Amelia’s Fairy Cakes

 

My little girl loves tea parties. (Who doesn’t?) And many of the tea party books that she has depict tiny cakes as part of the spread. Not cupcakes and not always petit fours. (Thank Heaven for that!) Just little cakes. And this is good news for me because my little Amelia doesn’t like frosting and let’s face it, frosting cupcakes is where all the work is! I love it when your child wants something easy. (Because that is definitely a rarity in this house!) And these are perfectly easy, and a really perfect white cake recipe in general. The cake is delicately scented with lemon and has a beautiful tight, soft, crumb. It’s almost like a bakery cake or a cake mix, except that you get to control the flavor and there aren’t any strange, unpronounceable ingredients.

For these cakes, I got to use a really fabulous product from King Arthur Flour. It’s Tart Montmorency Cherry Concentrate and it is outrageously wonderful! I got hooked on dried Montmorency cherries when we lived closer to a Costco and I could get a big ole bag of them for a song. (They are SO much more expensive here in Maine!) But with this one bottle of concentrate, I can add that tart, snappy flavor to anything I want! I did a few test runs of some of my old standbys and decided that I prefer to drizzle it on after the baked good in question has come out of the oven. When I tried baking it right into the recipe it lost some of it’s bright flavor and it sunk to the bottom of the baking pan (where it sometimes burned, sad.). Jay gives me a really hard time if I use anything but maple seeeerup on my pancakes, but I gladly took one for the team and poured some of this onto a big stack. Heavenly! It is very tart, so a little goes a long way.

 

I think it’s very economical as well. A 16 ounce bottle sells for $16.95. (And that’s made with the juice from over 1000 pressed cherries! Cool, huh?) I’ve used it in these cakes, scones, pancakes, and drizzled over lemon ice cream (oh.my.gosh!!!) and I’ve only used about 2 and a half ounces! And guess what, my lovely bloggy friends? King Arthur Flour has graciously offered a bottle of Montmorency Cherry Concentrate for one of you lucky readers! Wheeee! And all you need to do to enter is leave a comment on this post! Easy Peasy!

 

Amelia’s Fairy Cakes

 

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Perfect Party Cake

 

zest of 1 lemon

 

1 1/2 cups sugar

 

1 stick butter, at room temperature

 

4 egg whites, at room temperature

 

2 1/4 cups cake flour

 

1 tablespoon baking powder

 

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups buttermilk, at room temperature

 

1/4 cup Tart Cherry Concentrate

 

1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

 

1 teaspoon shortening

 

Royal icing or pressed sugar flowers to decorate

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two 12 cup muffin tins with pretty liners. (Alternatively, you can prepare two 9” cake pans, one 9x13 baking dish or one baking sheet (jellyroll pan), you’ll just need to  adjust the baking time.)

 

In the bowl of your mixer, combine the sugar and the lemon zest. With your fingers, massage the zest into the sugar. (This releases the oils in the zest and really pulverizes it, the air will smell absolutely luscious!)

 

Attach the beater to your mixer and beat in the butter until the mixture is very light and fluffy.

 

Add the egg whites and beat until well combined.

 

Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder and salt.

 

Add 1/3 of the dry mixture to the batter and beat.

 

Pour in about 1/3 of the buttermilk and beat.

 

Repeat this process until all the ingredients are incorporated. Scrape down the bowl VERY WELL and beat until all the ingredients are well incorporated.

 

Pour into prepared pans and bake until the cakes spring back when you gently touch them with your finger; about 20 minutes for cupcakes, 35 minutes for 9” cakes and the sheet cake, or 45 minutes for a 9x13” dish.

 

Remove cakes to a cooking rack. While the cakes are cooling, drizzle about a teaspoon of cherry concentrate

on the top of each cake.

When the cakes have thoroughly cooled, melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave using 30 second bursts of power to avoid burning the chocolate.

 

Stir in the shortening.

 

Spoon a tablespoon of the chocolate over the cake, swirling it around until it settles and press a flower into the center of the cake.

 

Let chocolate harden, about 30 minutes.

 

Enjoy with the darling little girl of your choice :)

 

P.S. Don’t forget to leave a comment on this post for your chance at a free bottle of Montmorency Cherry Concentrate! You’ll be glad you did!

