So today I got to enjoy my not so secret passion; today I made cupcakes.
My big plan for today was to check out the first Iron Cupcake Toronto Challenge. Started in Milwaukee it has become a franchised competition held across Canada and the US. One month before the competition date they post a secret ingredient and theme online. I found out about the contest on Tuesday and, well, I was thrilled...then I got freaked out. See, I thought this would be my chance to, you know, enter the world stage. The problem is that the more I read about it the more I realized I was utterly unprepared to enter it. It is open to competitors both amateur and professional, and despite the fact that I truly love cupcakes, I don't think I'm quite on the same level as the likes of Cupcakery. What's more, the secret ingredient for the month of March is beer. I've heard of stout cakes but baking with carbonation is just a bit beyond anything I've done before. I don't know, I guess that March just isn't my month.
Instead of going to a contest that I probably would have bombed, I made cupcakes for fun. I was invited to Bee's for afternoon tea with the girls and needed to bring some treats so I set to work. I contemplated my new recipe for flourless cookies but I'm making them for a celiac friend of mine next week so those were out, then I figured apple pie but I didn't have enough apples, then I just figured "fuck it, I'm gonna make cupcakes!"
Of course, how did I ever think that I would end up making anything else right? With cupcakes in mind, I figured that I should go with mini cakes as I didn't know how many ladies would be there, and lemon to be all fresh and springy, I call this flavour "Citrus Blitz." So with two hours to shower, dress and bake I got to it. I made some fluffy lemon icing by using the basic vanilla buttercream icing from my second post and adding extra vanilla and fresh lemon zest. You can zest a lemon with a fancy lil' lemon zester from William Sonoma or by grabbing a fine (rather than wide holed) cheese grater. If you don't have a fine grater then you can use a serrated knife and flick it against the peel while applying pressure.
For the cakes themselves I used a standard Betty Crocker White cake box mix. This is what I use for most of my cupcakes. I'll make small variations like adding flavour extracts or in this case more lemon zest and about 1 tsp of lemon juice. Realistically the lemon juice wasn't really needed as the oil in the skin is the most potent flavour in the lemon, but I did it anyway...I just really like lemon. Some of you (my maybe faithful/mostly anonymous readers) maybe thinking, "Seriously? A box mix?" But screw you all, it's cheap, easy, fast, and consistent.
Anyway, my big revelation came when I was tossing ingredients into the bowl and realised that, OMG I've been making it wrong. I've been tossing in eggs but it's really supposed to be egg whites. Yeesh. My vanilla cakes have always been a bit dense and crumbly but let me tell you, this was awesome, they came out perfect. I decorated the mini cakes with cute little icing swirls and a sprinkling of coarse white crystal sugar, very pretty.
My novice tip of the week is to make sure that your cakes are cooled before icing. The icing is butter based so if you haven't cooled the cake the icing will separate and yo
u'll get what looks like oil separating from the icing as you decorate. My second novice tip of the day is to make sure that your icing is a smooth consistency and at least room temperature. Chunks in the icing will clog the icing tip and if cool it will be too thick to pipe. Today I tried to pipe the icing when if was too cool and I actually popped the seam on me cheapy icing bag...Le Sigh.
At the end of the day the treats were a hit and I can't wait until I get to do it all again.
Cheers folks, enjoy the cupcakes.
My big plan for today was to check out the first Iron Cupcake Toronto Challenge. Started in Milwaukee it has become a franchised competition held across Canada and the US. One month before the competition date they post a secret ingredient and theme online. I found out about the contest on Tuesday and, well, I was thrilled...then I got freaked out. See, I thought this would be my chance to, you know, enter the world stage. The problem is that the more I read about it the more I realized I was utterly unprepared to enter it. It is open to competitors both amateur and professional, and despite the fact that I truly love cupcakes, I don't think I'm quite on the same level as the likes of Cupcakery. What's more, the secret ingredient for the month of March is beer. I've heard of stout cakes but baking with carbonation is just a bit beyond anything I've done before. I don't know, I guess that March just isn't my month.
Instead of going to a contest that I probably would have bombed, I made cupcakes for fun. I was invited to Bee's for afternoon tea with the girls and needed to bring some treats so I set to work. I contemplated my new recipe for flourless cookies but I'm making them for a celiac friend of mine next week so those were out, then I figured apple pie but I didn't have enough apples, then I just figured "fuck it, I'm gonna make cupcakes!"
Of course, how did I ever think that I would end up making anything else right? With cupcakes in mind, I figured that I should go with mini cakes as I didn't know how many ladies would be there, and lemon to be all fresh and springy, I call this flavour "Citrus Blitz." So with two hours to shower, dress and bake I got to it. I made some fluffy lemon icing by using the basic vanilla buttercream icing from my second post and adding extra vanilla and fresh lemon zest. You can zest a lemon with a fancy lil' lemon zester from William Sonoma or by grabbing a fine (rather than wide holed) cheese grater. If you don't have a fine grater then you can use a serrated knife and flick it against the peel while applying pressure.
For the cakes themselves I used a standard Betty Crocker White cake box mix. This is what I use for most of my cupcakes. I'll make small variations like adding flavour extracts or in this case more lemon zest and about 1 tsp of lemon juice. Realistically the lemon juice wasn't really needed as the oil in the skin is the most potent flavour in the lemon, but I did it anyway...I just really like lemon. Some of you (my maybe faithful/mostly anonymous readers) maybe thinking, "Seriously? A box mix?" But screw you all, it's cheap, easy, fast, and consistent.
Anyway, my big revelation came when I was tossing ingredients into the bowl and realised that, OMG I've been making it wrong. I've been tossing in eggs but it's really supposed to be egg whites. Yeesh. My vanilla cakes have always been a bit dense and crumbly but let me tell you, this was awesome, they came out perfect. I decorated the mini cakes with cute little icing swirls and a sprinkling of coarse white crystal sugar, very pretty.
My novice tip of the week is to make sure that your cakes are cooled before icing. The icing is butter based so if you haven't cooled the cake the icing will separate and yo
u'll get what looks like oil separating from the icing as you decorate. My second novice tip of the day is to make sure that your icing is a smooth consistency and at least room temperature. Chunks in the icing will clog the icing tip and if cool it will be too thick to pipe. Today I tried to pipe the icing when if was too cool and I actually popped the seam on me cheapy icing bag...Le Sigh.At the end of the day the treats were a hit and I can't wait until I get to do it all again.
Cheers folks, enjoy the cupcakes.
No comments:
Post a Comment