Funfetti Cupcake

So remember how I was supposed to post all my recipes from the Crazy Day?  Well, I haven't finished posting all those recipes yet.  One of the things I made on that day was funfetti cupcakes.  They turned out surprisingly well, even though they were the cupcakes that required 3 egg whites and I typically don't do so well with recipes that require egg whites.  Anyway, I didn't take any good pictures of the cupcake and only got a picture of a half eaten one. :P  So yesterday I decided to make some funfetti cupcakes again, except with a different recipe.  Something I didn't like about the first funfetti cupcakes I made was that they were too sweet.  In fact, they were sickening sweet.  Unless you have a major sweet tooth, you will not like that cupcake.  I'm really happy with the funfetti cupcakes I made this time though.  They were soft, moist and not too sweet.  I also made some frosting that turned out alright.  The cupcakes look really cute with the sprinkles in them.

Funfetti Cupcakes
Recipe from Sweet Tooth

The Crazy Day

So every week at church, after service, there is a snack area called Sonlit Terrace. Every week people take turns bringing muffins, croissants and similar items.  Since it was the summer, I decided to sign up for bringing the snacks one day.  It was going to be a great excuse for a baking challenge.   I was so excited! I didn't decide what I wanted to make until a few days before and it was a hard decision.  I ended up with eleven things I wanted to make.

The items I made were:
Oreo cheesecake bites
Oreo cupcakes
Green tea cookies
Lofthouse sugar cookies
Chocolate chip cookies
Espresso shortbread
Double chocolate chip cookies
Funfetti cupcakes
Cheesecake brownies
Glazed lemon cookies
Almond biscotti

I will be Posting each recipe one by one because it would take forever to post all of it at once.  Here is a preview of all the things I made.


All these things took me 11 hours to make.  I was in the kitchen for the whole day baking. It was fun, but tiring.  With my brother's help I was able to frost the cookies and clean up without sleeping too, too late.  After my baking spree was over, I was soo tired that I couldn't fall asleep.


The end product. :)

Vanilla Cupcakes

Whenever I try to make vanilla cupcakes, I always seem to fail.  My first attempt at making these cupcakes was the browned butter vanilla cupcakes.  However, the butter clumped up when I added it into milk mixture.  After I baked the cupcakes, there were some holes in them where the butter melted.  The second vanilla cupcake I tried to make was too tough.  I had over mixed the batter, which resulted in a tough cupcake.  This time, however, I was able to make them successfully!

The recipe is from Williams-Sonoma

My friend helped me make them and she also really enjoyed eating them.  The cupcakes were not really moist, but they were just right.  They weren't really dry either. I think I might have decreased the sugar a little bit, but otherwise I didn't change the recipe.  The recipe is pretty straight-forward, so just click on the link below for the recipe. 

I haven't been posting as much recently, but I hope to change that.  I have a project for this blog and that is to write a post about my crazy, crazy day.  On that day, I made 11 different items...yes! 11, it is not a typo. :) 

Vanilla Cupcakes

Boston Cream Cupcakes

When I first got my baking book America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book and flipped through the pages, I knew I wanted to try making these Boston cream cupcakes. I made it my goal to try out this recipe soon, but the amount of heavy cream made me too scared to make it. However, I bought some heavy cream one day because I wanted to make fettucine alfredo for my brother's lunch. I only made it once and was left over with a almost full bottle of heavy cream. I decided to make these after switching back and forth between making the real sized Boston cream cake, truffles, and these cupcakes. One of the reason is that these cupcakes are part of my senior project. :)

I haven't been writing any blog posts recently so I have to catch up!

These cupcakes were delicious! My brother rated them a pretty high score, but a whole week passed so I forgot what the score was. I think I might have cooked the pastry cream a bit longer than I should have, but I'm not sure. The cupcake's texture was really soft and a bit moist. Just right! I really liked it, so much that I felt like eating a few cupcakes. The glaze was just right too. I had leftover glaze and pastry cream. My dad really liked these too, he only got to eat two because I gave most of them away. After work he asked me if there was any more left, but sadly there wasn't.

Boston Cream Cupcakes
Recipe from the America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book

Sour Cream Chocolate Cupcakes and Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

I was browsing for a recipe to use up my sour cream and I remembered this chocolate cupcake recipe that I bookmarked a while ago. After I made it, I was glad that I remembered this recipe. These are the best chocolate cupcakes I have tried baking so far; my brother rated them a 9.2.