 

P.P.S. This giveaway will close on Wednesday, April 6th at midnight. Good luck!

New Look and a Giveaway from Wilton!!!

TA DA!!!!

My blog has a new look! What do you think? I really loved my old blog template, but I felt like it didn’t actually fit my blog. I contacted Dena at The Photo Spot on Etsy and she made me this gorgeous header! Isn’t it lovely! If you’re in the market for a new header, I highly recommend her. She is such an amazing artist, she’s a pleasure to work with, and her prices are great! I changed a few of my settings to make my blog a little easier to read too. And I added pictures to my recipe list to make it easier to find things. So, what do you think of my little makeover???

I’m still sort of ‘trying to find myself’ in the kitchen. I don’t really know what I think my baking specialty is, I love baking everything! Cookies, cakes, breads, cupcakes, pastry, pies, tarts . . . I’m not saying I’m a pro at any of them, mind you. Just that I get enormous pleasure out of baking them! Jay thinks my specialty is cupcakes. I did get a bit obsessed with them about the same time I started my blog. I mean, I’d made them before, lots of times even, but I’d never really given them a whole lot of thought. Then Amelia got Crumbs Bake Shop in a Box for Christmas from her Auntie Kristi. She loved the story it came with and immediately asked me to make the cupcakes for her. So we put on our matching aprons and got started.

Isn’t she cuuuuuuute? Anyway, we LOVED these cupcakes. And then I went a little nuts making them. I made them for any and all occasions! First, the batch for Amelia. Next for Reese’s birthday, and again for him to take to preschool. Then my friend had a baby, so she got a batch. Then another friend had a baby. Then is was a Wednesday, or cloudy, or sunny . . . any reason was a good reason to make some more cupcakes!

To frost them, I broke out a cupcake kit I’d recently bought from the Wilton aisle at Walmart. (Thank Heaven for the Wilton aisle at Walmart, by the way! The closest thing to a baking shop I had when I lived out in the middle of NOWHERE! I think I have one of every Wilton product that Walmart carries!!!) Anyway, I promptly fell in love with the large star tip in the kit. I think it’s so much easier to frost a cupcake with a big tip than it is to use a knife and spread it on by hand. You can just fill the bag with frosting, make a few big swirls on top of the cupcakes and you’re done in no time!!!

The other thing I love in the cupcake kit is the Bismarck tip. You fill things with it. Like cupcakes. Or doughnuts. Or cream puffs. It. Is. Awesome!!!! I’ve used it to fill cupcakes with frosting, jam, caramel, ganache, pastry cream, marshmallow, custard cream. . . . . seriously, you’re going to LOVE IT!!!

Wilton has graciously offered a cupcake kit to one of my readers! How cool is that!?!?!?! I was SO doing the happy dance when I got the email! This cupcake kit really started me on the road to making awesome cupcakes! And since you’re going to need a great recipe to go along with the cupcake kit, I’m going to give you the recipe that launched a thousand cupcakes (in my house, anyway)!!! It’s the one from the Crumbs baking set. It’s SUPER sweet and kids just gobble them up! (I’ve moved on to a different recipe for grown ups.)

The Crumbs Cupcake

3 sticks of butter, room temperature

2 1/2 cups sugar

5 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup buttermilk

 

Preheat the oven to 325 and line two 12 cup muffin tins with paper liners.

In your mixer, cream together the butter and sugar.

Add the eggs, vanilla and almond and mix thoroughly.

In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add a third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Then add a third of the buttermilk.

Continue with the next third of flour and buttermilk. Repeat with the remaining bits.

Scrape the mixing bowl well, them mix for another minute to make sure everything is incorporated.

Fill each liner up 2/3s of the way to the top.

Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.

 

Crumbs Frosting

1 pound of butter (4 sticks)

1 pound of cream cheese (2 bricks)

2 pounds of powdered sugar (a whole bag)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

 

In your mixer bowl, cream together the butter and cream cheese.

Sift in the powdered sugar. Cover the mixer with a towel and turn the power on to the lowest setting until the frosting starts to come together. This will avoid the inevitable mushroom cloud you’d get from adding that much sugar all at once!

