Week 28 - Vanilla Cupcakes with Strawberry Filling and Chocolate Glaze

Ming’s version of the vanilla cupcake with strawberry filling and chocolate glaze looks adorable and delicious. Mine, on the other hand, I think looks more like the little bad-guy mushrooms from Super Mario. Bummer. But still pretty tasty.

This is my last cupcake to make for the club and, thankfully, things went pretty well. They went so well that I decided to get a little adventurous:  I made a double batch, and filled half with strawberry preserves and half with lemon filling (after baking). I dipped the strawberry preserve cupcakes in the chocolate glaze; I frosted the lemon-filled cupcakes with the lime frosting perfected by Abby. It’s my favorite frosting ever. The lemon filling was okay – mostly I just wanted to try out the filling attachment on my piping gun. Oh, kitchen gadgets!

The cupcake was alright. Not my favorite vanilla cupcake. I think maybe the cupcake from week 2 would’ve been better – I remember it being a little more moist.

But since this is my last cupcake, I’ve been reflecting on what I’ve learned through this experience:

1.      If in doubt, sift it out: My last few cupcakes have turned out much better than my first attempts. I think this is partly because I started sifting all my dry ingredients together. Okay, so really I just force them through my colander because I don’t have a sifter. But, Christmas is only three months away. A girl can dream.

2.      Don’t just measure twice and cut once – calculate three times, measure twice, then cut once: I learned this the hard way after thinking I’d properly doubled all my ingredients. I wasted so much time and money on that mistake (seriously – a whole box of butter wasted! That stuff’s like $3 a box.). Maybe this doesn’t apply so much for people who are good at things like fractions or adding. But it’s a must for me.

3.      There’s a reason you make 12 cupcakes: Because they’re best when they’re shared. It’s been so much fun making cupcakes with everyone in this club and seeing their cupcake creations, and I’m so lucky to have worked and shared cupcakes with all of them.

And one last thing – I’m not sure how she does it, but Ming’s fillings always look so darn perfect in the cross-section view of the cupcake. I mean, every time the filling is just perfectly in the center. Whenever I try to fill a cupcake before baking, the filling always sinks to the bottom and looks kind of sad. If anyone figures out the trick to this, please let me know!  

Week 27: Vanilla Almond Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Good day cupcake friends! We have reached the end of my personal cupcake journey. For my final cupcake, I made Vanilla Almond Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting. And you totes heard me right, NO FILING! Woop Woop! In general, these cupcakes were Simple Simon compared to my first two endeavors. The only thing I had to worry about was obtaining Almond Meal, aka Almond Flour, aka expensive ground up nuts. Luckily, Hy-Vee's fancy-pants Health Market section had just what I was looking for!

Precious Baby Cupcake

These little precious babies were, by far, the simplest cupcakes I had made! Thanks for finally providing me with complete baking instructions Ming! The cupcakes were super straight forward, which makes this post a little boring…

V. Legal Cupcakes

The most exciting part of my Vanilla Almond Cupcakes was their random shapes and sizes! They were like magic bean cupcakes, each with an individual personality, just like the members of Cupcake Club! I have had an awesome time creating cupcakes! I hope you have had just as sweet of a time reading about my cupcake adventures! Thanks so much for reading! <3 Sarah

Week 26: Port Wine and Cherry Chocolate Cupcakes with Mascarpone Frosting

Week 25: Graham Cupcakes with Key Lime Cream Cheese Frosting

Key Lime cupcakes

Hello blog readers!  After a long hiatus, during which I got to sample soooooo many delicious cupcakes, it was finally my turn again!  And after a request from our cupcake president (?) I switched up my lineup and made the graham cracker cupcakes with key lime frosting this week.  And good thing, because it was 4th of July weekend.  And what's more American than key limes?  I mean, they're from Florida, right?  And last time I checked, Florida was in America.  Works for me. 

These cupcakes were really easy to make.  My 4 yr old had fun crushing graham crackers with me.  I just put them in a baggie and hacked away.  The rest of the ingredients were things that are normally in my kitchen, so nothing too exotic. The batter was delicious!  Once they were baked, there wasn't a strong graham flavor, but it was a perfect vehicle for the frosting. 

Oh, the frosting......it's awesome.  I actually made these cupcakes 3 times this weekend, so I made a double batch of frosting and probably used more powdered sugar than the recipe called for so it would be stiff enought to stay piped on.  I used bottled key lime juice and added some lime zest, too.  Yum.   



S'mores cupcake



The recipe made about exactly 12 cupcakes, and on 12 of them, I decided to mix it up a bit.  I made them into s'mores cupcakes.  I dipped the top of them in chocolate ganache and made a frosting out of butter, powdered sugar, and marshmallow fluff.  I served them to my family on the 4th so you'll just have to take my word for it that they were popular enough to not have any left to share w/ the cupcake club, so they must have been good this way, too! 

Week 24: Parsnip Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Parsnips are one of my favorite tubers.  Yes, a person can have a favorite tuber.  They are wonderful roasted with carrots, drizzled with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Even better, they make a great puree as an alternative to mashed potatoes.  And, as I’m happy to discover, they also work in this delicious cupcake! 

Basically, this is a carrot cake cupcake where you switch the parsnip for the carrot.  I found the recipe pretty simple.  I varied a little from Ming’s instructions for mixing the ingredients.  I mix the wet ingredients separately from the dry, and I sift the flour, baking soda, and spices together.  I added the pineapple and parsnips to the batter last.  For people with the correct attachment for their food processor, grating the parsnips should be no trouble.  I cannot find my attachment, so I grated a LOT of parsnips by hand.  But the result was worth it.  These cupcakes stay very moist, thanks to the canola oil, parsnips, and pineapple in the batter.  And any cupcake is vastly improved with a dollop of cream cheese frosting. 

I hope other people will try out this recipe.  It’s a great conversation cupcake with a yummy taste to boot.  I’m keeping it in my repertoire.

Week 23: Vanilla Cupcakes with Lemon Filling and Meringue Frosting

Hello Cupcake Lovers! It's time for another blog posting from me, Sarah! Yay! This time I made the Vanilla Cupcakes with Lemon Filing and Meringue-esque Frosting. First, let me tell you that I was slow to jump on the cupcake wagon, such that I didn't sign-up for specific cupcakes; I just took them potluck, like my freshman roomie. Then, to make matters more complicated for the Amazing Kate (Founder of CC), I asked for cupcakes that didn't have chocolate. (I work with this weird-o who is "allergic" to chocolate). Kate was awesome and obliged. BUT GUESS WHAT, the allergy kid didn't even try these cupcakes! What!?!? I know!

Anyway, for this grand adventure I did not have to scour the globe looking for any unique ingredients, which my husband was very happy about.

The cupcake recipe looked easy enough, until I realized that there was Lemon Filing I made but it never goes into the cupcake. Hmmm….Ming! Why do you do this to me?!?!? I am not a pastry chef. I had no idea when or where to put the goo in. Sad. So, I made it up. I pretty much just followed her filing instructions from my first cupcake (even though that had "preserves" instead of "filing.").

I, again, made a test batch, since I had no idea what I was doing. They were yummy, but all of the filling disappeared into the cupcake batter! So on the next two batches—that's right, I said two—I tried different techniques…less cupcake, more goo…then ¾ full of cupcake, then I put the goo in. Every time it came out exactly the same! (for the most part – some of them were huge and had to be sacrificed to the neighbors.) They were also very dense and heavy, but they tasted yummy enough. I didn't take pictures so here is a creative interpretation of my cupcake and what Ming thinks my cupcake should have looked like.

Week 22: Sour Cream Chocolate Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting