Chocolate Chip Cookes (and an update on the mixmaster saga)

Yes, I realise that Chocolate Chip Cookies are not cupcakes, but I'm pretty sure I never said this blog would only ever be about cupcakes. I resorted to cookies (and they are a cookie, not a biscuit), and to this old faithful recipe, after my industrial strength mixer went to mixer heaven (which it turns out is a little shop hidden behind the main street in Dickson, ACT).

Let's start with the mixer story. My delightful mother gave me a lovely strong mixer as a housewarming present when we moved to our new house in September. It has served me faithfully since then, until about a month ago when it started to struggle with anything thicker than cream. This meant that coldish butter was a problem, cake mix a bit of a struggle, and pasta dough? Well, that was what finally brought about it's demise.

I rang the manufacturer, who said to take it to their designated repairer (see mixer heaven, above). A friend of mine that works in fair trading said that I could have taken it back to the place of purchase for them to assess whether it needed fixing or replacing, even though that retailer's warranty documents said to go to the manufacturer first. Good to know for next time.

When I rang the repair guy a week later, I was told by a rather gruff sounding woman that there was only one person working in the shop at the moment, and they hadn't even looked at it. Another call yesterday, almost another week later, and we (I made M make the call...I was too scared of the gruff lady) were told that it definitely needed replacing, and the order for the replacement would go out tomorrow (which is today, now). So hopefully I'll have a new mixer soon, because my $18 hand mixer from Woolworths just doesn't cut it for pretty much anything.

Back to the cookies. I've been making this recipe since I was about 10. It was my go-to recipe when I wanted to make something yummy and quick, but somehow I forgot about it. I don't think I've made these for about 5 years. Even though you start with creaming butter and sugar, I've done it by hand with this recipe before and got a more than satisfactory result.

dark chocolate chips

This time I decided to mix up the dough, then put dark chocolate chips in half, and white chocolate chips and macadamias into the other half. I remembered the dough making lots and lots of cookies, and was sure that these are about the same size as I used to make them; it's since dawned on me that I never made a single batch, it was always a double quantity. Oh well, it's a good excuse to make another batch soon.

I think the white chocolate ones might be my favourite, so I'm a little disappointed that I wasn't very careful in my halving of the dough so I ended up with less of these than the dark chocolate ones. I suspect it's because the chocolate chips I used were much darker than I used to. Maybe I used milk chocolate chips previously? Or maybe it's just because the choc chips I have a the moment are real, good quality chocolate, rather than compound 'choc bits'.

white chocolate and macadamia

Also, in my memory, this recipe made a lot more cookies than I made yesterday. They were about the same size as I recalled, so I wasn't sure what was going on, but in the middle of the night, it occurred to me that I'd never made a single batch of dough before. Every time I've made this recipe, it's been a double quantity. Never mind, it's a good excuse to make some more soon. Also, the kids don't really like them - dark chocolate is too dark, I think, and white chocolate is not something they're really familiar with. Hooray! More for me!! (don't worry, they're not going to be neglected...!)

Credit where credit's due: I have no idea where this recipe came from in the beginning. But if you want it, let me know!

Pumpkin Brown Butter Cupcakes with Cinnamon Frosting

Yesterday I made banana cupcakes for the same reason everyone makes banana cake: guilt over letting them go brown in the fruit bowl. The recipe called for nutmeg, and I didn't have any so I figured cinnamon was a suitable substitute and went merrily on my way. The cakes were delicious, and were made even tastier by a little smear of chocolate buttercream. I'm not going to post about the banana cakes... if you want the recipe, let me know - it's a good one.

Today's post was inspired by the cinnamoon. That little hint with the banana triggered a hankering, so I did what all good researchers do. I googled. Specifically, I googled "what flavours go with cinnamon". Techinical, I know. I was presented with quite a few options, but the pumpkin intruiged me, plus I had some leftover steamed pumpkin from dinner the night before. Waste not, want not, and all that.

just like a bought one

The recipe needed a lot more pumpkin than I had, so I halved everything. Now I wish I'd gone to the shops and got more pumpkin because these cupcakes are freaking delicious.

yummo.

The cake is dense, the brown butter flavour is amazingly noticable and the pumpkin is sweek and caramelly. Maybe I'm so fascinated by the flavour because pumpkin is not something we tend to cook into sweet foods here in Aus... (American pumpkin pie, I'm thinking of you...). Also, it seems that any recipe with sour cream is a winner.

