"Hostess Cupcakes". Or "How The Internet Lied To Me"

It could well be a factor of the type of blogs that I ready, or websites that I visit, but according to my version of the Internet, EVERYONE is making hostess cupcakes. So when I put out the call out to my FB people, asking if the rumours of deliciousness were true, I was somewhat disappointed to hear that many of my American, or part-time/sometime Americans, had no real idea what I was talking about.
Some had heard of Hostess cupcakes (I think it's a brand, so it should probably get a caps), but most had not tried one, or hadn't eaten one since childhood...
So what to do? They look delicious (chocolate cake filled with creamy deliciousness, topped with ganache and swirly white icing). I decided to take the plunge.
Phase one: bake the cake. It's a pretty easy, but light, chocolate cake. They rise nicely, but sink in the middle as they cool. That's ok, since we're filling them with a piping bag.
Phase two: make a strange gooey, custardy filling. The recipe I was using was, obviously, American, and it called for the use of 'marshmallow cream'. It is a huge coincident that I spotted some in the shop as I was thinking of making these cakes. What an odd thing. It's sticky but incredibly light - a whole tub weighs less than 100grams.
That mixture is then placed into a piping bag, and squeezed into the centre of the cakes until the top becomes almost flat.




Phase three: make the ganache, and cover the cakes. This covers up the hole you made putting the filling in.




Phase four: make icing and pipe into swirls on top of the cakes. It was a cold day when I was making these, and my icing was pretty thick, so I couldn't manage the 7 swirls that are apparently required on a real Hostess Cupcake. In fact, I could hardly manage any swirls that looked any good, so I made it up as I went along.




Would I make them again? Maybe. They were pretty tasty, but a lot of effort for a cupcake. I think these might be special occasion cakes, or by request only. A good novelty cake, but probably only for people who've either heard of, or tried the real thing.
I'd be interested to try the original, boxed version. I'm sure they are one of those foods that last forever in the cupboard, unlike the homemade ones that are filled with real cream and eggs.
Credit where credit's due: these are from my favourite cookie blog, Bake at 350.
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Proper good English and stuff

This is a very quick post just to let you know that I can speak English good. I just can't type it good (well I probably could, but only on an actual keyboard, not so much the iPad with its autocorrect-y goodness.

I DO know the different between your and you're. And there, they're and their.

I just read back over a few blog posts, and I'm appalled by the English. It could be multitasking to blame, it could be the iPad, or it could be the glass of wine I'm having while I post. Who can say.

I just want you all to know I'm not illiterate, I'm just unco and not very good at proofreading.

Please don't judge me.


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Failure cakes and their redemption.

My niece Miss E has a bunch of allergies. Some have gone away as she's gotten older, and some are probably there for life, which is fairly sucky. Mostly it's not the end of the world, but it does mean that she can't have most cakes or biscuits. If I was a 3 year old girl, I'd be pretty disappointed if I couldn't have a piece of cake when it was my friend's birthday. Miss E's mum keeps a bunch of muffiny-cakey things in the freezer for situations just like that, but it's not the same when you get one thing while everyone else gets something different (and slathered in icing).

A while ago I decided to see if I could find a cupcake recipe, with icing, that was a passable substitute for the real thing. I found a website with rave reviews about the egg and dairy free cupcakes so I thought it was a good place to start. I even read the author's tips for making sure the cakes weren't too dense, which is a problem when you can't use egg as a binder.

I'm going to assume that things don't necessarily translate from US to Australian, even when I switch my scales to crazy US measurements. This was the result:



Not cool. Thank goodness for cupcake papers, or I think that the tins would have had to go in the bin. This recipe has so much sugar that the cake edges caramelised and stuck firmly to the tin.

I pressed on and made the icing anyway. It had that slightly weird flavour that Nuttelex has, but it was surprisingly good overall. I iced the least crappy cakes and sent them to school with M, who offered them to his colleagues without telling them they were egg and dairy free. Apparently they were fairly well received.

I put off experimenting with the recipe for a while, mostly so we could have cupcakes that we could eat without hacking them out of the tin. Then my sister asked me if I would make Miss E-appropriate cupcakes for the party that my mum was hosting for my sister's birthday. The plan was that all the food at the party would be ok for Miss E to eat.

Out came the mixer, and I decided to start with the same recipe, but without so much rising agent (SR flour, but no extra baking powder, for those of you that care...). My thinking was that maybe the cakes had risen nicely, but then sunk because there was nothing to support the cake structure. The scientician in me had to experiment, and it turned out, I was right. Check this out:


(also, I got a wanky photo app on my phone...)

Pretty pleased with that. It was too far away from the party for this to be the final batch, so I iced them and my boys thought they were pretty good - but honestly, if it's cake shaped, they'll eat it. They were slightly dense (the cakes, not the kids), but entirely passable in terms of flavour. It also meant that I had to try to replicate the outcome - yay for the scientific method!