Scrape the mixer bowl down, add the vanilla and mix for another minute to incorporate.

*If you’re going to fill your cupcakes, now’s the time! Then proceed to the frosting instructions.*

Insert the large star tip from the Wilton Cupcake Kit into one of the included disposable bags. Scoop frosting into the bag and squeeze it all down to the end, making sure to expel any air bubbles. Start at the outside of the cupcake and swirl frosting onto the top, applying even pressure to the frosting bag. When you get to the center, stop applying pressure and lift the bag up and away from the cupcake. Done! Easy peasy, right???

 

P.S. The cupcake pictured is a mini. I really like making mini cupcakes from this recipe. Beware that you will get about 500 cupcakes per batch. (I exaggerate, but just a little.)

P.P.S. Little ones will love you forever and ever if you make them mini cupcakes. And there’s less guilt in eating a dozen minis than there is in eating a dozen regular cupcakes. Just sayin’.

 

*********The giveaway is now closed! Thanks for playing!**********

And now. . . . . . .

The Wilton Cupcake Kit Giveaway!!!!!

Let’s make this easy, shall we??? All you have to do to enter is. . .

leave a comment on this post!

That’s it. Easy peasy! I’ll pick a winner on Friday, so get your comment it by 11:59pm Thursday evening. Be sure to keep checking in with me this week, I have some other surprises too!

Reese’s Birthday

We had a pirate party for Reese today. He’s five years old, I cannot believe it!

I had so much fun putting together his pirate party! I just don’t have it in me to go totally all out for a kids party, but we had some cool things! When the kids arrived we marched them upstairs and had them ‘fish’ through this vent we have (essentially a hole in the floor) for a bandana, eye patch, tattoo and mustache. (The birthday boy got a Captain’s hat too.) Then we came down and tried to get their pictures in front of the flag. Being as we had 7 kids between ages 8-2, well, that didn’t go over real well.

I just have to show you this again. I’m just so please with how it turned out :) P.S. It really is centered in the middle of the fabric, it’s just scrunched over to the left in this picture.

I made the flag from a 2 yard long piece of black twill. I went online and found a picture of a skull and crossbones and just blew it up on my printer. Then I traced it onto freezer paper, cut out the stencil and ironed it onto the fabric. Then I used regular acrylic craft paint and filled in the stencil. (I did two coats because I wanted it really bright.) The freezer paper just pulled right off afterward and left me with a perfect skull and crossbones! I’ve seen people all over Blogland do cool projects with freezer paper and was a little skittish about trying it, but MAN! It was a piece of cake! It probably took me about 2 hours start to finish, including the time it took to hem it and make it into a curtain. (It’s destined for the window in Reese’s room.)

After the kids were all pirated up, we played a really clever version of ‘Pin the Tail on the Donkey’. I found the directions online somewhere, I’ve already forgotten where, sorry! Anyhow, you draw a treasure map. . .

Disclaimer: I did not draw this. I can draw stick figures. . . poorly. It’s awesome having an artist in residence!! Thank you, Jay!

On the back of the picture you affix a large X. Then you make little Xs for the kids with their names on them.

You can blindfold them or not, doesn’t matter. They put their Xs on the map and then you take it off the wall and hold it up to a window or a light. The X on the back shows through and the kid with the closest X wins! Isn’t that super clever? I wish I HAD thought of that on my own :) This game was a HUGE hit with the kiddos!

 

Then we played a version of Musical Chairs. We just slapped some construction paper squares on a board as a plank and put down a blue towel as the ocean. Then when the music started they had to Walk the Plank and run around and walk the plank again until the music stopped. The kid in the ‘water’ was out and we went again and again. Once they got the hang of it they had a great time!

 

This is the kids hunting in Tick-Tock Croc. I especially liked this game. It was quiet!!! I made a little croc out of felt and left an opening in his tummy. Then we put a kitchen timer in it and hid it in the living room. (So it’s like the croc in Peter Pan, get it?) The kids had to come in and listen for the tick-tock and find the croc! They really liked this game, more than I expected. And I liked the brief hiatus from all the noise!

