• 3/4 cup shredded coconut

1. Cream butter.
2. Mash banana thoroughly with one tablespoon of rum.
3. Beat together banana and butter.
4. Slowly work in sifted sugar, halfway through adding the remaining liquid.
5. Beat until thickened and fold in coconut. 
6. Slather onto cupcakes appropriately.  Chill.

Final Review:  I actually really enjoyed these cupcakes.  It is still a little debatable to me if they actually taste like pina coladas. They sure do look like them though!  As you can see from the pictures, I topped them off with cherries.  I used left over passionate cherries (who I surmise are triply potent for having been lounging in their passoa liquor baths for this long) but any cherries will do to top it off.  I only wish I had had some paper umbrellas to add as a final touch to them for the pictures.  I also wish I’d had my cupcake holder thingy too.  But that’s in my hometown and I stayed this weekend.  Again, I had to work with what I had.  But, did you see?  I acquired some cupcake cups and they are the nice sturdy aluminum ones that really help me out since I’m still baking without cupcake pans.  I know, sad lot in life.  But, I am digressing.  I think the actual cupcakes are wonderfully delicious.  They have a nice pineapple bite with a distinct coconut after taste.  I have no had one frosted yet, but my housemate says its the frosting that makes this cupcake.  Albeit, he said I over frosted them.  But I just said that it’s because the cupcakes were just frosted and not chilled, that’s why the frosting was so soft.  Then again, I like gooey frosting.  In the end, I may have over frosted them because I was 2 cupcakes short from having eaten them before I got to making the frosting.  Either way, they seem like lovely little treats to have!  This time I didn’t go all out with the booze, so it’s just a fine taste and not a whallop like my Island Passion Cupcakes.  I’ll just call them a success and call it a month for the liquor portion of Cupcake Hero.

Crouching Muffin, Drunken Cupcake February 8, 2008

Behold the power of persistence!!!

I will finally surrender submit for your viewing pleasure, the Island Passion Cupcake in all it’s glory!  It took a week of much pondering, hunting and musing… and much failed attempts at making frosting and obtaining cooking supplies.  As my mother just stated just now when she called me to give her review (I’m staying the weekend near campus, but I managed to make and frost 9 cupcakes to send to my hometown via my aunt.  This way my family could taste them and give me their opinions) “I hope you wrote down that recipe, because you’ve got yourself a winner there.”  Allow me to break it down for you…

    Borracho Cupcakes II Makes 16 cupcakes (what an odd number, I know!  But it was supposed to be a dozen since I halved the recipe… but I didn’t want to overfill the cups.  So, 16 was how many I ended up with)

• 1/2 cup butter-flavored shortening
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 tsp orange zest
• 1 teaspoon orange extract
• 1/6 cup + 3 teaspoons Passoa
• 1 cup self-rising flour
• 3/4 cup Passionate cranberries*

1. Cream together shortening, sugar and 3 teaspoons of the liquor until light and fluffy.
2. Mix in one egg at a time; blend in orange extraxt and fresh orange zest.
3. Fold in remaining liquor and sift in flour.  Blend in half the cranberries and sprinkle the remaining cranberries onto each cup when they have been set into molds. 
4. Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center of cupcake comes out clean.

* Passionate cranberries are made by placing 3/4 cup of dried cranberries in 1/2 cup Passoa and allowed to reconstitute for at least overnight.  The more days, the better.  I left mine in their alcohol baths for 4 days. 

     Alright, so now they look like muffins.     

But, they didn’t crack on top.  They are also wicked good straight from the oven.

And while an unfrosted cupcake is STILL a cupcake, these puppies needed a little something on top.  I hadn’t spent the week researching frosting for nothing!

Chunky Pineapple Passion Buttercream

• 1/2 stick butter, softened
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons pineapple juice
• 2 tablespoons Passoa
• 1/2 20oz. can crushed pineapple, drained

1. Beat butter until creamy, slowly working in sifted sugar. 
2. Slowly add liquid, one teaspoon or tablespoon at a time.
3. Drain pineapple well and fold into mixture.
4. Chill for half an hour. 
5. Generously frost your cupcake.

