RAW Artist Showcase: Oodles of Cupcakes

Last Thursday I was showcased for "Cupcake Art" at RAW San Jose's Mixology event. I had a great time, sold a bunch of cupcakes, and got a ton of feedback, ranged from pleased with my little cakes to downright enthralled (Do note, some of my fans had had several drinks. Still.) I've already blogged about my Rose Cheery cupcakes here and my Earl Grey and Chrysanthemum Peach cupcakes here, so I'll focus this entry on the new-comers.




After all that testing of fruit and florals, I was really craving something chocolate-y. My first impulse was to make half of the rose cherry cupcakes into chocolate rose cherry cupcakes, which I did.


All you need to do to make them chocolate is substitute 1/3-1/4 of the flour in the original recipe with cocoa powder and continue baking as usual. (So 1/2 cup flour and 1/4 cocoa powder for a small batch).




But I wanted something else even more deeply chocolate and decadent. I settled for mocha cupcakes with a layer of chocolate caramel. I based the recipe on this one on Bakingdom, but I tweaked it a bit. She has you brew 2 cups of coffe and add cocoa powder, but I have some delicious Godiva Chocolate Truffle coffee that I wanted to use instead. Since the original cook felt that the coffee flavor didn't come through as strongly as she'd hoped, I made my coffe extra strong.

 So for my version of Mocha Caramel Cupcakes:
(makes 24 cupcakes)

Fill coffee filter with:

3 generous tablespoons Godiva coffee (or another chocolate-y blend)

Pour boiling water through it over a measuring bowl until the liquid reaches the 2 cup level. Then stir in:

1 1/5 packets instant Columbian coffee (or your preferred blend, just be sure it's strong)

Put the coffe in the fridge to cool and sift together:
2 cup flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt


And cream in the mixer:
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar




Add:

3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Alternate adding the coffee mixture and the flour mixture to the mixer, mixing each time until just incorporated and ending with flour. 

I poured my batter into a cupcake tin that I greased with shortening because I wanted to slice them in half and layer with the chocolate caramel sauce (which I didn't have time to make, and bought - Archer Farms brand). You can do it that way or bake as usual with cupcake liners. Regardless, bake for 20-23 minutes at 350 degrees. Sadly, I accidentally didn't get any close up photos of the finished products, but you can catch a glimpse at the end of this post, and here are the finished cakes.

Now, for my final cupcake, as some of you might know, I wanted to do a Jasmine Fig Cupcake. I adore the scent of jasmine, and love to bike around town during the summer, catching whiffs of it here and there, so I would have loved to capture it in a cupcake, unfortunately, none of my methods were successful and so I fell back on the tried and true lavender. These were delicious and sold out, just like my Lavender Honey Cupcakes last month.

Lavender Raspberry Cupcakes
(makes 24 cupcakes):

First, I wanted to make lavender sugar, a fairly easy process. In the food processor, combine:
1/2 cup sugar

2 heaping tbsp dried lavender

You may need to pick out bits of lavender that didn't get fully ground.


You also want to crush:
1/3 cup raspberries

And cook them in a saucepan with a bit of sugar in order to evaporate away some of the water. I even added a little cornstarch (like, in 1/4 tsp increments) to thicken things up. I then put that in the fridge to cool while I prepared my batter.


Now we can use the lavender sugar with the recipe. Cream together:
1 cup butter
1/2 lavender sugar
1 1/2 cup white sugar

Add:
4 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Sift:
3 cups cake flour
1 tbsp baking powder
a pinch of salt

Alternate adding the flour mixture and 1 cup milk to the mixing bowl, mixing until just incorporated and ending with the flour. Then fold in the raspberry mixture. Pour into a baking tin and cook for 20-23 minutes at 350 degree.

Baked and frosted!

My final recipe is the tasty frosting I used on the cupcakes that I didn't use super fancy piping techniques for (the lavender raspberries above is one of them):

Pour into the mixing bowl:
1/4 cup vanilla instant pudding powder
1/4 cup sugar
3 cups whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla

Mix it all on low speed for a minute or two, then bump up to medium high speed. Continue to mix for 6 or 7 minutes, or until the consistency is somewhat stiff. This frosting will not be as stiff as butter cream, but you can pipe it out into nice little blobs on top of your cupcakes, especially if you let it sit for 15 minutes or so in the fridge. If it sits out for awhile, it will droop a bit, especially if you haven't let it sit in the fridge. For my show, since they were sitting out, I frosted them in the morning, let them sit in the fridge for most of the day, then took them out at night and they held up pretty well.



The other cool thing about this frosting is that you can add things too it. I added food color to get the lavender shade and added lemon juice and zest to the frosting for the Earl Grey Cupcakes. This can make the frosting a bit less stiff, so beware :)

Pictures from the event!

Another Cupcake Test: Rose Cherry Cupcakes

Rosebuds! Pretty, but not necessarily tasty!

I worked on another recipe for my exhibit in the RAW Mixology Showcase last night: Rose Cherry Cupcakes. These were delicious; far more delicious than the ones I tried to make last week with dried rosebuds. 

Luckily, the International Gourmet Market had a whole three choices on what brand of rosewater I wanted to use. It was by far the largest rosewater selection I have yet encountered, plus the market was full of other delightful products, like grape leaves for dolmas and Turkish Delight for tummy aches.

Rose Cherry Cupcake Recipe 

(makes 10 cupcakes)

Like before, I began by prepping my fruit. I pitted 30 cherries and diced them until I had a pile of fairly small cherry chunks.

Then, I put them in a saucepan over low heat. I poured in some simple syrup to taste (probably a little less than a 1/4 cup) and about 2 tsp rose water. I let them cook and get soft and a bit syrupy in the pan for a bit, then let them cool to the side.




While they cooled, I whipped in the mixer:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar

When they were creamy, I added:
1 egg
2 egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup coconut milk


Then I sifted:
3/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt

Add the flour mixture, bit by bit, to the butter, sugar, egg mixture already in the bowl. Mix until just combined.

Add:
2 tsp rosewater
Your cooked cherries

to the batter and swirl with a toothpick so the colors are lovely and swirled but not completely combined.

Pour into a baking tin and bake at 350 degrees for 25-27 minutes.

Yum!

I also frosted the little guys with a tasty whipped cream frosting! I love this recipe because it is not too sweet and you can decorate with it AND it will stay relatively firm even if it sits out on a warm day, as long as it's not in direct sunlight. Perfect! It even stood up to my food coloring, as my frosting color powders haven't come in the mail yet. What a strong little guy I cooked up!

Whipped Cream Frosting Recipe
(makes 2 1/2 cups)

Mix:
1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 tsp vanilla (I used rose water instead)

Do this until it is completely white and doubled in size (10 min)

Leave the mixer on and pour in:
1/4 cup whipping cream

Mix for another 2-4 minutes and add:
1/4 cup confectioners sugar! Yes, only 1/4 and it'll be stiff enough! Hooray!

Incorporate that and you're done!

So tasty and pretty!

In other news, I got my business cards in the mail today! They are so cute and delightful! Hopefully someone needs some tasty treats for a wedding, birthday party, or bar mitzvah soon ^.^