That blurry thing is the croc ;)

 

But I think the best game was the treasure hunt. I’d given Reese a couple of riddle clues earlier in the week and he just looked at me blankly like I was some kind of idiot. So I dropped the riddle idea (I’m not great at coming up with that kind of thing anyway) and took close ups of the places I intended to hide the loot. There were 7 kids playing and I took pictures of 10 spots, so three of the spots had little, hmmm, I don’t know, neiner neiner cards that said to keep on looking.

I printed all the pictures out onto cardstock and then burned the edges. (with my creme brulee torch, haha!) They actually ended up looking pretty cool and the clues were just the right toughness for the kids.

I went online and found a site with pirate lingo and borrowed heavily from that for these cards!

I had so much fun with their treasure boxes. I loved things like this when I was a kid, little treasure chests and jewels and things! These had pirate coins, chocolate coins, plastic jewels, a pirate pouch, a skull ring, extra moustaches and tattoos, and beads for the girls. I sprung for some really yummy chocolate coins from Honest Foods, but I probably could have gotten away with the cheaper more cost efficient ones. Most of this stuff came from Oriental Trading.

 

This is Reese’s cake. It’s chocolate on the inside and and my favorite frosting on the outside. I used some really wonderful cocoa powder from King Arthur’s Flour that my sister-in-law’s mother-in-law gave me (you follow? Good!) and it was to die for. The cake was almost black with chocolate! My kind of cake!!! I had grand plans of forming a pirate ship out of rice crispie treats and covering it in fondant for a cake topper. But when we went to my friend April’s son’s birthday (you follow? Good.) he had a cake with a real Lightning McQueen and Mater toys on it and all the kids thought it was SO COOL. “You get to keep the Lightning McQueen!!!!” So I decided to just slap on the pirate I had bought Reese as a gift so he could keep the pirate!!!!

Then I stumbled across a set of pirates at a local shop. $6 for 12. Sold. They look like cupcake toppers to me!

 

Super cool cupcake toppers!!!

 

The birthday boy was thrilled with his cake! And he got to keep the pirate!!!

 

So I’ll leave you with the cake and icing recipe. This icing is really wonderful. It’s got cream cheese in it and it really cuts the sweetness and gives it a nice tang. The cake is my go-to chocolate cake recipe. I’ve used it for years. I think it’s originally from Martha.

Chocolate Cake

1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for pans

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 cups sugar

1 tablespoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1 1/2 cups hot water

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two 8” round cake pans (or two 6” round pans and 24 cupcakes) with Baker’s Joy and parchment paper.

Sift cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into mixer bowl.

On low, stir in eggs, buttermilk, hot water, oil, and vanilla; beat until smooth, about 2 minutes, scraping bowl as necessary.

Pour into prepared pans and bake, rotating the pans once, 35-45 minutes. (Less for the cupcakes)

Remove cakes to a cooling rack and let cool in the pans for 15 minutes before unmolding.

When the cakes (and cupcakes) are completely cool, frost with icing.

 

Best Frosting Ever

1 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 bricks (16 oz) cream cheese, at room temperature

2 pounds confectioner’s sugar

1 TABLEspoon vanilla

food coloring of your choice

 

In your mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth.

With a mesh sieve, sift the powdered sugar into butter mixture and mix on low to incorporate.

Add vanilla and food coloring.

Enjoy!

(This makes plenty of frosting. Enough for my 6 inch cakes and cupcakes with a little leftover. Leftovers are yummy smeared on graham crackers. Just sayin’.)

Flavor of the Month

The Flavor of the Month at Bridget's Bake at 350 is. . . . . . . . lemon! I love lemon! When it comes to desserts, I prefer lemon to chocolate. Sacrilege, I know! These were so light and refreshing and crunchy. Crunchy? Yep, these lemon filled cupcakes are topped with a yummy vanilla meringue! My kids just loved crunching into them. . . outside. With the doggy in attendance. Lucy likes meringue too!

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

Start with the meringues as they will take about 4 hours to finish. They keep well, so you can do them the day before, or even just the evening before and leave them in the oven overnight!


