Oct 27

At Least The Cupcakes Were Good

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cupcakesI watched the BYU-TCU football game this past weekend. For a BYU fan, that was a pretty brutal game. I don’t even want to think about it. The one part I did like came in the form of festive cupcakes – I made white cupcakes filled with white chocolate mousse, topped with vanilla frosting. DELICIOUS. (I may be biased – I made them after all – but I make a pretty good cupcake. And these were good. Trust me.)  Here’s how I did it:

Cupcakes: a white cake mix.  with fresh eggs. made according to the box. (SUPER easy.)

White Chocolate Mousse: heavy whipping cream, whipped up. while whipping, add one bar of melted white chocolate – but make sure that the chocolate is mostly cool while you pour it in, or it’s going to be gross.

Frosting: 1 bag (2 lbs) powdered sugar, 2 cubs (1 cup) softened butter, about 1/4 cup water, 2 tsp vanilla.  Mix until fluffy.

Assemble: Cut a hole out of the center of the cupcake, but don’t go so far that you cut out the bottom.  Fill it with white chocolate  mousse.  Top with frosting – cover up the hole where the mousse is sticking out.

Finally, eat the pain away!  That’s right, if you eat enough cupcakes, you just might forget how BYU played. (Or rather, how they didn’t play.)

*PS – sorry for the picture quality – the lighting wasn’t fantastic & there’s no flash on the iPhone.

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Sep 24

You Can’t Go Wrong With Cupcakes

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There is something about a cupcake that makes it impossible to hate.  And most of the time, impossible to resist.  Maybe it’s the fact that it’s your own personal little cake.  Maybe it’s the pillows of frosting that all good cupcakes come with.  I have been to a few cupcake bakeries in my time – they’re called “cupcakeries.”  One of my favorites is Mad Hatter Cupcakes in Las Vegas, in the Summerlin area. When I lived in Las Vegas, they were a dangerous addiction – way too close to my house and just on the way home from the gym. (Because you can justify having a cupcake after you have worked out for an hour. Totally negates the workout, but at least you aren’t doing yourself as much harm.)

Making specialty cupcakes on your own isn’t that difficult and if you do it right, they are often better than the cupcakes you can buy.  They can even look stunningly sophisticated.

There are a few websites that have some great ideas for inspiration:  The Cupcake Project, The Busty Baker and Bakerella.  (You’ll notice that they are also listed in my “Things I Love” blogroll.)

Here’s one of my own latest cupcake creations, inspired by The Busty Baker’s own Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes.  Her photography is better than mine and her directions are probably clearer.  The biggest difference between the cupcakes is that my cupcakes are filled with raspberry filling.  These were a big hit when I took them to a friend’s dinner party.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

White Chocolate Raspberry Cupcake

Cupcakes:

  • Your favorite chocolate cake mix or recipe.  I cheat.  I use a box.

Filling:

  • 2 1/2 cups raspberries
  • 1/2 cup sugar

Mix the raspberries and sugar together on the stove until sugar is dissolved and raspberries have been all been smashed.  Continue to stir on the stove until raspberry mixture has slightly thickened.

Frosting:

  • 1 1/2 sticks of butter, softened
  • 1 bag of powdered sugar (2 lbs.)
  • 4 squares of white baking chocolate, melted
  • 1/2 tsp. salt

Mix all above ingredients.  While mixing, add 1/4 cup water by the spoonful.  Whip until you have a nice, fluffy consistency.

Put it all together:

Wait until your cupcakes have cooled.  Cut out a hole in the top of each cupcake.  Spoon raspberry filling into the holes.  It will seep throughout the entire cupcake.  You can replace the top of the cupcake if you want.  Cover with white chocolate frosting.  Voila!

PS – these are especially good if you have let them sit in the fridge overnight so that the filling really gets into the cupcake.

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