 Alright, so I was going to halve the passionate cherries to use as decoration.  However, I gave away most of my cupcakes before I remembered to put the cherries on them.  So the 7 cupcakes I had left got a whole cherry.  My housemate and I ended up with whole cherries as well.  (Can one get drunk off a cherry? wow-ee)

 

Final Review: I’m actually REALLY tired of Passoa right about now but I think I attained the drink blend that I aspired to.  This newer cake blend seems so much lighter than the last and the frosting seemed like it really needed the pineapple.  The orange flavor highlighted the passion fruit and didn’t overpower it.  For this I am glad, it was my biggest pout inducer with my first batch.  That being said, these lovely little cupcakes give a refreshing zing to many a tropical fantasy.  While my mother disagrees with me, I think the alcohol could very easily be substituted for some passion fruit juice, something I am VERY fond of.  Overall, it was my quest for perfection that made this cupcake so much work.  I think I’m going to take a break on cupcakes for a few days and cook other things.  Luckily, I managed to give away most of the cupcakes I made today.  All the zombies got sent off to other parts of the island and my family received most of the patch of these.  I’ve heard no complaints.  However, I do advise caution when taking a bite of your passionate cherries.  Try not to just consume whole, they pack a whallop. 

Island Passion Cupcakes

over and out!

MacGuyvering cupcakes, one batch at a time February 8, 2008

The impatient baker that I am, fed up with the silly oddessy to find cupcake cups, I threw my hands up in the air with resignation of finding cupcake baking pans.  This shouldn’t be this difficult!  These sorts of things are supposed to be easily found!  This fucking island is bass ackwards, I swear.  Since I’m waiting on a certain hunk to accept my offer of being a near mail order bride in order to get off this place, I guess I have to make do with what I have on hand.  Even if I have to overuse my precious cupcake liners and pull out some random pans in order to complete the challenge.  Cupcake Hero should just give me an honorary prize for being the most persistent through adversity. 

But, just in case my experiment went wrong, I decided to whip up a batch of  Drunken Zombie Cupcakes. There was no way in heck I was going to endanger my precious Island Passion Cupcakes in some cockamanee experiment.  So, the little zombies were just going to have to bravely be my guinea pigs.  I can hear y’all gasping in horror.  No!  She couldn’t have done those cupcakes without a pan!  Is she NUTS?!  Well, why yes… yes, I am.  I would say a decade living on the island has made me bass ackwards too.  Or… at the very least, very desperate.

 More or less, right?  I  held my breathe, didn’t touch them.

Ha!  There is a god and he/she/it was watching my cupcakes.

They kinda look like biscuits in that picture, don’t they?

Drunken Zombie Cupcakes Makes 12 dozen

• 1/2 cup butter-flavored shortening (like heck I was gonna use my precious butter on this when it could go horribly wrong!)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 teaspoons Passoa
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon orange extract
• 1 cup self-rising flour
• 1/6 cup Zombie

1. Cream the shortening with the sugar and the Passoa.  Beat in one egg at a time.
2. Mix in extract and Zombie. Sift in flour.
3. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes.

 I made the Orange Passion Buttercream into a glaze by adding a tablespoon of Zombie.  (At least I’m going to call it a glaze because my hand slipped in pouring the additional liquid and therefore came out more runny than I would have liked.  However, I could have fixed it with the addition of more powdered sugar.  I was not willing to spend so much energy since I was remaking the buttercream for my darling passionate cupcakes that were baking as I worked.)

Final review: Pay no attention to the maniacally laughing woman who is pleased as punch for having successfully made cupcakes against all odds.  I was quite happy with my little zombies, more than I thought since I made them fully expecting them to fail.  They didn’t taste so great fresh out of the oven but I had to try them anyway.  My housemate tried the final frosted cupcake and loved them.  He said that the glaze worked well to counteract the balance of the light cake.  No, he really didn’t say precisely that, but that’s  my interpretation of what he said… so you’re just going to have to live with that.  The alcohol got baked off and the frosting didn’t seem boozy at all.  No taste like fruit loops here.  Overall, a wonderful success.  I found that it’s easier to bake them if they are more spaced apart and the cups don’t get filled too much.  There was at least one prettily round cupcake.  I was actually very fond of the square ones.  These I’m essentially giving them away and moving on to my next endeavor.

A passionate cupcake hero in the making? February 3, 2008

Now… for those of you who do not know, Cupcake Hero is a fun cupcake activity run by slush over at Quirky Cupcake.  This talented cupcake diva selects an ingredient a month and wannabe bakers such as myself get out cupcake pans out and try to go to town with it.  The winner gets the bragging rights as well as a lovely Cupcake Hero t-shirt.  This month, slush has gone and joined up with Tempered Woman for the special item of liquor.  