For the Meringues:

3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup superfine sugar (buzz some sugar in your food processor for about 5 minutes!)
4 egg whites, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment.
Sift together powdered sugar, superfine sugar, and salt.
In the bowl of your mixer, whisk the eggs and cream of tartar.
Mix until frothy, then turn the speed up to medium high and whip to soft peaks.
Gradually mix in the sugar mixture and vanilla.
When the sugar is incorporated, turn the speed up to high and whip to stiff peaks.
Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a large tip and pipe onto the parchment paper in a 'cupcake' shape.
Bake until dried and crisp, but not brown, about 3 hours.
Turn off the oven and leave the meringues in for another hour.
Place on top of finished cupcakes!

Vanilla Cupcakes
Adapted from Gesine at Confections of a Closet Master Baker

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
5 eggs, room temperature
3 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups buttermilk, room temperature

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Line 2 muffin pans and one mini muffin pan with cupcake liners.
In the mixer whisk together the butter and sugar until very fluffy, about 5 minutes.
Add the eggs one at a time and incorporate fully before adding next egg.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
With the mixer on low, add about a third of the flour mixture and mix well to incorporate
Stir the vanilla into the buttermilk and add about a third of the mixture into the batter.
Add another third of the flour mixture, mix to incorporate and add a third of the buttermilk mixture.
Add the last of the flour, incorporate, and add the last of the buttermilk.
Mix another 2 minutes.
(By the way, I am the Queen of Scrapertonia. I stop the mixer and scrape everything down every few minutes. Your recipe calls for X amount of butter, so you want X amount of butter in your batter, right? Not X minus the bits crawling up the side! No? So, scrape often!)
Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 full of batter and bake for about 15 minutes, or until the cupcakes are lightly browned and spring back when lightly touched.
Cool thoroughly before filling.


Whipped Lemon Cream

1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup lemon curd

15 minutes before you're ready put your mixer bowl and whisk in the freezer to chill.
When you're ready fit the whisk into your mixer and add the cream, sugar and vanilla.
Mix slowly for a minute. (to avoid a mushroom cloud of sugar)
Beat mixture to almost stiff peaks.
Remove whisk and gently fold in lemon curd.
Spoon into piping bag fitted with a Bismark tip and pipe into cupcakes.

National Cupcake Day!

When I saw that Jen at Cake Wrecks said today is National Cupcake Day I kinda wanted to give myself a little reward. I had baked cupcakes last night to take to a playdate today, how. . .what's the word. . . fortuitous! I only have a minute before I have to get me and three little kids out the door, so no recipe today. Sorry. Don't worry, I'll sic it on you soon. Unfortunately, it's the best cupcake recipe I've ever tried. Unfortunate for my waistline, that is. Man, are these good!!!

Anyway, Happy Cupcake Day!!!

The Carrie Cupcake

I can't believe Jillian is six months old already!!! Last night I was going through all our videos since before Christmas and found all the footage from her birth. I hadn't seen it before and it feels like it all happened last week! I was a little surprised at how upsetting my c-section was to watch, because I didn't feel that way at the time! Did you know some guy poked me with a freaking needle? Just to poke? 'Cause I didn't know that! I did think it was pretty dang funny that my mom and I were discussing cupcakes while they were working on me! I loved seeing all the footage of Jilly now that I know her better. Seeing her reactions to everything was just so . . . her! She's such a calm, sweet baby!

Devil's Food Cupcake with Salted Caramel Buttercream

I made these cupcakes for my friend's birthday. Very, very belated birthday. (Sorry, Carrie!!!) They were scrumptious!!! The cupcake is from Martha Stewart (Thank you, Sarah, for the recipe!) and I filled it with a salted caramel buttercream, dipped it in dark chocolate and piped more buttercream on top. I had to give them away so I wouldn't eat them all myself!

The Carrie Cupcake
Adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcake Book

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup hot water
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon coarse salt
3 sticks unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream, room temperature

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners.
Whisk together cocoa and hot water until smooth.
In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Melt butter with sugar in saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring to combine.
Remove from heat and pour into your mixer's bowl.
On medium-low speed, beat until mixture is cooled, 4 to 5 minutes.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add vanilla, then cocoa mixture, and beat until combined.
Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the sour cream, and beating until just combined after each.
Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full.
Bake, rotating tins halfway through, about 20 minutes.
Transfer tins to wire racks to cool 15 minutes; turn out cupcakes onto racks and let cool completely.
Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

Salted Caramel Buttercream

3/4 cup salted caramel
2 sticks of butter, softened
2 lbs. of powdered sugar
3-4 tablespoons cream

In your mixer, beat the butter until smooth.
Sift in about half the powdered sugar and mix on low until combined.
Add the caramel and mix well.
Sift in remaining powdered sugar and mix.
Add in cream and mix well.
Sift in more powdered sugar as necessary to achieve desired consistency.