The second batch worked just as well as the first, so that was lucky. I emailed my sister to find out what color icing she wanted... The "committee", consisting, one suspects, entirely of Miss E, voted for pink. What a surprise! A bit of pink sparkle dust, and some 'dusty rose' food coloring, and this was the result:



Not bad, huh?

And Miss E certainly seemed pleased!



Credit where credit's due: the recipe is from Sweet Rosie

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You know what I like? Cookie dough.

There, I've said it. And I know I'm not the only one. I bet most home bakers take more than just a little taste of the dough before the cookies are all rolled out. I don't really even mind what flavor dough it is. It my not-so-secret shame (or one of them, at least...)
Which brings us to this week's cupcake: chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes. Yum.




The process was astoundingly like making actual cookies. Brown sugar creamed with the butter somehow gives the batter a cookie flavour. The ini choc chips were supposed to be dark chocolate, but i couldn't find any at the shops, so I used milk chocolate. I think that may have been the reason that these were incredibly sweet.

The recipe called for a cookie dough filling too, but I didn't have any condensed milk (yeah, like I need more sweet stuff in this cake), so I just left it out.

The frosting - this is definitely not icing - is practically dough as well, with the cookie dough texture being provided by the flour in the mix. I added a bit more milk than I was supposed to because I thought the frosting was too thick and be pain to pipe. It still turned out tasty.

A few more mini choc chips on top, and these are a small child's dream.




Even as I crossed the room to take these pics, 4 year old G asked if I had cut the cake in half so I could share it with him. I guess that makes them a winner in his eyes, but for my money, they were a bit too sweet. I might just stick to eating real cookie dough when the occasion arises.

Credit where credit's due: the recipe is from TidyMom

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Lemon Buttermilk Cupcakes

A little while ago, on a whim, I invited a dear friend and her two lovely girls for afternoon tea. Once I had done that, I then needed to rustle up something for said afternoon tea, preferably without leaving the house.

It turns out I had all the ingredients for the delicious-sounding lemon buttermilk cupcake. They were super easy, and really nice and sticky.


I paired with a really simple lemony cream cheese icing, but I think they might be just as delicious with a bit of lemon syrup poured on when they're still hot.

They must have been reasonably good, since the kids (even my two little ones) ate the whole cake, not just the icing!

Would I make them again? Yes, they're a perfect afternoon tea-style cake, and give the impression of being far more complicated than they really were.

Credit where credit's due: actually, of the top of my head, I'm not sure, but I'll dig it out and edit the post when I'm not multitasking by blogging and preventing a 8 month old child from falling off the couch.

Also, I've got about 4 more cupcake blogs to write (the cakes themselves are long gone), so I apologies if you feel like your getting blog spammed by me. On the other hand, it could take me just as long to get to those posts as it did to get to this one...


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Chocolate Bacon Cupcakes

After posting some 'taster' pics and descriptions on facebook, I've had some vastly different responses to this concept. There have been a few people that are sure I've missed the mark, but a surprising number that think this might be the greatest thing ever.


To start, I should point out that I don't like bacon. Not one little bit. I even think the flavour contaminates other things but there was something about this concept that intrigued me. I should also admit that I haven't eaten any of them. I just can't do it. I can't put the bacon in my mouth, as much as I want to. But that is also a pretty strong indicator of why I bake: not for me, but to share with other people. Out of all the cupcakes I've made for this blog, I've probably had no more than 2 from any batch (usually about 18 in a batch).

So this recipe is multi-staged. First, you have to cook some bacon, dice it, and cover it in chocolate. Then, you use the fat that rendered out when you were cooking the bacon, to replace the butter in the chocolate cake recipe (too much information? Pretend I didn't say it. But i have a pic if you want one. It's disturbing.). This should give the cake an overall impression of bacon, rather than a really clear bacon taste.

Chocolate covered bacon. Doesn't look that appetising.

Then a chocolate buttercream (using real melted chocolate, rather than cocoa) goes on top, and the chocolate-covered bacon bits get sprinkled over that. There are also chocolate-covered bacon bits in the cake mix. My mystery taster said the verdict was: "super frikking chocolatey, but when you hit a bacon bit, the saltiness cuts right through and works really nicely. I rate it 4 insulin shots out of 5."

mmmm. Meaty.

Most of the cakes were sent to M's school, to make up for the egg-free, dairy-free cupcakes they tasted for me last week (I'll get to that post eventually...). Some of the staff wouldn't even taste them, I guess they were a bit like me, or just couldn't cope with the bacon/chocolate combination. I like to think it's a similar style of food as salted caramel. You just need to pretend that there isn't meat in your cake. Others thought they were pretty good, but I think the sweetness was a surprise.

Conclusion? A nice novelty, but probably not something I'll do again (unless specifically asked!).

Credit where credit's due: the recipe is from Sprinklebakes.

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!