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 :)