Sweet Pesto Cupcake

So, today is my first day back from vacation! Well, I guess yesterday really was, but I was so exhausted I was just absolutely worthless all day. Everyone had a great time while Jay's parents were here and I have about 2 thousand pictures to go through! And then maybe I'll nap. Again.


Oh, and yipes! It's the last day of Iron Cupcake: Earth! Which is kinda funny, I made this the day after the new ingredient was announced and now I'll be sneaking it in right before the deadline! I was hoping this month might be 'herbs' because I had a few ideas kicking around that I wanted to try. This one is based on one of my favorite pastas, pesto! Okay, okay, the cupcake doesn't taste just like pesto, but it has most of the components. I just couldn't bring myself to add the garlic. I had planned to, but when the time came I just couldn't do it. I'm kinda glad now because these cupcakes awesome just the way they are! Sweet and nutty with an elusive subtle flavor.

Sweet Pesto Cupcakes

1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup parmesan, grated
1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350.
Prepare your mini muffin tin with a spray of Baker's Joy and cupcake liners.
In a food processor, buzz the toasted pine nuts and a tablespoon of the sugar. (Go slowly so you don't end up with pine nut butter.)
In your mixer, beat the butter and the rest of the sugar until light and fluffy.
Meanwhile, sift the flour, salt, baking powder, and parmesan together.
In another bowl, mix the buttermilk and vanilla.
When the butter/sugar is fluffy, add the eggs one at a time. Scrape the bowl down well.
Mix in the pine nut mixture.
Add about a third of the flour mixture, followed by a third of the buttermilk mixture. Mix until incorporated and scrape the bowl.
Add another third each of the flour and buttermilk, scraping the bowl.
Finish with the last third of flour and the last third of buttermilk. Scrape the bowl down and beat until you're sure it's all incorporated.
Spoon into cupcake liners and bake about 12 minutes, or until the tops spring back when lightly pressed.
Remove from oven and let cool COMPLETELY before frosting.

7 Minute Frosting

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
3 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

In large metal bowl, whisk together 1/3 cup water, sugar, egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt. Set bowl over pan of barely simmering water and mix with handheld electric mixer at low speed. Gradually increase speed to high, beating until mixture holds stiff peaks, about 5 minutes. Add the chopped basil. Transfer bowl from pan to folded kitchen towel on counter and continue beating until mixture is cool and billowy, about 2 minutes more. Beat in vanilla.

This is the July prize package for Iron Cupcake Earth: Herbs

A sweet cupcake ID bracelet by INSANEJELLYFISH, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5021935
A delicious treat from CIRCLEMONKEY http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5335273
a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/
PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!

Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com .

Lavender Lady

This is my first entry for Iron Cupcake this month. Isn't she the sexiest little cannibalistic lavender cupcake alien you've ever seen?

Vanilla-Lavender Cupcakes
Makes 12 aliens or 24 regular cupcakes

1 ¼ cups whole milk
2 teaspoons food grade lavender
2 ½ cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
4 large egg whites
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

In a small pan scald the milk until it just starts to make little bubbles around the edges.
Stir in the lavender and remove from heat.
Let steep for 15 minutes and chill in fridge for at least 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 350 and prepare 2 muffin tins with Baker's Joy and cupcake liners in just one of the tins.
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.
In your mixer's bowl beat the butter and sugar 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.
Mix the finished batter for 2 minutes to ensure it is all incorporated. (This would be a great time to add a little green food coloring if you're making aliens. I wish I would have thought of it before!)
Divide the batter between the two pans.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cupcakes are well risen and springy to the touch.
Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes.
Invert and cool to room temperature, right side up.