The recipe resulted in denser cupcakes, with a deeper chocolate taste. The frosting was also very good, but mine were a bit grainy. Maybe you’re supposed to use a mixer, instead of hand mixing? I also think I baked them longer than I was supposed to because although the cupcakes were really soft after I took them out of the tin, after they cooled down they developed “crusts” (only on the edges though). But after you let them sit out for a day, they become moist again.

I made this all the way back in February. Just this past Saturday I made a birthday cake for my brother. Looking back at this recipe, I'm surprised by the similarity between the cake recipe I used and this cupcake recipe. I'll be sharing that recipe tomorrow hopefully, my blog's 1st birthday! I was shocked when I found out that tomorrow is the anniversary, because I always thought I made my blog in May. How forgetful I am!

Sour Cream Chocolate Cupcakes and Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting
Recipe from Baking Bites

Vanilla Cupcakes

I made these with using up my extra chocolate glaze in mind. I decided to try scooping two balls of the solidified glaze and plopping it into the cupcake batter to see how it would turn out. Seems like my idea was not the best because halfway into baking it, the chocolate was leaking out of the cupcake. It appeared like a volcano spouting lava. XD

Although the texture of my cupcakes was a bit dense, my friends still really enjoyed the cupcakes and ate 2 each. I think that if I mixed it a few strokes less, the texture would have been perfect.

I used up all my glaze (from the chocolate glazed donut muffins)!

Here's the recipe.

Cupcakes: Red Velvet and Chocolate

I revisited two cupcake recipes in the span of 24 hours and baked around 36 cupcakes for my Chinese school classmates. This Saturday was my brother's turn to bring snacks so I decided to prepare the snacks for him. Did I mention that I'm in the same class as my brother? It's actually not that bad having a class with him, although we do bicker sometimes. Also, you might be wondering if I feel stupid being in the same class as him, considering that I'm 3 yrs older than him... not really. We started learning Chinese at the same time, so he's been learning it for as long as I have. :p

I made red velvet cupcakes the night before Saturday Chinese school and chocolate cupcakes along with cream cheese frosting early in the next morning. The night before, I had to finish my 500 word Chinese essay about Christmas and various worksheets that I did not do during my winter break. I tried waking up early, but I didn't finish everything until 8:30ish. I was around 20 minutes late to Chinese school, oops!

Easy Chocolate Cupcakes

I finally decided on which camera to get! I kept my Nikon L22. It's working out pretty nicely.

I made these cupcakes yesterday (10/29/10) and they were really easy to make. At first, I was a bit confused about the instructions because the instructions said to whisk liquid into flour ingredients, I wasn't sure if we were supposed to pour the whole thing in the large bowl and whisk or add a steady stream of liquid while mixing.

The problems I encountered during the process of making this cupcake was I lost count of how many 1/4 cups of cocoa powder I had added in. I seem to be pretty absentminded these days! I couldn't even remember if I had put 2 or 3 quarter cups. As a result, I just had to end up kind of guessing how many cups I had put in the mixing bowl.

The batter wasn't as runny as I thought it was going to be. The cupcakes baked on the top rack rise higher than the ones baked on the lower rack. After they have baked for half of the required time, the middle of the cupcake might look like it's sunken, but if you wait until the timer goes off, they will be fine or a bit flat, depending on the rack you bake the cupcakes on.

The cupcakes were moist and they had a very loose texture. Soft and not too sweet.

Easy Chocolate Cupcakes
Recipe from Baking Bites

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa (I forgot how much I used)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups white sugar (I used 1 1/3 cups sugar)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup vegetable oil or melted butter (I used vegetable oil, it made life so much easier)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup mini chocolate chips (I didn't use any)

Preheat oven to 350F. Place liners in 2-12 cup muffin tins.
In a large bowl, whisk together cocoa, flour, white sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt until thoroughly mixed.
In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, water, buttermilk, vegetable oil and vanilla extract. Whisk into flour mixture until all of the ingredients are mixed in and no streaks of flour remain. Add in optional mini chocolate chips, if using.
So basically I just added a little bit of the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and started mixing, then I realized it's ok if I poured the whole thing into the large bowl and continue whisking then. So yea, I ended up pouring the entire contents of the medium bowl into the large bowl instead of whisking in little by little. I'm not always the best at interpreting instructions so maybe I just over thought it.
Fill muffin cups evenly with the prepared batter.
Bake at 350F for 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, or with only a few crumbs.
Remove cupcakes from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.