Then came the frosting. I've never made anything like it. You start by cooking some of it, so it's sort of custardy. Then you beat the living daylights out of it till its kind of meringuey.Then goes the butter, so it's a bit like a buttercream. Then you add what is almost an obscene amount of cinnamon.

 O. M. G. It is amazing.

I think this is the smallest amount of frosting you're legally allowed to put on this cake.

Here is a list of other flavoured cakes I think the frosting would go well with: chocolate, vanilla, banana, apple, zucchini (stay with me here..), or just about anything else. And I'm pretty sure the pumpkin cake would be good with a rich chocolate frosting too.

These might be my new 'special occaision' or 'I'm trying to impress you with how good my baking is' cupcakes. Plus, they've got vegetables in them, so they're practically good for you.

Credit where credit's due: recipe is from Sprinkle Bakes.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream

Sounds bland after all the fancy ones, doesn't it? Let me reassure you early on, these are good.

Yum.

The cake is light, and the buttercream is too. Unlike all the others we've made to date, this buttercream has far less icing sugar compared to butter, so it's not as sweet (the melted chocolate doesn't hurt that either), and not as dense.

On the downside, I gave one to a friend to taste, and neglected to tell her what it was she was trying... I also forgot to tell her to keep it at room temperature, and I suspect the resulting chilled chocolate butter was not as satisfying as one would hope. But she's a good friend and didn't complain, so she might get to be a cupcake taster again soon.

The other learning moment was when I realised that a light cake requires far less buttercream.



For this type of cake, this is too much icing. In fact 1:1 cake to icing is probably too much for most cakes.

I couldn't even finish a whole cupcake before being totally overwhelmed by buttery chocolate goodness, and had to reduce the icing quantity on the rest in case I gave someone butter poisoning (that's a thing, right?).

I knew these were good when M agreed to take one to work every day (when they're not good, he usually has a day or two break from taking them for lunch). And they didn't last nearly as long as the cupcakes of disappointment from last week, which was lucky because then I got to make something else as well. I think I need to start donating the cupcakes somewhere... my rule about not making a new batch till the last one is finished is killing me. It means I spend all week planning what I'm going to make next, then one day baking/icing, then the planning starts all over again. Tough life, I know.

It turns out that all the cookbooks I have in the cupboard, four of which are specifically cupcake related, are good for something. This recipe actually came from a book. I know. They still exist, and people still refer to them. Amazing. Actually, flicking through the pages gave me heaps of ideas for other flavours (time to steer away from the chocolate again I think).

Overall, a delicious cake, with yum icing. Definitely good to do again, maybe with slightly less icing next time. Or with ice cream.

Credit where credit's due: recipe is from cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans.

The cupcakes of disappointment

These look awesome, don't they? These are not the cakes I made.

Chocolate ganache filled cupcakes, with vanilla bean buttercream. Sounds good, doesn't it? What a delicious way to use up the leftover vanilla bean buttercream, right? WRONG.

Maybe it was my far-to literal following of directions (ganache made in the microwave: disapprove. Set ganache in fridge for no more than 30 minutes? Wrong again - it was still too runny). Or maybe I'm just not good at the fancy stuff. These were some of the most disappointing chocolate cakes I've ever eaten. They promised so much but didn't deliver at all.

Let's start with the way they look. This was my batter (with the dollops of ganache in the middle):

How was this batter ever going to turn into that black cake from the picture at the top? Even the ganache looks pale compared to the example shown (not shown here, if you want to see it, follow the link at the bottom). The ganache was supposed to work it's way to the middle of the cake during the baking process, then be a tasty surprise when you bit into the cake.

My ganache either boiled and came out the top, or it worked it's way to the bottom of the cake, where it then blended with the cake mix and turned the bottom of the cupcake into a damp pudding. Less than tasty.

This ganache is supposed to be in the middle of the cake, not smeared around the paper cup.

Dense and soggy.

These cakes are so unappealing that, four days later, we still have a whole bunch left. M won't even take them to school, because he doesn't want to give his new colleagues a bad impression of my baking skills. He is a trooper, though, eating them bit by bit so that they don't go to waste (and so that they'll finally be gone so we can make something actually tasty).

The verdict? I wouldn't bother with this recipe again. If I wanted to make a ganache filled cupcake, I'd use a tried-and-tested chocolate cake recipe, make the ganache the way I know works, scoop the ganache and freeze it into balls so it doesn't boil, and probably use a far more plain icing so that the cake is the winner.

