Cupcakes! Nine New Cupcakes From My Personal Cooking Challenge

Oh man, it's been a while since I've updated you on my personal cooking challenge.  I've baked 9 new flavors from the Robicelli's Cupcake book!  That's 33 of 50 cupcake recipes so far, and I'm really pumped to tell you all about "El Melocoton de la Muerte" because it's definitely my favorite so far.  

Let's get this show on the road!

 Red Wine and Peaches - Peach Cake, Mascarpone Buttercream and Peaches soaked in red wine.

The Rue McClanahan - Peach Cake, Cheesecake Buttercream, Peach Compote

So, I wasn't blown away by either of these cupcakes.  They were good not great.  I didn't feel like the peach flavor really came through in cupcakes.  The soaked peaches in red wine were pretty good on their own, and the peach compote was really nice.  I added slivered almonds to The Rue McClanahan because I felt like it needed something.

 The Estelle Getty - Amaretto Cake, Cheesecake Buttercream, Amaretti Cookies

It's worth making this recipe just to have extra amaretti cookies around your house.  Super delicious, and if you happen to have any gluten-free friends these cookies will delight them beyond belief.  Serious, make this cupcake.   I added some amaretto to the buttercream as well just because I like my cupcakes extra boozy.

The North Fork - Chocolate Cabernet Cake, Blackberry Cabernet Buttercream, Blackberry Cabernet Compote

My husband says these are the best "fridge to mouth" cupcakes so far.  In other words you can take one of these bad boys right out of the refrigerator and it tastes perfect.  I typically like to let my cupcakes come to room temperature before eating them, but these were perfection whether cold or room temp.  I pureed the Blackberry Cabernet Compote and added it into the cake batter, and found it was easier to use in the frosting and as a syrup in that form.  

Butterbrew - Vanilla Cake, Butterscotch Bourbon Buttercream, Butterscotch Bourbon Sauce (added sea salt, more bourbon)

YUMMMY!  Did you know the difference between butterscotch and caramel is brown sugar vs white sugar?  Yup, it's true.  I added a bit more salt, and bourbon to the butterscotch.  I also topped the final product with some extra salt. 

The Julia - Pear Cake, Brown Butter Buttercream, Brandy Snaps

This is another recipe that's worth making if only for the Brandy Snap cookies.  Man, those are good.  I had so much leftover that we just crumbled it up and ate it by the handful.  This is a fairly refreshing cupcake, light, buttery and not too sweet.

The Duckwalk - Vanilla Cake, Blueberry Port Mascarpone Buttercream

The blueberries from this recipe were sooooo good after being soaked/cooked in port.  I actually used the remainder blueberries to make some faux butter cream for a vegan cupcake later in the week.  I pureed the blueberries and whipped them in with the faux-cream.  I added a bit of uncooked port to the frosting for an extra boozy finish. 

 The Laurenzano - Fig Cake, Goat Cheese Buttercream, Fig Balsamic Gastrique and Proscuitto

I seriously just finished baking these bad boys an hour ago.  The cake is super moist and delicate.  This is definitely a more savory cupcake but still hits the spot.  Forget having a cheese plate, this is the way to go for my next party.  I ended up having to strain out some big clumps of fig jam from my gastrique (syrup/sauce) as the jam just wouldn't finish dissolving.

El Melocoton de la Muerte - Peach-Ghost Chile Cake, Peach-Ghost Chile Compote Buttercream

I waited and waited for peach season just to make this cupcake!  My husband and I love spice!  The more spice the better.  We already had ghost chiles at the house, and the ghost chile powder so we knew this recipe was going to be right up our alley.  The compote is to die for!  I made an extra large batch and we ended up using it as a marinade for pork chops, soooo yummy.  I followed the directions to the letter on this recipe because I didn't want to burn anyone's face off.  It was the perfect amount of spice.  Everyone who tried it loved it!  BEST CUPCAKE EVER!!!!!  I'm going to make more of the compote and freeze it so I can continue to enjoy it's fiery awesomeness.

Whew, now we're all caught up!  I plan on making two different kinds of cupcakes this next weekend so keep your eyes peeled for deliciousness!


:)M

Cupcakes: Creme Brulee, Pecan French Toast, Car Bomb, The Elvis, and The Iona

Woah, I just realized how long it's been since I updated my cupcake adventure.  I've made half the recipes in the Robicelli's cook book.  Per usual, if you don't know about my personal cooking challenge you can check it out in this previous post.