As it were, I usually do not cook with alcohol.  I find no need to sneak it into food when I can have a nice cup of it on it’s own.  But, when I went home this weekend, I told my mother about the ingredient and how I was slightly disappointed over how I’d probably sit this month out too (last month was coffee and I totally wussed out.. I mean, I live in PR and my hometown is known for it’s wonderful brew!)  She stayed quiet for a few moments and then the lightbulb literally flickered on in her head.  Immediately she went with her favorite drink, Passoa with orange juice and cranberry.  Now… tell me that that doesn’t sound like it would make an amazing cupcake.  My head was whirling.  Of course!  We needed an orange cake, cranberries added in… and Passoa used liberally in everything I could stick it in.  I didn’t think I was going to get a chance to make them right away but then we stoped at the supercenter Wal-mart yesterday and I immediately went skipping around the aisles to find whatever I felt I needed to make these boozy cupcakes(except for the darn cupcake cups!!!!  ARGH and darn them to the deepest fires of heck!).

For those of you who do not know, Passoa is a passion fruit liquor.  Very tasty.  I started out by soaking about 3/4 cup dried cranberries in about 1/2 cup of the liquor (thusly creating passionate cranberries) and about 14 cherries in about 1/4 cup of liquor (and passionate cherries).  These I left overnight in little plastic containers in my fridge, giving them a bit of a shake everytime I remembered.

    

   Look!  I found some halloween cupcake liners.  These’ll do!  And so the borracho cupcakes were made.

 

Borracho Cupcakes makes 24 cupcakes

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 6 eggs
• 2 cups self rising flour
• 1/3 cup Passoa, drained from cranberries.
• 1 tsp orange extract
• 1tsp orange zest
• 3/4 cup passionate cranberries

1. Cream butter, oil and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Beat in one egg at a time, blending completely between each addition.
3. Add extract and zest, mix well.
4. Sift flour and alternate it’s addition with the liquor, beginning and ending with flour.
5. Fold in cranberries.
6. Pour into cupcake mold and bake at 350 F for 20-25 minutes.

 The recipe was adapted from a bizcocho borracho recipe in the cookbook Cocina Conmigo by Dora R. de Romano.  This is the 9th edition and it was published in 1976.  So the cake baking time was 1 hour, I had to guess when I scaled down the time, so I baked for 25 minutes.  It could have done with 5 minutes or more less.  The cranberries also sank to the bottom but it gave it such an amazing passion fruit liquor bite.  They were just incredible still hot from the oven (no, my mother and I could not wait for them to cool in order to try them!).  We thought these would make an amazing addition to a sort of brunch meal.  As they cooled, I took a stab at altering the orange frosting recipe I found.

Orange Passion Frosting

• 4 tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
• 2 tablespoons Passoa
• 2 teaspoons grated orange zest
• pinch of salt
• 3 cups powdered sugar

1. Soak orange zest with juice and liquor.  Add pinch of salt.
2. Cream and soften butter.
3. Add liquid, blend well.
4. Sift in sugar and beat until desired consistency for spreading.  More orange juice may be added.

Alright, so I was SO disappointed in this frosting.  It just didn’t come together, I was hoping for something lighter and it was just a muck.  I don’t know what happened… I was not a fan of it.  My mother liked it, but thought it could do with something better.  As it stands, this stab for Cupcake Hero glory will not be yet submitted.  That just means I need to remake the cake portion of this recipe and try out other frostings.  My friends have lined up to be my guinea pigs.  So I am very hopeful that in the coming week I can concoct a suitable frosting for this cupcake.  I think the fault of flavoring lies in the sheer amount of orange zest this recipe calls for.  Perhaps I may take it in another direction… pineapple also goes well with Passoa.  Stay tuned…

In the end: It has been unanimously decided that the cake portion of this experiment was a wonderful success.  More than one said it had the fruity fun appeal of fruit loops.  Considering I like the cereal, I’ll take it as a compliment… especially when it came from  my younger brother.  There isn’t much alcohol in it, and it doesn’t overwhelm.  Most of my tasters just loved it and just couldn’t identify much aside from that it had orange in it.  It’s alright, not a lot of people would assume passion fruit would end up in their cupcake.