I made my thin and crispy cc cookies again. Actually, I made both of these things for a band comp that was the next day.


A close up pic.


One of the cupcakes that was baked on the higher rack.

Black Bottom Cupcakes II

After debating for quite a while about what to make today, I decided to make these black bottom cupcakes. I found the recipe for these cupcakes on Brown Eyed Baker, who got the recipe from David Lebovitz.

I actually made these for my brother because it's his turn to bring snacks for Bible drill, a church activity that he participates in. Bible drill is when people memorize Bible verses and then they try to flip to that verse as fast as possible, under 7 seconds. Anyway, he initially requested that I make red velvet cupcakes...but I was too lazy. Last time I made red velvet cupcakes, they took me two whole hours, including cleaning up. In the end, I decided that I wanted to try out this recipe because the last time I made black bottom cupcakes, they took forever to bake and did not turn out the way I wanted them to. By that, I mean that they made me really worried when they were still uncooked when the time was up.

Here's my verdict. The cake part was nice and moist. It may be dry if you peel off a chunk and let it sit there for a while before eating it, but if you leave it whole and you eat it then it is moist. It was just right in terms of sweetness, not too sweet but enough so that it was enjoyable.

For the cream cheese portion, I didn't soften it enough so there were little lumps of cream cheese. This did not adversely affect the taste, just the texture, which was not as smooth. However, the cream cheese portion was still pretty good. Interestingly, the chocolate chips melted on your tongue when you take a bite of it. Creamy and rich=very yummy. I ate a half of the cupcake and almost couldn't resist eating the rest. Serve cold because they taste better that way.

Black-Bottom Cupcakes
Recipe from David Lebovitz The Great Book of Chocolate, found on Brown Eyed Baker.
Makes 12

In a group.

For the Filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 oz. bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (or semisweet chocolate chips which was what I used.)

For the Cupcakes:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar (I used dark brown; I didn't have any light brown sugar)
5 tablespoons naturally unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1/3 cup unflavored vegetable oil
1 tablespoon white or cider vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Make the Filling: Beat together the cream cheese, granulated sugar, and egg until smooth. Stir in chopped chocolate pieces. Set aside.

A bit clumpy.

Chocolate chips mixed in.


For the filling, instead of using coarsely chopped bittersweet chocolate, I used semisweet chocolate chips that were kind of chopped. I attempted to make the cc smaller for a few minutes, until I realized that it would be a bit hard to accomplish. In the end, I just dumped the cc in the filling.

Also, I was too lazy to get out the hand mixer so I just manually mixed the filling, so it took longer than expected. My filling was also a bit clumpy because the cream cheese was not totally at room temperature.

Make the Cupcakes:
Adjust the rack to the center of the oven and preheat to 350°F (175°C). Butter a 12-cup muffin tin, or line the tin with paper muffin cups.

In a medium bowl sift together the flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl mix together the water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla.
Flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder and baking soda.

Oil, vinegar and vanilla.

For the cupcake batter, when the instructions said to sift together the flour, brown, sugar and etc... I thought it was a bit weird. For me, the brown sugar would not fit through the sifter so I just dumped it in a large bowl. Then I proceeded to sift the flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda together. I just sprinkled the salt into the dry ingredients because I use coarse salt.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ingredients, stirring just until smooth. Stir any longer and you will over mix the batter and end up with less-than-tender cupcakes.


There was a little glare in the picture.

Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Spoon a few tablespoons of the filling into the center of each cupcake, dividing the filling evenly. This will fill the cups almost completely, which is fine.

A lot of cream cheese for each one.

Bake for 25 minutes, or until the tops are slightly golden brown and the cupcakes feel springy when gently pressed. These moist treats will keep unrefrigerated for 2 to 3 days if stored in an airtight container.

I baked my cupcakes for 25 minutes and they were done! Yay! Also, the cupcakes did feel a bit springy when pressed down on.

Oh yea, it took me a total of one hour to mix prepare the cupcakes. I was just getting the feel of it, I'm sure that the next time I make these, it will take around 30 minutes or less.


The two leftovers from Bible Drill.

One Bowl Buttermilk Cupcakes

I forgot if I mentioned this already, but for my family September is the month of birthdays. First, my grandma's, then my uncle's and then my dad's. My uncle and dad's birthdays are just one day apart and my grandma's birthday is 2 days before their birthdays. I also have quite a few friends whose birthdays also were in September. So for my grandma's birthday I baked her some brownies because I didn't have enough time to do anything really special. Then for my uncle's birthday I made these cupcakes. My dad's birthday was celebrated on my uncle's birthday and I ended baking a marble loaf cake for him a few weeks later, I'll share the recipe to that in a few days.