Creme Brulee - Vanilla Cupcake, Vanilla Custard Buttercream, and Caramelized Sugar

The Creme Brulee cupcakes were pretty straight forward and a total hit with my classmates.  Making the various caramel topping was really easy.  I didn't make any adjustments to this recipe.  The only thing I'd change is breaking down the caramel more so it was smaller. 

 

 Pecan French Toast- Cinnamon Cupcake, Maple Cinnamon Buttercream, with Maple Glazed Pecans

OMG! This was so amazingly delicious!  It tastes like breakfast.  I would make this cupcake again, it was a huge hit.

 

 Car Bomb - Guiness Chocolate Stout Cupcake, Baileys Buttercream, and Jameson Chocolate Ganache

I specifically saved this cupcake for St. Patrick's Day and it was great!  The chocolate cake was really dense but still super delish and moist.  I think I'd go lighter on the Jameson in the ganache next time but it was still really good.

 

 The Elvis - Banana Cupcake, Peanut Butter Buttercream, Candied Bacon

These are the most beautiful cupcakes I've baked so far.  They came out perfectly domed on top and they were super moist.  I went ahead and added more cinnamon to the cake because I'm a huge fan of cinnamon.  I used my favorite powdered peanut butter in the frosting, and instead of using brown sugar to candy the bacon I used maple syrup. 

The Iona - Pear Olive Oil Cupcake, Blue Cheese Buttercream, Port Reduction, and Candied Walnuts

The best way to describe this cupcake is mild.  The flavors are all nice and easy and blend really well.  I used a really mild blue cheese, Point Reyes Bay Blue, in the frosting and that made all the difference. 

I wanted to try a few other cupcakes so I made some of Prohibition Bakery's recipes.

 

Irish Coffee - Coffee Cupcake with Jameson Frosting

I made this cupcake exactly as the recipe says.  It was really delicious but I'm not a fan of powdered sugar frosting.  The cake was really great.  If I were to make this cupcake again I'd use my buttercream recipe and add the Jameson to that. 

 

Dark and Stormy - Ginger Cupcake with Rum Buttercream and Lime Zest

Absolutely delicious!  I used my buttercream frosting for this cupcake instead of the powdered sugar frosting.  In the future I'd add more rum to the frosting, or maybe use a different rum.  I used Kraken, and I think it's too sweet to really taste the rum.

Drake's Drakonic Chocolate Stout Cupcake, Brown Butter Buttercream and Sea Salt

I'm pleased to say this is my first original cupcake.  I used the Robicelli's stout cupcake recipe and Prohibition Bakery's stout recipe for inspiration but the final product was my doing.  I specifically made this for a small Drake's event at Shotwells Bar. 



So, I've now made 24 of the Robicelli cupcake recipes!  YUM!  Only 26 more to go!

:)M

Buffalo Chicken Cupcakes and the "El Guapo"

Holy crap, the Buffalo Chicken Cupcakes, from the Robicelli cupcake book, turned out perfectly AND they were pretty delish.   I took the cupcakes to a fun party called "Crabtacular."

 

 Top view of Buffalo Chicken Cupcakes.

The Buffalo Cupcakes were good in an interesting/unique kind of way.  It's weird to have those flavors in a chewy cupcake form.  The blue cheese butter cream was pretty cool, but super greasy.  The cupcakes were a huge hit at the party but I don't think I'd make them again.  They weren't hard but I like my cupcakes more sweet.  I did take a little liberty with the cupcake and added some ground ghost pepper.  The pepper added a nice kick.

  Buffalo Chicken Cupcake! Carrot Celery-Root Cake, Blue Cheese Buttercream Frosting, Buttermilk Fried Chicken, and Buffalo Sauce!

The "El Guapo" Cupcake - Sweet Corn Cake, Cilantro Lime Buttercream, topped with Popcorn!

"El Guapo" is a delicious and refreshing bite of awesome.  It's light and fluffy and has a really nice finish.  It's easy to put away a few cupcakes before noticing you've had half a dozen.  Other than pureeing the corn it was a pretty easy recipe.  I made everything start to finish in about two and a half hours. I added a little bit of honey to the cupcakes because I wanted the batter to be sweeter.

That's 19 recipes I've done so far, if you're keeping track!  I'm running out of easy recipes so things are going to get intense soon!

:)M

Butternut Spice Cupcakes, Carrot Cake Cupcakes, and "The Blatt" Cupcakes!

Don't worry, despite class being a little crazy with exams I was still able to bake some delish cupcakes from the Robicelli's: A Love Story, with Cupcakes: With 50 Decidedly Grown-Up Recipes book.  If this is the first cupcake post from me you've read, you can read all about my personal challenge here.