To make the aliens: you'll need a bit of frosting. I usually have a bit of buttercream left over from something or other hanging out in the back of my fridge. Lately my favorite buttercream is a pound of softened butter beaten with about 2 pounds of sifted powdered sugar, a tablespoon of vanilla extract and a few tablespoons of cream. Yum!
Set the fondant out on the counter to come to room temperature while you make the aliens.
In a large bowl, crumble up the dozen cupcakes not in cupcake liners. Add in just enough frosting to make a playdoh like consistency. You can then use this mixture to make aliens! I used one ball for the body and one for the head. (and, of course, two small balls for the, ahem, bust.)
Tint the fondant to your desired color(s). (save out a couple of walnut sized lumps of fondant if you want to make the 'cupcakes'.)
Take a small ball of fondant and roll it out until it is about 1/4 inch thin.
Carefully mold it onto your alien, gently shaping it around the curves. Form arms from two 'snakes'. Roll out another piece of fondant in to a rectangle about 4 inches by 6 inches and use it to 'skirt' the cupcake. The 'cupcake' was made from two tiny bits of fondant and a red non-pareil.
For the antennae, I melted some white chocolate chips and tinted it green. Then I piped it onto wax paper on a tray and popped it in the fridge to set. I made a hole in the head of the cupcake with a toothpick and stuck the antennae in. I used a smidge of frosting to glue on some big sugar eyeballs.

This is the July prize package for Iron Cupcake Earth: Herbs

• A sweet cupcake ID bracelet by INSANEJELLYFISH, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5021935
• A delicious treat from CIRCLEMONKEY http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5335273
  
• a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/
  
• PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!

Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com .

Take Me To Your Leader!

This is my second entry for Iron Cupcake: Summer Berries! I thought I'd make one for the little kids and boy, did it go over well! I decorated these during naptime. When Amelia woke up and wandered out into the kitchen, her little face lit up and she asked in an awed tone, 'Mommy, what is thaaaaaaaat?' I let her pick her own alien (they were all different) and of course, my little berry girl picked the one covered in blueberry eyes! She then proceeded to de-eye her little alien which was just a little disturbing to watch, seeing as she was gently crooning to it the whole time. *shudder*

Considering that I've never piped white chocolate before, I thought my little antennae were passable. I was trying to be clever so I drew little antennae on the back of a piece of wax paper before trying to pipe them on. But I didn't draw them big enough, the chocolate needs to be fairly thick to stand up to it's own weight. Turns out that the ones I did just trying to fill up space and when my hand was starting to get tired, those were the ones that turned out the best! Geesh.

Blueberry Aliens, I mean, Cupcakes

8 ounces (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
5 room temperature eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/4 cup non-fat buttermilk
1 cup of blueberries


Preheat oven to 325. Prepare two 8” round cake pans.
In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking powder
In mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. At least 5 minutes on high speed.
Add eggs one at a time, incorporating well before you add another
Add vanilla extract.
Add flour and buttermilk in alternative pours, about 2 cups of flour and 1 cup of buttermilk each.
Mix on slow speed and scrape the bowl during the process.
Once everything is well incorporated, use a plastic
spatula to fold in the blueberries and make sure the batter is well mixed. Divide the batter between your cake pans.
Bake in preheated oven for twenty to forty minutes. Check for doneness by pressing gently on the cake.
Let your cake cool completely before filling.

For the frosting:

2 sticks of butter, room temperature
1/2 block (4oz) of cream cheese, room temperature
2 lbs powdered sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon vanilla
2-4 tablespoons of cream


Beat the butter and cream cheese together well.
Sift in the powdered sugar and mix on low until incorporated.
Add the vanilla and 2 tablespoons of cream and mix well.
Add more cream as necessary to achieve your preferred consistency.
Pipe onto cupcakes!



And, again, these are the prizes I'm competing for!

Our June ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:

A sweet cupcake ID bracelet by INSANEJELLYFISH, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5021935
A groovy linocut piece from BLOCKHEAD PRESS http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6108705
a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/
PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!

Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com.


Be sure to head over to 5 minutes for Mom to enter a drawing to win $1000 for a 4th of July party to remember!

My First Iron Cupcake Challenge

These wonderful little gems have been popping up at our farmer's market the last couple of weeks. Fresh, local, organic strawberries. Strawberries without superfertilizer, pesticides or genetic enhancements. Tiny little bursts of flavor the size of the end of your finger. Not those hulking monsters the size of your fist. Seriously, a handful of these are enough to make you swear off those tasteless 'strawberries' you can buy in December forever.

