Flop! Flop!

A double flop.

The recipe for the cupcakes was from a favourite blogger. Maybe there is nothing wrong with the recipe. Maybe it was a bad idea to substitute cake flour for all purpose flour (the box of cake flour said it was ok to do so).
The result were these cupcakes which looked good and smelt great but tasted horrible. Extremely pasty to taste and very doughy.

The recipe for the frosting was from a favourite magazine. For once I followed the recipe to the letter. The result, nonetheless, was terrible. The recipe was unusual. Sugar, milk, and flour (yes, flour) was cooked to create a goopy consistency. Butter was beaten into the cooled goop to create something nasty.

I have baked plenty of disastrous. But so far everything that I've tried from this blogger or the magazine have always turned out just right and so the disappointment is greatly magnified.

The cupcake was intentionally harmed while taking this picture.

What makes this mishap blogworthy is Malar's event, Kitchen Mishaps, that I can participate in!

Birthday Cupcakes

Years ago I saved this recipe (from a much forwarded email) and promptly forgot about it.
I chanced upon the recipe when going through my archives looking for a new recipe for chocolate cupcakes.
This recipe is astonishingly similar to the one from One-Pot Cakes so I suspect it originated there.

These were the cupcakes I made for my daughter's birthday last month.
I made several batches of these cupcakes and each batch baked up consistently good. Soft and sweet; not the toothache inducing sort of sweetness. The cupcakes remained moist even a couple of days after they were baked. A keeper recipe, no doubt.

Ingredients
6 tbsp unsalted butter
2 oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 ¼ cups brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
a pinch of salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 ¼ cup flour
½ cup hot water

Method
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Prepare the cupcake pan (either grease and flour the pan or use cupcake holders).
Put the butter in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for about 45 seconds.
Add the chocolate and microwave for about a minute; till the chocolate is mostly melted.
Stir the mixture till the chocolate melts completely.
Add the brown sugar and stir till combined.
Add the eggs, vanilla, and salt and mix well.
Add the flour and sprinkle the baking soda. Mix well.
Stir in the hot water.
Spoon the batter into the cup; roughly ½ full.
Bake for about 15-20 minutes; till a tester inserted in one of the cupcakes comes out almost clean.

Though the yield is supposed to be a dozen cupcakes, I always had some batter leftover. So I'd say each recipe yields about 14 cupcakes.
Cool completely before frosting.
The cupcakes deflate slightly as they cool.

The frosting was similar to the one used here, except I omitted the coffee powder and the liqueur.
The cupcakes were topped with one of these flowers.

Flowers From My Kitchen

The child couldn't make up her mind.
One day it was butterflies. An hour later ladybugs were requested.
Finally, she settled on flowers.
We were talking about the decorative topping for her birthday cupcakes.

Several year ago I had made simple designs using melted chocolate piped onto parchment paper and I remembered being quite happy with the results. Great to embellish simple cakes.
But since she wanted colourful flowers (not just chocolate flowers), I turned to candy melts.
Though the process of making these flowers is just a little time consuming, the results are so wow-inducing that it is worth all the time.

Here is how I made them:

Step 1
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper (not wax paper).
Melt about ½ cup of chocolate chips. I usually microwave them for about 20 seconds at a time till most of them are melted. At this point, stir the chips till they all melt and become smooth.
Spoon the melted chocolate in the corner of a zip top bag. Snip off a tiny piece of that corner. How much you snip off depends on how thick you want the outline.
Pipe the desired shape onto the parchment paper. Since I was making flowers, I piped an outline of the flowers.
Let the outline dry completely before moving onto Step 2.

Step 2
Follow directions on the package to melt the candy pieces. Spoon the melted chocolate in the corner of a zip top bag. Snip off a tiny piece of that corner.
Pipe the melted candy to fill in the petals and the center of the flowers. Make sure you completely fill into the outline.

Don't worry about flowers not being smooth. The side that is visible right now is the wrong side. The other side that is perfectly flat and smooth will be visible on the cupcakes.

After the flowers have cooled they slip right off the parchment paper.
They can be stored for several weeks in an airtight container.
As they taste pretty good on their own, you have to hide them from sneaky people.

The finished product:

Here is a flower topped cupcake. These were some super moist chocolate cupcakes. More about them in the next post.

Busy Mom and Cupcakes

It was her daughter’s birthday.
The little one wanted to take chocolate cupcakes with pink flowers for her friends in school.
Much as she wanted to make the cupcakes herself, she couldn't and was understandably heartbroken.
The store bought ones just won’t do. So what does one do?
Never fear when the Cooker Baker is here!
(pathetic joke, I know….but nevertheless funny).

Here are the chocolate cupcakes with marshmallow pink flowers that I made for my friend's little one.
Needless to say they were a huge hit in that pre-school class!

Ingredients

Cake

(The original recipe came from the box of cocoa but I've tweaked it a bit).
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa, I used Trader Joe's organic cocoa powder. This made a huge difference in the taste of the cupcakes.
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup skim milk. Any other kind should be ok. But I've always used skim milk.
1/2 cup vegetable oil, I used olive oil
3 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water (Yes, boiling water.)

Frosting
1/2 stick (4 tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
3 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
3-4 drops pink food colouring

Marshmallow Flowers
marshmallows, large, about 30
pink sprinkles
pink jelly beans, about 30

Method

Cupcakes
1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Put cupcake liners in the cupcake pan. This recipe makes about 30 cupcakes. Since I did not have so many cupcake pans, I used store bought disposable foil pans.
3. Combine and then sift flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and the salt.
4. Combine the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla in a large bowl. Stir well.
5. To the wet ingredients add the dry ingredients and using a hand mixer beat on medium speed for about two minutes.
6. Add the boiler water and stir well.
7. Fill each cupcake cup 2/3 full with the batter.
8. Bake for about 20 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the should come out clean.
Cool completely before decorating.

Frosting
1. In a medium bowl beat the butter for about two minutes.
2. Add the sugar, vanilla, one tbsp milk, an a couple of drops of the food colouring; beat this mixture for another two minutes.
3. Add more milk if the mixture is too dry.
4. Adjust the colour of the frosting by adding more food colour.
5. Cover, till ready to use.

Marshmallow Flowers
With a kitchen knife cut each marshmallow in five slices. The slices will take on an oval-ish petal-like shape.
Dip each petal in sprinkles and set aside.
Note: dip the petals in the sprinkles right after you cut them. The moistness of the cut petal will help in adhering the sprinkles to it.

Assembly
Frost the cupcakes. You won't need a lot of frosting as the marshmallow flowers will cover most of the cupcakes. But you still want enough frosting to form a pink background for the marshmallow flowers.
Arrange the marshmallow petals, use five petals for each cupcakes.
Add the jellybean to the center of the cupcakes.

Enjoy!

This is my entry for Coconut Chutney's SHF#30: Flower Power.