So, the Butternut Spice were interestingly delicious.  They were a bit more savory than sweet.  They were really simple, the only component I had to buy online was the butternut squash seed oil.  The cupcakes were fluffy and the brown sugar from the candied seeds was heavenly.

 

Butternut Spice: butternut squash cupcake, vanilla buttercream frosting, brown sugar, roasted pumpkin seeds.

The carrot cake cupcakes were straight forward and super easy.  I picked this cupcake for Valentine's Day because I know I could easily make and assemble the cupcakes on a Thursday night after class.  I was going to spice them up, but decided not to because I wanted to try the recipe as written - it was quite delish.  Check out my half-assed hearts that I piped on the cupcakes.

 

Carrot Cake Cupcake: carrot cake cupcake, cream cheese buttercream, and roasted walnuts. 

The "Blatt" was chosen because it also features cream cheese buttercream.  I was able to just make a double batch of the frosting when I made the carrot cake cupcakes and freeze the extra frosting. (I like an easy cheat.)  The cardamom cookies were interesting, and I'm not sure I actually cooked them properly, but they were yummy.  I felt like they were going to be flatter and crispier, but that could be me.

 The Blatt! - Vanilla cupcake, cream cheese buttercream frosting, raspberry jam and topped w/ crumbled fried cardamom cookies.

As of this post I have made 17 different cupcakes from the Robicelli's cupcake book. I'm pumped! And I'm super excited to tell you that I'll be taking on the Buffalo Chicken Cupcakes this weekend, so stay tuned!

:)M

The "Apple Maple Crisp," "Maltz," and "Coquito" cupcakes.

I was a really busy girl this last week.  As of today I've made three more cupcakes from the Robicelli's cupcake book.  I'm gaining headway with my personal cooking challenge.  I started the week off with the:

Apple Maple Crisp Cupcake

OMG, this cupcake was amazingly moist and delicious.  Even though it's one of the easier recipes it was a bit time consuming because of all the components.  I made my own apple butter and oatmeal crumble this cupcake.  I bought 5 pounds of Pink Lady apples to make my apple butter, and to shred to put in the cupcakes.  (Pink Ladies are my go-to baking apples.)  I had to plan in advance on this recipe because the apple butter takes 9-12 hours.  I threw in a little extra cinnamon because nobody hates that.  The cupcakes turned out great, sweet but not too sweet and the apple butter was absolutely amazing.  The best part is that the cupcake is "finished" with Maple syrup.  Soooo delicious.

 The Maltz

Then I made "The Maltz" for our friend's "House Concert."  (It's a really San Francisco thing to do.  They opened up their home to a couple of musicians and had a little potluck and concert in the living room.)  One of these friends really likes bourbon and bacon so The Maltz was the obvious choice as it's a chocolate coffee bourbon cupcakes with chocolate bourbon buttercream and topped with candied bacon.  I added about a shot worth of extra bourbon to the frosting and instead of brown sugar I used maple syrup to candy the bacon.  It was heavenly.  I have noticed that all the chocolate cupcakes seem to be more dense and dry than the other cupcakes - I'll have to compare the recipes side by side to figure this out.

The Coquito

And lastly, today I made "The Coquito."  It's a coconut rum cupcake with coconut lime buttercream and topped with toasted coconut.  There's also a coconut milk and sweetened condensed milk "bath," for the cupcakes.  After the cupcakes came out of the oven I stabbed them a couple of times with a fork and then poured the "bath" over the top of them and let it soak in - it's the perfect amount of sweet.  I think I'd consider adding more rum in the future, and maybe some actual lime juice in the buttercream, but they're really good.

Overall it has been a successful cupcake week.

:)M

The "Bea Arthur" Robicellis Cupcake

So, the awesome Robicelli's cupcake book, part of my personal challenge, has a whole section dedicated to the "Golden Girls" and this last week I made the "Bea Arthur."  It's a chocolate espresso cupcake with cream cheese butter cream frosting and an espresso chocolate ganache.  So, I of course, as usual, took liberties with this recipe.  I made everything as directed except the topping.  I ended up throwing some chocolate covered espresso beans in the food processor and sprinkling it on the cupcakes.  I also wanted an extra coffee flavor so I upped the instant espresso in the cupcakes to about a tablespoon.

I took the cupcakes to class and they were a total success.  Everyone agreed that the cupcakes were perfect because they weren't too sweet, just the right amount.  This is one of the easier recipes in the cook book.  This next week I'll be making two different recipes, one for class and one for a party so stay tuned!