And what perfect timing for them to appear! I joined the Iron Cupcake Challenge and for the month of June the challenge is Summer Berries. Woo hoo! I cannot tell you how dang excited I am to participate in this challenge! As soon as I read the 'secret ingredient' I knew exactly what I wanted to make. A while back I'd come across a recipe for Balsamic Strawberry ice cream. I couldn't remember where I'd seen the recipe so I just had to wing it on proportions for my cupcakes. For the cupcakes, I macerated the strawberries with some sugar and a dose of white balsamic vinegar and added a large spash of the vinegar to my cream cheese frosting as well. Heaven! I'm really thinking all frosting needs a bit of vinegar! It helped cut the sweetness and added a certain je ne sais quoi to the flavor.

Aren't They Pretty?

For the cupcake batter I turned to one of my favorite cake recipes. It's one of Gesine's at Confections of a (Closet) Master Baker. I *heart* her, her site, her recipes. . . wonderful! You can read her original recipe here. (and I heartily recommend you do, I learned a lot in that one page!)

Balsamic Strawberry Cupcakes
Adapted from Gesine at Confections of a (Closet) Master Baker

1 cup strawberries, crushed (I used a pastry cutter)
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

3 eggs, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350.
Prepare your muffin tin with a spray of Pam and cupcake liners.
In a small bowl, combine the strawberries, 2 teaspoons sugar and vinegar.
In your mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Seriously. For, like, 5 minutes. At least.
Meanwhile, sift the flour, salt and baking powder together.
In another bowl, mix the buttermilk and vanilla.
When the butter/sugar is fluffy, add the eggs one at a time. Scrape the bowl down well. (I do this religiously the entire time I'm mixing. I want EVERYTHING incorporated, not lurking in the shadows waiting to plop, unmixed, into my perfect batter.)
Add about a third of the flour mixture, followed by a third of the buttermilk mixture. Mix until incorporated and scrape the bowl.
Add another third each of the flour and buttermilk, scraping the bowl.
Finish with the last third of flour and the last third of buttermilk. Scrape the bowl down and beat until you're sure it's all incorporated.
Fold in the strawberry mixture.
Spoon into cupcake liners and bake about 15 minutes, or until the tops spring back when lightly pressed.
Remove from oven and let cool COMPLETELY before frosting.

Balsamic Cream Cheese Frosting

2 sticks of butter, room temperature
4 oz (half a brick) of cream cheese, room temperature
3 cups of SIFTED confectioners sugar
4 teaspoons white balsamic vinegar

Beat the butter and cream cheese until fluffy.
Add the vinegar
Sift in the confectioners sugar and mix slowly so you don't end up in a mushroom cloud of sugar.
Add more sugar as neccessary to achive the consistency of the frosting you prefer.
Pipe onto cupcakes, and enjoy!

Isn't she loverly?

So it works like this: you join the Iron Cupcake Challenge here and bake and blog about your cupcakes before the 24th of the month. The voting goes for 5 days after the baking challenge. Each vote gets your cupcake entered into a drawing for these fabulous prizes. . . .

A groovy linocut piece from Blockhead Press,
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6108705

A sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery,
http://www.acupcakery.com/

An art piece from the fabulous Cakespy, (Seriously, I want that SO BAD!!! I love her!)
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382

A sweet cupcake ID bracelet by Insanejellyfish,
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5021935

And corporate prize providers:

HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS,
http://www.fiestaproducts.com,
HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson,
http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com,
JESSIE STEELE APRONS
http://www.jessiesteele.com;
TASTE OF HOME books,
http://www.tasteofhome.com;
a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM
http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/.
Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers,
http://www.1800flowers.com .

So here is where I beg and grovel. . . you love me, right? You want me to have a Cakespy drawing and a Jessie Steele apron, right? Puuuuuhleeeeeease go vote for me when the time comes??? Please, please, please? Don't worry, I'll remind you! If I do win I promise to have a giveaway where you too could win a fabulous prize! Because I kinda sorta have one of the prizes already. I'm more than happy to share the wealth :)