Credit (?) where credit's due: recipe for the cake (and the pic at the top) are from Wonderful Joy Ahead.

Vanilla bean sour cream cupcakes with vanilla bean buttercream

Even though it's so early on in my cupcake journey, the unthinkable happened: I got sick of chocolate cake. Not like I'll never eat it again, just that I needed a break.

Why yes, that is washing sitting on the back of the couch in the background. Thanks for noticing.

A while ago in my internet 'research', I came across this recipe for what was billed as "the perfect white cupcake". I found that intruiging because a normal vanilla cake is still pretty yellow so I decided to give it a try. Plus, I love vanilla bean.

The cake itself is delicious - moist and a little crumbly, but still holds together well. It's white, but not pure white as advertised. I'm putting this down to the recipe being American - their butter seems to be much paler than ours, which would of course result in a much paler batter. Also, the recipe for the icing called for 'clear vanilla'. I have no idea what that is, but it seems overly manufactured, so I don't think it is something I would ever keep in my pantry, but it would obviously remove any colour added by regular vanilla essence or bean. I'm OK with having icing with little specks of vanilla seeds through it. I think it makes the cake look even more yummy.

Perfectly white cake? No. Yummy? Definitely.

The other weird thing about this recipe was the requirement for 'cake flour'. Google tells me this is a fine flour, high (or was it low??) in gluten. Google also tells me that a suitable substitute is 1 cup cake flour = 3/4 cup plain flour plus 2 tablespoons of corn flour. Whatever. It worked.

The sour cream in the cake seems to cancel out some of the sugariness of the icing. As I've mentioned before, I think a generous cake:icing ratio is important, but in this recipe, the cake really held it's own. Sometimes the icing turns out to be the hero, but here, I think it was a pretty good balance.

Now that's a good icing:cake ratio.

Would I make these again? Yes, but for a 'plain' vanilla cupcake, they're a bit labour intensive. These are more your gourmet vanilla cupcake, or for when you've got plenty of time and don't mind doing the washing up.

And as per usual, the buttercream recipe made far more than was required (even though the cake recipe made 18 cakes rather than the usual dozen - the preschool teachers were happy...). So the next recipe I've got in mind is going to use up the rest of the vanilla buttercream. I think I see a pattern forming.

Credit where credit's due: recipe is from Good Life Eats.

A baker's dilemma times two.

Dilemma number one: Today's cupcakes used only egg whites, so now I have 4 yolks left over. I have no ideas what to do with them, but it's most likely they'll go into some sort of eggy-carbonara style sauce for the kids' dinner tonight, unless you can give me a good idea for something else.

Dilemma number two: I have run out of sugar. The baby is asleep and it's raining. I do not foresee a 'quick trip' to the shops in my immediate future.

First world problems: I have them.

Chocolate brownie cupcakes with peanut butter frosting

I'm not going to lie to you. This recipe was picked because it seemed wasteful to throw out the leftover peanut butter frosting from the coke cupcakes. But it also sounded delicious and that's good enough for me.

These cupcakes are almost entirely chocolate, and contain no raising agent, so they are dense and sticky. They crack beautifully on top and I think are yummy enough and pretty enough to serve on their own. I thought the frosting was good, but a bit weird since the cake contains toasted walnuts and the icing has peanut - the two flavours are surprisingly different. M says he likes these ones better than the coke cupcakes based purely on the icing: he doesn't get the salt thing with the peanut butter.

I'm glad I made some of these in miniature size - they're pretty rich, and I wouldn't want to give the kids a big one. But the peanut butter frosting balanced out the sweetness of the brownie so, as an adult, it was easy to eat a whole grown-up sized one. They are tasty without the icing - the gooey centre is yummy, and somehow all the chopped walnuts seem to end up there.

What I liked the most was that when I forgot that a batch was in the oven (only for about 4 extra minutes, but when baking time is only about 15, that's a lot), they weren't over cooked - the nice chewy bit around the edges was a bit thicker, but the centre was still soft and moist.. and the middle bit sunk a bit too, so it could hold a bit more icing - often a winner in my books.

Really, it is just a chocolate brownie baked into a cupcake shape. But you know what? That's OK with me. I'd have them with or without the icing, and it might be my new go-to brownie recipe.

Credit where credit's due: the recipe for the brownie cupcake is from http://www.epicurious.com/, and the frosting as per the coke cupcake post.