For those of you counting...that's the 10th recipe!

The Bea Arthur, super delish!

:)M

Cupcakes! Gingerbread and Fruitcake

I baked 185 cupcakes yesterday. 161 mini cupcakes and 24 regular sized. It was madness in my kitchen and at the end of the day it looked like my home had been invaded and only the kitchen had been ransacked. Craziness.

I made cupcakes for two different office parties and they were a huge success at both. I made:

Fruitcake Cupcakes- dried apricots and cherries soaked in booze (brandy and rum) in a molasses and ginger cupcake with walnuts. Topped with Rum buttercream salted caramel and more dried cherries.

I also made:

Gingerbread cupcakes- gingerbread cupcakes with a vanilla custard filling, topped with vanilla buttercream, crumbled gingersnaps and short bread cookies and finished with a white chocolate sauce.

Everything was amazing and I've now knocked off two more recipes from the Robicelli cupcake cook book.

:)M

(I wrote this on my phone, please forgive any typing and layout errors.)

My Personal Cooking Challenge

One day, whilst perusing the internets and all the glorious splender that is on the webs I discovered Robicelli's.  To be exact, I was looking around Medium and found some great posts by Allison Robicelli, specifically her write up on jogging.  (Bob and I were joggers for a hot minute, now we are once again sloth-like.)  I discovered I liked all her Medium posts, and immediately started to day dream about us being BFF - I know, super creepy, and yes I promise this post is about food.  After doing my due diligence I discovered that my new girl crush BFF lived in NYC, and she and her husband make amazingly delicious cupcakes!  I also discovered that the Robicellis were writing a cupcake book!  I immediately jumped on Amazon and pre-ordered myself "Robielli's: A Love Story, With Cupcakes: With 50 Decidedly Grown-Up Recipes."

I waited an agonizingly long time to receive my book, and in the mean time I managed to make it out to NYC to actually try a Robicelli's cupcake.  It was worth it.  Delicious.   I had done my research and found a place called Cake Shop that carried the cupcakes and made sure it was the first stop on my list of places to visit. 

 

The Chocolate Cannoli: 

Chocolate cake, cannoli buttercream, cannoli shells, chocolate chips.

Hands down one of the best cupcakes I've ever had, and it made me so excited to receive my new cookbook.  And then finally, it arrived!

I opened the book and was happily surprised to find that it's written colloquially.  It's like Allison and Matt Robicelli are in my kitchen talking to me while baking.  Their tips and tricks, as well as "half assed corner" are delightful and easy to read.  It is hands down the most fun cookbook I own.  I read through the recipes and picked my first cupcake...The Pumpkin Spice Latte.  

 Mini Pumpkin Spice Latte cupcake with my awesome new book.

After my lovely cupcakes came out of the oven I took to the Twitter-verse and shared my first batch with the world, and @Robicellis.  I was quite pleased to discovered that @Robicellis is very active with their Twitter account and happily re-tweeted me.  It was then and there that I decided that I would bake every single recipe from the Robicelli cupcake book.  

So far I have baked:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Cupcake - Chocolate coffee cupcake with Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting, and Chocolate Ganache.

The Noah Cupcake - Apple Cupcake with Goat Cheese Buttercream Frosting, Bourbon Brown Butter Sauce and Candied Bacon.

 

The Betty White Cupcake - Brown Sugar Sour Cream Cupcake with Cheesecake Buttercream Frosting and Lingonberry Jam.

 

The Root Beer Float Cupcake - Chocolate Root Beer Cupcake with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting and a Root Beer Custard filling.

The Liddabit Cupcake - Chocolate Coffee Cupcake with Salted Caramel Marshmallow Buttercream Frosting, topped with Salted Caramel Sauce and Peanuts.

 

Each recipe is broken down into the different components of the cupcake.  At the end of the recipe is a section called "Assembly" which is super helpful because it helps to finish off your cupcake and make it look amazing.  I've also discovered that the recipes work great for making mini cupcakes, which is my preferred size of cupcake.  Each recipe makes two dozen regular cupcakes, and 48 mini cupcakes - just take 5 minutes off the bake time and you're good to go.  I've started making the cupcakes in batches of one full size dozen and two dozen mini cupcakes.

My personal cooking challenge to myself is to bake every single recipe in the book and tweet out the picture.  I've already baked six different flavors and can hardly wait to bake more!  Every few recipes I'll upload my pictures.

Keep your eyes peeled!