Back to the topic of cupcakes. I am not too confident in my ability to make cupcakes, but I wanted to try this recipe out because it seemed easy enough. I was a bit put off by one of the recent comments that said that the cupcakes turned out terribly (she subbed oil for butter though). However, I really wanted to bake something quickly before I went out to eat dinner with my extended family. On that same day I also attended a car wash fundraiser for marching band and went to Chinese school. So I quickly decided to make these and guess what, they turned out perfectly! The only thing I had to change was to bake for an extra 5 minutes. The cupcake was nice and moist, not overly so, and the chocolate taste was good. It was not a rich, decadent cupcake, but a subtle chocolate taste that you had to savor. The tops turned a bit smooth looking? They looked hard or something, kind of like a crust. If you let them sit out for a day or two, the tops of the cupcake starts to look moist and shinier. I didn't make any frosting to go with these though, I didn't have the ingredients/time.

One Bowl Buttermilk Cupcakes
Recipe from Baking Bites

Recipe from Baking Bites

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 cup sugar (I might have used 3/4 cup I forgot)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature (I microwaved mine for around 10 seconds)
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350*F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.
Add buttermilk, melted butter, apple cider vinegar and vanilla extract. Stir until just combined.
Divide evenly into the prepared muffin tin and bake for 14-16 minutes at 350*F, or until a tester comes out clean.
Cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.

Black Bottom Cupcakes

After I got my cookbook, America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book, I found this recipe. I was pretty interested in trying it out. I mean, why not? It had chocolate cupcake and cheesecake combined. So the week before school started, I made these. They were so simple to make! The only problem I had was with the baking time. I had to bake them way longer than called for, maybe it was because I substituted the dutch processed cocoa powder with natural unsweetened cocoa powder. I googled this recipe and found that other bloggers had made these before with no problem, so go ahead and give it a try.

They tasted really good. Rich cream cheese filling with a just right cupcake. My dad really loved it. When I brought the rest over to band camp, he was really disappointed.

Black Bottom Cupcakes
Recipe from America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book
Makes 12

Use miniature chocolate chips to ensure that they will stay in the filling and not sink to the bottom of the cupcake instead.

Filling
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup (1 3/4 ounces) sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 large egg white
1 tbsp sour cream
1/4 cup (1 1/2 ounces) semisweet mini chocolate chips

Cupcakes
Set A
3/4 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup Dutch-proccessed cocoa (I used natural unsweetened cocoa powder)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Set B
3/4 cup water, room temperature
6 tbsp sour cream, room temperature
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Position oven rack to lower middle position and preheat oven to 400*F.

Filling
In a medium bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar and salt using an electric mixer on medium speed so that the mixture is smooth. (30 sec) Add egg white and sour cream and beat in, another 30 seconds. Add the chocolate chips and stir.

Cream cheese with sugar and salt.


After beating it for a few seconds.


This is what it should look like after the egg white and sour cream is added in.


The cc chips are soo cute! I love mini things.


Now, stir it in.

Cupcakes
Whisk together Set A in a large bowl until uniform in mixture. Whisk in Set B just until it all comes together.

Set A


Set B

Grease a 1/4 cup measure and portion batter into cupcake liners. Use a rounded tbsp of cream cheese mixture and plop in the middle of each cupcake. There might be extra, so just try to distribute the rest out evenly.



So yea, it was a bit more than 1 tbsp.

Bake for 18-22 minutes so that the tops of the cupcakes start cracking. Make sure to rotate cupcake tray halfway through baking. Afterward, let cupcake cool in tray for 10 minutes before cooling on wire rack.


:( Sunken tops, even more so than it should be.


Notes: I have no idea why I had to bake mine for so long. I did, however, take them out of the oven after 18 minutes and they kind of "deflated", but that's only because mine had to bake longer. So when I took them out they weren't even close to finishing baking. Opps. I'll try this recipe again one day. Anyway, because of the longer required baking time I was starting to get stressed out. I thought I had wasted my ingredients for these cupcakes, in the end they turned out fine. I'm the type of person who likes following directions and when something goes wrong I get really stressed. I like predictable things, not surprises and I can't stand failing or making mistakes whether in real life or baking.

I can't seem to do my hw, I don't understand it at all. So here I am taking a break instead and posting a long overdue post.